We had a bit of a lazy day today.
While I realise that many of those places that we visited today sound like they are across a border, we stayed in France today.
We have 3 nights here at Etienne’s place in Colmar, so 2 full days. There are a few things on our list of things to see.
It was cool this morning. It was warm inside the apartment, but my watch was telling me it was only 3°C outside, which didn’t seem right.
In fact it was so warm inside this morning that I opened a window a crack to let in some air.
I feel like a bit of a failure today. Given that we are back in France, you’d think I would have been standing outside the nearest boulangerie when it opened … but we had bread, cereal, strawberries, milk … so we just stayed in.
We had a quick video chat with a couple of our FLP which filled our emotional tanks, so that was good. We will see them again in just over a week.
We loaded up our jackets and scarves, and headed out to Claude. When I got into Claude, the back of my shirt rode up and my bare back touched the seat, and I nearly gasped it was so cold.
I think that MBW has finally caught on the Claude doesn’t have heated seats.
Out of the parking at the back of the apartment, and we gave Joséphine directions to give us directions to Riquewihl, only about 15 minutes drive away.
Claude was having conniptions this morning. We knew that he was low on fuel and our first job today was to find some, but from all the beeping and bonging and flashing lights going on, you’d think that there was a crisis.
So MBW gave Joséphine new instructions to find us fuel, and we got 40 litres of the cheapest fuel we have seen this trip … €1.573/litre. That’s for 95RON E10, as it’s either that or 98RON E5 here.
Yes, i know that’s about AUD$2.80/litre due to the falling exchange rate (thanks Mr Trump), but it’s still the cheapest so far.
So Claude was full, and we headed off for Riquewihr, a very pretty little village that – it is said – the French village in “Beauty and the Beast” is modelled on.
We had read that parking at Riquewihr can be a nightmare, but we got there around 10.00 and the general French population must have still been in bed. We got a space with no issues.
Remember how I said that we started the day with 3°C? By the time we parked Claude and got out, the temperature had risen to an almost tropical 6°C, and one of us realised that they’d left their puffer jacket at home.
I’m not going to say who, but if you look at the photos below, you will see that one of us looks warm and toasty, and I … er the other one of us looks cold and miserable.
Riquewihr is indeed a pretty little place. We bought some pastries and some souvenirs and looked for coffee, but all of the outdoor seating was in the shade and didn’t look inviting.
By 11.30 we were ready to move on, but we did a quick detour to the top of a nearby hill to get some more photos of the township.
The next place we wanted to visit was the Château du Haut-Kœnigsbourg, a restored 12th Century castle nearby.
By now the French population had emerged from bed, along with all of the tourists on this Easter Saturday.
People everywhere, cars everywhere … we grabbed the first space we saw because we didn’t want to miss out, but it was about 950m down the hill from the castle.
MBW suggested that we drive further up the hill to see if there were any other spaces available, but I said no … another strategic blunder. We pased several (many?) other available spaces, and I’m sure that MBW was itching to say “I told you so”, but she kept that thought to herself.
A long, hot walk up the hill, but we removed the need for bulky puffer jackets.
The castle was built in the 12th century, then there was more work done in the 15th century. Then there was damage from an attack, then it was restored in the very early 20th century.
We paid our €12 each for the self-guided tour and it was worth every euro. An amazing building, and you can see why these fortresses are built at the top of a hill. Great from a defensive standpoint.
We were done there by about 1.30pm, so we pointed Claude towards home, set the cruise control for 110km/h and took off.
When in France … so we went in search of a boulangerie to get a baguette. We ended up back at home, dropped off Claude, and headed into the pretty centre of Colmar again to get some lunch.
It’s Easter Saturday, how busy can it be?
We found the first boulangerie that MBW was seeking, and we felt like Old Mother Hubbard. They had sold out of everything.
So we went to another one that a friend had said “Do not walk past this shop!”, and it was also sold out.
We found another one that had some baguettes made up like pizzas, and that had to do for lunch – after 2.30pm. We were hungry and needed food and coffee.
Back home, we had some cheese and crackers, strawberries, and a hot beverage to supplement lunch, and a rest for the afternoon.
I had a nap, while MBW did some more research for tomorrow.
There is one more place that we’d like to see while we are in Colmar, but it is south and this morning’s adventure was north … so I guess that will be tomorrow.
Then on Monday we head to Strasbourg for 4 nights and we might slip over the border into Germany or Switzerland for a bo peep.
From what we understand, Easter is business as usual (BAU) here in France, although we’ve heard that everything is closed on Monday. We will need to factor that into our planning and ensure we have enough chocolate food.
Tonight will be leftover pasta from last night and another early night.
We haven’t switched on a TV for weeks, so we have no idea what is happening in the world. There’s no point turning it on anyway, because our grasp of French is fairly limited, and you tend to lose the thread of the discussion fairly quickly when you can’t understand anything being said.
But I was just looking at the news on my phone, and I see that there is a major air traffic control strike planned across Europe in late April, which coincides with our flight home. I’m not a fan of our pilot trying to take off without ATC support, as I suspect that could be dangerous … so France might be stuck with us for a few days more yet.
I hope not. I’m just about ready to give Claude back and go home. I’m getting tired of sleeping in strange beds.
Many of our AirBNBs have been OK, but this one is sub-standard. The coffee machine here is useless at making decent coffee – it looks and tastes like dishwater, and it’s just not a great AirBNB.
Being here at Easter probably didn’t help, but all first world problems of course.
It’s now just after 6.00pm and the sun is still high in the sky. Sunset is not until 8.25pm, which just messes with me.
I might go and heat up that pasta because if we waited until it’s dark for dinner, we won’t be eating until 9.00pm.
Ciao
#Europe2025