Lou Ann's EuroBlog

"...the French have a word, dèpaysement, which, translated into English is 'the feeling of not being assaulted by the familiarity of things, a change in surroundings where there is no immediate point of reference.' A French journalist once said that 'Americans don't travel to be dèpaysès, but to find a home away from home."
John Vincour, former Paris bureau chief for The New York Times

I'll bet that some of you haven't even seen that I had a previous chapter typed before I got to this one. Internet access two days in a row ... will wonders never cease!! SO ... if you didn't read chapter one (chronicling the flight over and the wonders of driving in the Paris metro area), scroll down and do that first. Oh - and please leave me comments ... they keep me sane.

Before you get too excited, this entry will be a bit short for a few reasons. First of all, I'm on my way to meet my colleagues at our gite (rental place) a few km away, and want to be on my way. Secondly, this internet place doesn't have the alternate keyboard. The letters that are different are: a, z, q, m, w, and all of the numbers and symbols (even the periods, commas and parentheses ... which I use quite a bit). SOOOooo ... typing is SLOOOWWWWW. Therefore, I will try to finish one more day ... and will still not be caught up with myself. (Maybe will try to get back to this same place a few more times before leaving the Southwest.)

Day Four (6/29/05) - Strasbourg to Colmar
Althought it was my favorite day so far, it was another day of wrong turns. Negotiating the road system has truly been the most difficult task to achieve while on this trip so far. How many of you have driven in Europe before? I'd love to get comments from you all as to your experiences!!

Anyway, besides being a day of wrong turns, it was also a day of some of the most beautiful countryside and small villages that I have ever seen in my life. Again, as the previous day, around every turn you could see small villages on the hillsides with their tall church steeples and castles for protection. I kept stopping to take pictures. There wasn't enough traffic to be bothered by my frequent stops, so it turned into a lazy day of Sunday driving. :-)

While I was planning this trip, the colleague who arranged for our stay at the gite told me about a "list" of 146 villages in France that are registered as the 146 most beautiful villages in France. I did some internet reading on these places, and they sounded wonderful. Small villages that are well kept up, and preserve a certain quality of other-time-liness. So, for each of the regions that I plan to visit, I have marked on my map locations of some of these villages and hoped to visit some of them.

I also read in the Frommer's France about four specific driving tours that were especially nice in France. There is one in the Vosges mountains near Alsace that I wanted to try. Three of the 146 villages were between my hotel in Strasbourg and the beginning of the driving tour through the Vosges. So, I thought I'd spend my morning exploring the villages and my afternoon doing the Vosges drive.

The first village, Mittelbergheim, was breathtaking. (You may be scratching your head wondering about the German-sounding name ... and many of the place names in Alsace sound more German than French ... as Alsace is on the border and over the years has been conquered and re-conquered over and over again. I think that the people there still don't know if they're French or German. ;-))

The main road through the village was steep, but short (only about 1 or 2 km), and I found a nice parking place at the bottom of the hill and walked back up to explore. It was still early so there weren't a lot of people around. It looked like something out of a storybook of fairy tales. I don't know how else to describe it other than to tell you that you have to wait to see my pictures! I could have spent another couple of days exploring that village ... and found that to be the case in each of the rest of the villages that I visited that day.

It rained on and off throughout the next few hours ... but inbetween the rain there was sunshine. And it never rained hard enough or long enough to deter me from what I was doing.

In starting at Mittelbergheim, I found myself on a different "driving tour" along a route "de vin" ... a number of Alsatian villages that are leaders in wine-production. The villages themselves were fascinating, and although Mittelbergheim remains my favorite ... they were each almost as wonderful.

I stopped in another of the "146" to have lunch - a village called Hunswihr. I found another nice little place that was out of the way, where I sat at a table on the lawn and ate quiche Lorraine (get it? Quiche Lorraine in Alsace Lorraine? LOL!!! Again, the owner of the small restaurant spoke no English, but attempted to chat with me anyhow. It was delicious and relaxing.

An interesting note about Hunswihr. There are these huge birds that seem to be inhabitants of Hunswihr. And they built HUGE (I mean HUGE) nests on the tops of the houses. I think that they might be storks. Mom - would you please kick the librarian-y side of your personality into high gear and send me a website that has images of storks, and possibly information about areas to which they are native? Thanks!!

I'll make a brief mention of the other of the "146" that I saw that day. It was called Riquewihr. It was the least impressive of the villages that I've seen, ane probably the one you are most likely to read about. It was like going to "Germany" at Epcot Center. A total American tourist trap. Full of American tourist groups, tourbus parking lots, and many, many touristy souvenir shops. Not my kind of place!! BUT ... Lisa will be happy to hear this: they had the BEST coffee flavored ice cream (my favorite flavor, for those of you who didn't know that) I've ever tasted in my life!!!

By the time I finished with the three of the "146" beax villages, it was later in the afternoon than I had anticipated (and, in the meantime I had made many wrong turns!!) I decided to at least start the "Route des Cretes" through the Vosges, and finally made my way to the first village along the route. After some real mountain driving to get there, I discovered that the road to the next town was closed for construction, and that the detour took me right back where I started from. Oh, well. I'll save the Vosges for a future trip.

I decided to call it a day and find a hotel. I ended up in the city of Colmar, which, according to the maps would have only taken an hour to get to from Strasbourg if I had stayed with the superhighways. Quite good use of a day if I must say so myself. THIS is true "road tripping"!! :-)

Okay ... the keyboard is killing me, and I want to make it to the next town to meet my colleauges. Look forward to the next chapter, taking me to places like Orange and Agen.

Au revoir!!