A laundromat is a "Laverie" & more fun

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Washing day! It took us a while to figure out that a Laundromat is called a “Laverie” but we eventually made the connection. The Laverie would not be a bad idea for a second income if you live in the area. It was all coin operated, with a mobile phone number on the wall if anything went wrong.

Yet another warm, sunny day in Alsace. According to our mate Paul, it was raining back home, which is wonderful for our garden.

After our entertaining morning of clothes washing, we took a drive to the Ballon D’Alsace, which is the second highest peak in the Vosges mountain range. We went to the Ballon, via the town of Thann. Wonderful views from the top of the peak and a lovely statue of Joan of Arc looking toward Lorraine (her home province).

The drive to the Ballon was interesting, sweeping hills, tall pine trees and the smell of fresh cut hay. The road gained in altitude via numerous twists and turns. The drive back down via the Route Joffre was even tighter, very, very narrow and twisting, but well worth the driving effort for the scenery. It would be amazing to see the area in winter under a blanket of snow!

It is not hard to see why Alsace was such an important region for France and Germany during both world wars. It is such a fertile area and it does seem to be the link to the east and west of Europe for both countries. An amazing area, the villages are so neat and picturesque, with lots of floral planter boxes decorating the houses and streets.

We had dinner in Thann at a pizza and crepe place, the Alsace version of a pizza was very filling. Afterward we took a stroll around the town. A slightly drunken guy said something to me in French and then tried his best to converse with us in broken English. He made a decent effort considering his state and we eventually realised he wanted a cigarette but then felt embarrassed he had approached some tourists for one and did not want us to get a bad impression of his town so he declined when I offered him one from my pack. He said something like “you will think bad of Alsace if I take that so thank you and enjoy the night, you have a big heart”. He then disappeared into the night!

We got back to Bergheim and found the usual group of older local women sitting on the park bench near our hotel chatting. They gave us a smile and a wave and tried to make some small talk with us. They looked very content with life in their village and it was easy to see why, not much has changed there since about 1400! From their vantage point on the bench they would be able to watch all the comings and goings in the village and then spend many hours discussing the local gossip. They all had interesting faces and plenty of laughter lines to show their joy of life.

8th September 2004 - Went to Ribeauville and found the tourist office. A very helpful women their assisted us to change our travel dates for Paris so we could spend a few extra days there. She spent a lot of time on the phone arranging it for us and we were very glad of her help. We tried the local internet café to send some emails and photos back home, but the connection was so slow we gave up. Instead we headed for Selestat and found a place with a much quicker connection and got our messages and photos sent of in the magical either that is the internet.

We took a tour of Selestat and had a very lazy day.

I spoke on the phone to another distant cousin, Pierre and organised to meet with him and his wife for dinner this coming Friday in Colmar.

9th September 2004 - Drove up into to the mountains via Le Petite Haut. We had planned to go the the eagle park but found it was closed, so we lunched at a place on top of Le Petite Haut. The trip back down the mountain after lunch and a few wines was interesting. we decided to pull over for a while and enjoy the scenery because the wine had made the drive a bit of a challenge and we both could not stop laughing hysterically at something or anything that we were saying - maybe it was the altitude?

Back in Bergheim we bumped into a German girl, Sophie, who we had also seen the day before in Selestat. She was touring the area on her bicycle on the way from Paris back home to Dresden in Germany, a long ride! Her accommodation while touring was generally provided by asking local farmers if she could camp in their garden. She told us that nobody ever turned her down and it was a safe way to get a good rest when traveling on her own. Sophie gave us her contact details on a card she had made herself depicting the street she had stayed in while in Paris. I must scan it so I can post it here.

After a freshen up we drove to Niedermorschwihr and spent a wonderful evening dining with Jean, Beatrice and Nelly (who I previously called Lilly for some dumb reason), We were joined by friends of theirs, Anne, Laurence, Dominic, Françoise, Josie-Anne and Evelyn. All of whom had some connection with the local wine industry. They all brought along a bottle of their favorite wines for us to taste and gave an explanation of why they thought they were so good. It was a lovely dinner party and such a friendly group pf people.

Later, Beatrice gave us a gift, a book written by one of my ancestors who had taken to writing children’s books - the Countess Serge Tolstoy. If the surname sounds familiar you can probably join the dots and realise I have a distant connection to the guy who wrote War and Peace, a very distant connection indeed!

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Photos

Ballon d'Alsace
Lake on the route from the Ballon

Ballon d'Alsace
one the route to the Ballon

Ballon d'Alsace
friendly locals on the ballon

Roadside flowers
on the route from Petite Haut

Roadside flowers
on the route from Petite Haut

Roadside flowers
on the route from Petite Haut

Roadside flowers
on the route from Petite Haut

Roadside stream
on the route from Petite Haut

wine tasting dinner
the dinner party group

wine tasting dinner
Jean in his element!