All is not bliss in the Elysian fields.

With long summer days and a vibrant arts festival on the agenda, the Finnish capital is now at its most alluring, says <b>Chris Leadbeater</b>

The bid, however we dress it, was essentially a fraud. It came with the claim that it would be a gift to youth and that London was uniquely equipped for the task

With Wiggins chasing gold in London, UK team need new strategy to continue this year's progress

When Mark Cavendish rides on to the Champs-Elysées today, wearing the green jersey of best sprinter, whatever then happens – and he could well take a fifth stage win – the 26-year-old Manxman will have carved another huge milestone in British cycling. Not since Robert Millar was crowned King of the Mountains in 1984 has a Briton gone into the final stage of the Tour as the leader of a classification. Cavendish is also the first UK rider to wear the green points jersey.

The Tour roared back in time yesterday as a long-range attack by Andy Schleck on the race's toughest mountain stage earned the Luxembourg rider a hugely impressive solo win on the Galibier summit finish.

It's been a race of crashes, casualties, Cavendish and a surprise French leader. Alasdair Fotheringham makes sense of it all

1. Pyrennees

Set on the dramatic Atlantic coast, boutique B&B Arguibel is traditional timber on the outside, flamboyant and colour-drenched on the inside: lime and turquoise walls, disco-shiny mosaic tiles (from €160).

It's that time of year, when channel- hoppers and shoppers passing window displays of televisions catch glimpses of impossibly lean men staring at each other's bottoms as they course through countryside in garish streams of tanned limbs and Lycra. It's the Tour de France! The world's toughest race reaches its climax on the Champs-Elysées on Thursday after more than 2,000 miles of sweat and peeing into cups proffered by anti-doping officials.

Roland Petit dominated French dance for over 60 years and with his wife Renée (Zizi) Jeanmaire formed one of France's most glamorous couples. Ever ready to break ballet conventions, he mixed the demotic and the classical; he used rock music and pop art, revue-style chorus lines and narratives based on literary classics. His repertoire and energy were vast. His first works defined the Parisian existentialist malaise of the 1940s and 50s. And his early success gave him access to the world's best theatres and artists and entry to Hollywood, where he choreographed musicals.

When is a palace hotel not a palace hotel? According to the French government, when it doesn't deliver your bags to the room within 10 minutes of your arrival. This spring, it ordained eight of the nation's hotels as "Palaces" – hotels considered five star-plus that meet such varied criteria as luggage delivery and historic significance. Perhaps unsurprisingly, half were in Paris.