NANCY

Gates at Place Stanislas in Nancy, France

June 23:  We reluctantly left our little home in Obernai and took the autoroute to Nancy, a UN World Heritage site. We were unaware that there was a tunnel--a very long tunnel--near St. Marie des Mines in the Vosges Mountains. OMG, I was dying! I'm not claustrophobic, but this dark enclosed space went on for miles. What if there's an earthquake...or a fire? I was really glad to get out, even though there was an unexpected eight Euro toll at the end. OMG, now I see I wasn't being crazy, there was a fire in the tunnel last April! I knew it!! If only I had read the map legend, I would have known that broken lines mean T=U=N=N=E=L.

Place Stanislas

 We finally made it to Nancy and found a place to park near town. The center of Nancy is Place Stanislas, an impressive square built in the 18th century by a Polish prince who became the Duke of Lorraine. The square is absolutely breathtaking, surrounded by grand buildings and incredible gates. It would be a centerpiece of any city on earth.

Place Stanislas

We found a little restaurant behind the central market. We both ordered pizzas and shared a salad. Richard ordered a Monaco from the list of beers and was dismayed when it arrived, because it was pink! He though Monaco was a brand, but it is evidently beer with lemonade and grenadine. It wasn't terrible, but it was a bit embarrassing to be drinking a pink beer. I tried not to laugh.

Nancy was a center of art deco

Cathedral of Nancy

We only stayed in Nancy for a few hours, because we wanted to drive to Puxe where we were spending the next three nights. We ducked into the cathedral and looked around, and when we exited it was raining and really chilly.

I had an impression that Lorraine was a grittier province than Alsace. Alsace was all colorful buildings and vineyards, but Lorraine was shades of gray and brown. Both provinces were beautiful in their own way.

Nancy, France

We arrived at the Chateau de Puxe about 4:00 p.m. It was just as it appeared on their website. Our room was lovely with big windows on two sides overlooking the chateau's grounds. Since we had eaten a big lunch, we were not hungry. We did take a bottle of wine into the park behind the chateau and enjoyed the immense quiet and beauty of Lorraine. Then early to bed.

Chateau de Puxe in Puxe, France

Our room

View from our window

Grounds of the chateau

Beautiful ruin next door to chateau

STRASBOURG

June 22:  If it's Monday, it must be Strasbourg! Actually, it was one of our goals not to behave like that. Anyway, we had driven through Strasbourg in 1984, but had not been able to explore. We caught the local train from Obernai to Strasbourg (about five Euros per senior fare each way) and were there in 30 minutes. The train fare was well worth it not to have to deal with parking and driving, plus it was an adventure.

Strasbourg Cathedral

We walked from the station to the magnificent cathedral and understood how in the Middle Ages superstitious people living in hovels would be impressed with its grandeur.

That sounds condescending, but we were impressed too. We then walked around a bit and took the bateau tour circling the island on which beautiful old town Strasbourg sits.


After lunch Le Gruber, yet another Alsatian restaurant (chicken and spaetzle for Richard and vol au vent pour moi), we walked some more and found the Le Musée Alsacien. There were very interesting 19th-century photographs and wonderful exhibits of the culture of the region.

Typical Alsatian family of early 20th century

Wine should be spouting from his mouth!

Before returning to Obernai, I bought our grandson Luca two adorable French bebe outfits. Even though he' not quite 6 months old, I bought him a 12-month (for now) and an 18-month (for later). The French babies are tres petits compared to Luca.

After our success today taking the train to Strasbourg, we regained some of the confidence we lost when we wandered around Germany those many days ago.

Picture taken from the boat

Picture taken from the boat

Beautiful Strasbourg

DIMANCHE

View from Haut Koenigsbourg

June 21:  Dimanche, or Sunday, is delightfully slow in France. They take their day of rest seriously (just as they take the hours of 1200 to 1400 seriously during the week). Many restaurants are closed, families get together for dinner, most stores and businesses are shuttered. I had done a little research and found two things we could do in Alsace on a Sunday.

Gertwiller puce

Is that a beer tent on Sunday morning?

Almost every Sunday finds a puce or flea market in one of the little villages. Today there was one in Gertwiller. I had no idea what to expect, but the one thing that really surprised me was how huge it was. The market covered both sides of at least three streets the length of football fields! We had to park on the outskirts of town. Most of the people appeared to be amateurs selling stuff from their houses, not dealers. Even though it was 10:30 in the morning, the beer tent was open for business. I really enjoyed browsing. I bought an old map of Lorraine I might frame and a French children's book to read to Luca. Richard is not a fan of markets, but he indulged me.

Then we drove into the mountains west of Selestat to Haut Koenigsbourg--a castle built in the Middle Ages. The fortress erupts from a mountain top and once dominated central Alsace. We could see all the way to the Rhine. As is usually the case in Europe, parking was at a premium, and we had to hike the last few hundred yards uphill. We explored several stories and wings of the castle. I can't imagine living there hundreds of years ago in a state of alert at all times. The Germans meticulously restored the ruins at the turn of the 20th century, and the results are spectacular. Unfortunately for Germany, once the restoration was complete, the French won Alsace back at the end of the Great War. I'm not sure any country can really own such a monument, Haut Koenigsbourg is part of the human heritage as much as the Pyramids or the cave paintings at Lascaux.

When we returend to Obernai, there was a music festival, and all the town had turned out. We ate another Alsatian meal, this time at Le Cloche, just down the street from our apartment. I had snails for an appetizer and liver dumplings for my main course. Richard had sauerkraut and succulent spareribs (who knew ribs were Alsatian?). Since our apartment was 50 meters from the square, we could hear the concert, but we were so tired after tackling Haut Koenigsbourg, that we both fell asleep with no problem at all.

Water spout in the castle

ALSACE

Between the villages of the Route des Vins are acres acres of beautifully-groomed vineyards.

June 20:  We awoke early and decided to explore the Route des Vins. Our last expedition down this beautiful road was 1984. We have aged, has it? Actually, not much has changed in the last 30-plus years--at least as far as the road is concerned. There is a breathtaking and quaint village about every eight kilometers or so. There are several tasting rooms in every town. We bought a gerwurstraminer after a tasting in Riquewihr (or was it Ribeauville?) and stopped at the first picnic table we spied to drink it with our chacuterie and bread.

We continued south on the route through Barr, Itterswiller, Dambach, Scherwiller, Chatenois, St. Hippolyte, Ribeauville, Riquewihr, Kientzheim, Ammerschwihr, and finally Truckheim. There we turned west and drove into the Vosges Mountains to Munster where we walked around, drank a beer, and bought some munster cheese.

A beautiful Alsatian village

We were running out of clean clothes, so we loaded up all our dirty laundry and drove to the Obernai laundromat. Europe has a steep learning curve. We've had challenges with parking schemes and unmanned toll roads, but the laundromat was in a class of its own. We finally figured it out and were rewarded with clean underwear.

We ate dinner at the Restaurant Winstub La Dime, a local Alsatian restaurant two blocks from our apartment. I know we've been eating a lot of heavy Alsatian food, but it's difficult to get at home, and we want to have our fill. Richard had a pig's knuckle that was moist and juicy inside with a crackling crust. I had various wursts and we both had sauerkraut. We both enjoyed our dinners immensely.

I should mention the munster. When I took the cheese out of its bag to put it in the refrigerator, it was extremely pungent. At first, I couldn't tell where the smell was coming from or what it was. I was a little hesitant to taste the cheese, but it was delicious. Nothing like the munster impersonators you buy in the US. I won't describe the smell, because if I did, it would be rude.

I love the decreptitude.

OBERNAI

View from our apartment in Obernai. The potted tree is the corner of the central plaza.

June 19:  A new day! We both agreed that stopping in Titisee was a good idea. We awoke refreshed and were refueled by a lovely German breakfast of cold cuts, cheese, rolls, jams, juice and coffee at our gasthaus. None of the people at the gasthaus spoke English, but we communicated. After our fresh start, we drove to Obernai without any problems, but it still took about three more hours! Google forsook us! We only stopped once this morning--at a drugstore located in a cornfield in Germany near the border with France. I don't think we could have mentally or physically driven these three hours last night without getting hopelessly lost again.

One of  my big mistakes was not to bring our GPS. Richard wanted to bring our Garmin, but to do so, we had to download European maps to our device. I had already bought some Michelin and Marco Polo maps, and didn't want to spend $100 on Garmin European maps. I didn't think it would be necessary--I was wrong, so wrong. What we didn't realize, and didn't remember from driving around Europe 30 years ago, was that navigation can be challenging. You can't just get on the A9 and go to Munich because the road signs aren't necessarily labeled as A9, You navigate by city names, not road names, so while going 120 km., all of a sudden, you must chose between going to Stuttgart or Tubingen. Those cities might be 100 km from your current location, so you must quickly find them on the map and chose the city that is in the direction of Munich. Sometimes you follow a sign to a town in the correct direction, but you find yourself on a slow road. You are on a road to Munich, but not the autoroute. Then there are the traffic circles. They are everywhere in the countryside of Germany and France. Instead of intersections with traffic lights, there are big traffic circles with three or four spokes leading in different directions. Occasionally, the signs are askew, and you are confused about where they are pointing. We got to be pretty good with the traffic circles, and if we weren't sure where to get off, we just circled around again. It's actually a good system--you keep moving. Traffic circles also eliminate traffic lights.

We were both taken with the beauty of the countryside. Europeans are smart. They clump their development into cities, towns or villages with vast green spaces of forests, fields and farms in between. We have seen no sprawl. The entire country (and we've seen a lot) is manicured and mowed. Even the forests are gorgeous. Perfection!

Our apartment building

The courtyard of our building

Obernai is a beautiful town, albeit crowded with tourists, and we love our apartment! Veronique accomodated our screwed-up arrival time and welcomed us. We are staying in a modern efficiency in a very old house (hundreds of years old) in the heart of the town. There is literally no better location--we are steps from the central plaza and across from a boulangerie (how convenient). We have a small red Ikea kitchen, a nice bathroom with large shower, a table for eating and writing, a wardrobe, TV and king bed. I love the stone wall. Perfection!

We enjoyed a decadent Alsatian lunch at Les Petites Casseroles. Richard had a traditional Alsatian dish called baeckeoffe. On Mondays, laundry day, women traditionally took a casserole dish filled with potatoes, onions, vegetables and several types of meat, doused with white wine to the town baker to cook in his oven. Baeckeoffe literally means "baker's oven." I had a delicious dish of potatoes cooked in a cream and wine sauce with munster cheese and some sort of crispy smoked pork. It was decadently delicious.

Buildings around the town square of Obernai

We took a walk around town and went to the Simply Market and bought some provisions. We decided, except for parking, Obernai is perfection!

Obernai

Ehn River along the ramparts

Sign outside a restaurant

Passage in Obernai