Alsace, France, 19 July - 3 August 2009
After leaving the Drome-Provencal,France, we drove our rental car to our next house exchange destination in the Alsace Region or France. Alsace is located on the eastern side of France along Rhine River and the German border. With us on this part of the trip were our friends the Furmanski’s from Ventura who participated in the art workshop as well. On the way we detoured to visit with Betsy and Kent Quinn (also from Ventura) at their farmhouse near Grenoble. The farmhouse is located in a tiny hamlet of Les Arneaux, high atop a mountain with breathtaking views of the snow caped Alps and gorgeous green meadows. Kent led us on a beautiful hike to a peak with a 360 degree view of the area, and then had a fabulous dinner along with some of their local friends and neighbors. The old house has been abandoned for decades before they purchased it, and they have done miracles making it livable and cozy, yet maintaining the basic feel of an old primitive farm house of its period. It was an incredible experience! Thanks Betsy, Kent and Glenda for all of that.
The next morning we drove on a wonderful route suggested by Kent through narrow canyons to the French Alps and the ski town Chamonix. We spent a several hours hear and took a train up the “Mer de Glace” (Sea of Ice) glacier and a cable car down to explored ice cave in the glacier. After this adventure we headed north by Lake Geneva, through Switzerland and up the Rhine River Valley to the small town of Soultzmatt, France, for our house exchange.
The house was large and comfortable, surrounded by manicured vineyards. The Alsace region is famous for its white wines such as Pinot Gris, Gewurztraminer, Muscat and Pinot Blanc. Soultzmatt is about 15 miles from Colmar, a very picturesque town with ancient medieval half timbered colorful buildings, museums, shopping and many nice shops and restaurants. We interspersed our visits of quaint local villages with day trips further away: we saw a wonderful Van Gogh exhibit in Basel, Switzerland; drove north to the beautiful town of Strasbourg, France; east across the German border to the Freiburg and Titisee, Germany, in the Black Forest; and northwest to Verdun to explore the World War I battlefields.
Soulzmatt is an adorable mile long street village on the famous “Alsace Route De Vin” (Wine Route). The Route De Vin is a small road through vineyards that meanders through dozens of villages, one cuter than the next, through vineyards and endless roundabouts. Staying here for two weeks you could easily forget what the outside world looks like and feel that you are in some enchanted time warp. Seeing a modern town with bill boards and stoplights was almost jarring! Many villages are a thousand of years old or more. Some are medieval, many with watch towers, city gates, ruined castles on hill tops and some still having the old city wall and moats surrounding them. Most of the buildings in these villages are colorfully painted with half timbered construction with colorful pots of geraniums, hydrangeas and other flowers were everywhere. It makes us want to circulate a petition to paint homes in Ventura County in rainbow color, see the pictures if you don’t agree. The most notable of the villages we visited were Eguisheim, Riquewilher, Kayserberg. Rouffach and Ribeauville. We spent hours walking around the charming narrow streets, sampling the wonderful chocolate macaroons and pain du chocolat (chocolate croissants) and dined on wonderful lunches which lasted generally over two hours. After lunch with wine, a nap became mandatory.
But it wasn’t all eating and napping, we also explored some interesting chateaux (castles). The first was Haut Koenigsbourg, a huge restored castle located high on a hill and built one thousand years ago restored about 100 years ago when Alsace was German territory. It was furnished as a museum, with old furniture, weapons and suits of armor and ancient crossbows, guns and cannons. We hiked to two other castle ruins (Chateau d’Eguisheim and Girsberg), the Girsberg chateau was particularly wonderful and involved an hour long hike along an ancient road, through walls and gates finally getting the large ruined chateau. It was fascinating and we felt a little like Indiana Jones.
We also took an overnight trip to Verdun, France the scene of horrible fighting during World War in which over 250,000 solders lost their lives between 1914 and 1916. The visit to the battle fields was particularly important to Martin Furmanski since he had a great uncle who died there and we visited the American cemetery where he is buried and the scene of the battle in which he died. The areas of the battlefield in the woods are still littered with huge pits from the cannon blasts almost 100 years ago. Lance and Martin took a bus tour of the battlefield and visited the remains of forts, a museum with equipment used during the War and memorials to the dead. It was a very interesting trip. On the way back to Alsace we stopped in the town of Metz beautifully situated on the River Moselle and with its beautiful Cathedral of St Etienne
Our last evening was particularily memorable. We were invited to the house of the neighbors, Raymonde and Guy Schimur and their son Nichola. Nichola had been acting as our translator during the two week stay and was very helpful. The served us wine from their vinyard and Guy showed his his collection of World War II equipment (Alsace was occupied by the Germans), including a beautifully restored Jeep and Raymonde showed us her Ascasian costume worn in the old days. We went to dinner with them in the nearby town of Rouffach in the Jeep and drove home by moonlight through the vinyards. It was wonderful!
Out visit to Alsace was varied and very interesting and we would recommend this as a lovely place to visit. We next take the TGV (Very High Speed) train to Paris for a two week house exchange.
To see pictures click on the picture below and click on "Slideshow".
The next morning we drove on a wonderful route suggested by Kent through narrow canyons to the French Alps and the ski town Chamonix. We spent a several hours hear and took a train up the “Mer de Glace” (Sea of Ice) glacier and a cable car down to explored ice cave in the glacier. After this adventure we headed north by Lake Geneva, through Switzerland and up the Rhine River Valley to the small town of Soultzmatt, France, for our house exchange.
The house was large and comfortable, surrounded by manicured vineyards. The Alsace region is famous for its white wines such as Pinot Gris, Gewurztraminer, Muscat and Pinot Blanc. Soultzmatt is about 15 miles from Colmar, a very picturesque town with ancient medieval half timbered colorful buildings, museums, shopping and many nice shops and restaurants. We interspersed our visits of quaint local villages with day trips further away: we saw a wonderful Van Gogh exhibit in Basel, Switzerland; drove north to the beautiful town of Strasbourg, France; east across the German border to the Freiburg and Titisee, Germany, in the Black Forest; and northwest to Verdun to explore the World War I battlefields.
Soulzmatt is an adorable mile long street village on the famous “Alsace Route De Vin” (Wine Route). The Route De Vin is a small road through vineyards that meanders through dozens of villages, one cuter than the next, through vineyards and endless roundabouts. Staying here for two weeks you could easily forget what the outside world looks like and feel that you are in some enchanted time warp. Seeing a modern town with bill boards and stoplights was almost jarring! Many villages are a thousand of years old or more. Some are medieval, many with watch towers, city gates, ruined castles on hill tops and some still having the old city wall and moats surrounding them. Most of the buildings in these villages are colorfully painted with half timbered construction with colorful pots of geraniums, hydrangeas and other flowers were everywhere. It makes us want to circulate a petition to paint homes in Ventura County in rainbow color, see the pictures if you don’t agree. The most notable of the villages we visited were Eguisheim, Riquewilher, Kayserberg. Rouffach and Ribeauville. We spent hours walking around the charming narrow streets, sampling the wonderful chocolate macaroons and pain du chocolat (chocolate croissants) and dined on wonderful lunches which lasted generally over two hours. After lunch with wine, a nap became mandatory.
But it wasn’t all eating and napping, we also explored some interesting chateaux (castles). The first was Haut Koenigsbourg, a huge restored castle located high on a hill and built one thousand years ago restored about 100 years ago when Alsace was German territory. It was furnished as a museum, with old furniture, weapons and suits of armor and ancient crossbows, guns and cannons. We hiked to two other castle ruins (Chateau d’Eguisheim and Girsberg), the Girsberg chateau was particularly wonderful and involved an hour long hike along an ancient road, through walls and gates finally getting the large ruined chateau. It was fascinating and we felt a little like Indiana Jones.
We also took an overnight trip to Verdun, France the scene of horrible fighting during World War in which over 250,000 solders lost their lives between 1914 and 1916. The visit to the battle fields was particularly important to Martin Furmanski since he had a great uncle who died there and we visited the American cemetery where he is buried and the scene of the battle in which he died. The areas of the battlefield in the woods are still littered with huge pits from the cannon blasts almost 100 years ago. Lance and Martin took a bus tour of the battlefield and visited the remains of forts, a museum with equipment used during the War and memorials to the dead. It was a very interesting trip. On the way back to Alsace we stopped in the town of Metz beautifully situated on the River Moselle and with its beautiful Cathedral of St Etienne
Our last evening was particularily memorable. We were invited to the house of the neighbors, Raymonde and Guy Schimur and their son Nichola. Nichola had been acting as our translator during the two week stay and was very helpful. The served us wine from their vinyard and Guy showed his his collection of World War II equipment (Alsace was occupied by the Germans), including a beautifully restored Jeep and Raymonde showed us her Ascasian costume worn in the old days. We went to dinner with them in the nearby town of Rouffach in the Jeep and drove home by moonlight through the vinyards. It was wonderful!
Out visit to Alsace was varied and very interesting and we would recommend this as a lovely place to visit. We next take the TGV (Very High Speed) train to Paris for a two week house exchange.
To see pictures click on the picture below and click on "Slideshow".
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| 2009-08-03 Alsace, France, 19 July - 3 August 2009 |
posted by Dahlia and Lance Riley @ 1:59 PM
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