Enjoying Alsace in eastern France

Soaking up the French atmosphere

Feeling more alive this morning after a good sleep, and had a lovely breakfast (supplied).

Another quick walk around Provins, the place is relatively quiet with tourists but teeming with all ages of school children. Obviously on end of year day trips... lots of them :)

From Provins we drove on quiet rural roads to the town of Troyes, still lots of gently rolling cropping fields: cereals, lucerne, lupins (break crop?) maize and some onions. Looks very productive country.

Troyes old town is eye popping beautiful, mostly dating from 16th century, lots of mainly Tudor buildings lining the meandering paved streets... could well have been the set for Harry Potter. There is several huge Gothic church's, it is located in the Champagne wine region.

We spent a couple of hours wandering around, every corner a photo opportunity... and it was hot, 30 C plus.

Because our GPS told us we still had 4.5 hours drive to get to Colmar, our next 3 nights accommodation, we took the toll roads to speed things up (although Noel's jet-lagged mind struggled a little at the first toll booth,  we got there!). At 130 km/hr speed limit we covered the ground... our car handled this no problem. 4 - 6 lane motorway, lots of trucks with not so many cars. Got us to Colmar around 6 pm, checked into our AirBnB which looks great and has a washing machine... bonus!

Wander around to find dinner revealed another beautiful town, lots of Tudor (more painted)... so rows upon rows of gingerbread houses, just stunning. Also lots of tourists!

 Get on ya bike...

Next day dawned, we were awake early so wandered through town just after 7 am. The buildings are amazingly cute and no tourists at that hour to block our way :) Medieval and Renaissance buildings, 15-17th century surrounding a 13th century church.

Colmar was founded in the 9th century, it has had a checkered ownership of varying conquering countries. The last being Germany in WWII and was the site of much fighting of combined French and USA troops which resulted in liberation in 1945. It is on the Alsace cycling wine route which is around 200 km long in total and is surrounded by vineyards.

The day evolved into another 30 C day, a bit of trip planning and washing and then down to the nearby railway station to hire bikes. We followed a very loosely marked trail which took us to the town of Eguishein... another medieval village filled with beautifully restored buildings.

We then meandered (ie lost!) to the town of Trucheim riding through vineyards that don't have boundaries but had lots of tracks through which it seems fine to ride through. Trucheim is a walled medieval town, again the buildings are stunning.

Back to the bike rental by 5 pm, pretty much by following our noses (and the gestures of a road worker that we asked) rather than the instructions. Seemingly spent half the day lost but worked out fine.... the thrill of the adventure!!

Day 4 (quatre)

30 C again, loverly…. We are going to Strasbourg on a midday train (sounds like a song coming on?) so in the interim we went for a drive into the hills above Colmar to fill in the morning. Following Route des Cinq Chateaux (the 5 Castles route).

It is a 20 km stretch of road winding up through the forest on the foothills of the Vosges range. The first stop was les Tois Chateaux D-Eguisheim or “3 towers” overlooking the Alsace plains. These buildings date from the 11-13^th centuries. The oldest of the towers (all castles originally) was constructed in 1026 AD.

A quick stop at Le Hohlandsbourg, which is a castle… this was paid entry and as we were limited on time we just took a picture! Then a walk into Chateaux Du Pflixbourg… a castle/fort that was noted on records for the first time in 1220 but thought to be from the Bronze Age (3000-1200 BC) so quite old then!!

We took the train to Strasbourg, around 40 minutes, through vineyards and fields of cereals along with some market gardening.

Strasbourg (population around 280,000) is the capital city of the Alsace area of France. It is a formal seat of the European Parliament, a role it serves along with Luxembourg and Brussels. The historic city centre became a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1988 which coincided with its 2000^th anniversary, having been mentioned in documents as far back as 12 BC. It was noted as a Roman camp prior to that time.

Strasbourg is on an island set between the Rhone and Ill rivers. Over the years its ownership has been fought over between France and Germany, with the influence of both cultures clear to see. Now even though it is French rule the people prefer to call themselves Alsatians… a French/German mix.

The old town is a mix of old architectural styles, narrow winding streets and bright flower pots. The Tudor type buildings looking like Gingerbread houses;(more of them!) Just stunning!!

The temperature dropped back to 12-15 C during the day, with rain threatening but not effecting the start of our activity of a city bike tour. 5 clients, an American family of Mom and 2 teenagers along with ourselves. Our guide was a Polish lady.

First stop was to view the original city wall, not much left but some has been incorporated into other buildings so it is still useful some 2000 years later!

There is the Vauban Dam, which is a 17^th century weir built as a city defense wall. There are churches…. So many elaborate churches!! The Cathedrale de Notre Dam is a huge intricately carved 142 m high structure built over a 400 year time frame (and you thought your tradie's were slow sometimes!!) One wonders how this was achieved without cranes etc… an amazing building and that was only on the outside as we did not view the inside.

Unfortunately at this point it started raining but we rode onward through what was the German town square/buildings from the 1870’s when Strasbourg was ‘acquired’ by the Germans.

We then rode past the European Parliament buildings which meets once a month for 4 days. There was some lovely state housing, and lovely parks and gardens, in that area. The European Parliament building itself is quite memorable, a new design but deliberately built so it looks unfinished, or a work in progress. This was done to reflect the forming of the European Union…. the debate must be on as to if a portion needs removed once BREXIT is completed!!

The Alsace area is the spring/summer home to the stork (as in the ones that deliver babies). They winter in Africa and return to this area to nest and rear their offspring. As the numbers were dwindling some towns have placed large metal rings on their high-points to encourage nesting… and this has worked. Plus there is some flat topped trees that appear purpose built for nest sites! Interestingly Storks utilise the same nest all their lives.

The gardens area of Strasbourg has lots of Storks, the Colmar area also has them. In autumn the young are pushed out of the nest by their parents… a quick lesson, they either fly immediately or end up wandering around on the ground until they realise how to get lift off!

With the fantastic bike tour over we wandered a little more before having a meal and catching an evening train back to Colmar. Strasbourg is a lovely city, although the first large city visited in Europe.

Another menu to puzzle over... at least this one had pretty pictures!