Reaching the border…

Last week in France before crossing the border. Just enough time to visit the famous vineyards of Burgundy and their Grand Crus, the no less famous vineyards of Alsace and, between two rainstorms, marvel at the immense forests and spectacular landscapes of the Vosges…

It’s no longer worth talking about the weather: everything remains the same… It’s still raining! So, for another week, we tried to take advantage of the few stoles without rain to walk a little and take three or four photos. At the time of writing this post, we have just received an alert from the official German meteorological service announcing prolonged heavy rain throughout the weekend… Ô joy! 😥

Grands crus (27/05/2024)

We were quite well at the edge of our lake, in Laisy. We were surrounded by coypus and we could even see a group of 3 pups (who still didn’t know for sure if they should flee from humans or not…). But being in Burgundy and not seeing its famous vineyards would not have been very serious…

A short stop in Autun to close the loop of our Gallic getaway and see the Roman theater (quite abandoned) and the “Temple of Janus”, and we headed to Beaune, the mecca of great wines, with its hospices and its Hôtel-Dieu. We discovered a charming small city, surrounded by walls and gathering a whole series of medieval and typically Burgundian houses. Obviously, the specialty of Beaune and its region is the sale of great Burgundy wines, but just by seeing some prices in the windows, we thought that a bottle from Carrefour would be more than enough for our not-so-sybaritic palates!… 😜

For a wine lover, the road between Autun and Dijon must be a true paradise. You just go through almost all the villages whose names resonate with great wines: Meursault, Volnay, Pommard, Beaune, Aloxe-Corton, Vosne-Romanée or Corgoloin , and many others, without forgetting our stop for that night: Nuits-Saint George. Obviously, you also need to have a deep wallet or a very cooperative banker, but hey… True love doesn’t know about numbers! 🤔

Interestingly, the Burgundy wine region has more than 1.800 climates, officially recognised by UNESCO for their “outstanding universal value” and included on the World Heritage List since 4 July 2015. Nothing to do with the weather here, since that the word “climate” is, in fact, the Burgundian term used to refer to a wine-growing territory. In Burgundy, a climate designates a plot of vineyards, delimited, named and exploited by man, often over a very long period. Each climate has particular geological, hydrometric and exposure characteristics. In these plots, the winegrowers work in single-varietal production (with a single type of grape), which they harvest and vinify separately, giving birth to a wine that, naturally, takes its name from the climate from which it comes and which gives it its personality. No need to say we looked for the cooperative winery in the Nuits-Saint George, but we couldn’t find it! 🤣

Triple frontier (28/05/2024)

With another 160 km further east, we passed below Dijon (without stopping… let’s be honest, mustard sells less than wine…), over Dole and under Besançon to pause in Ornans, the city birthplace of Gustave Courbet (the one from the sulphurous “The Origin of the World”, but also the more sober “Funeral at Ornans”, in which the cliffs that surround the city can be seen in the background of the painting).

Why Ornans? Because looking at the map, after the great plain that surrounds Dole, the area seemed to have a rather “canyon-style” relief… And indeed, Ornans is crossed by the river Loue, which has excavated the surrounding limestone, surrounding the city with vertical cliffs. Well, okay, it’s not the Grand Canyon, but after the flat landscapes of the eastern Côte d’or and the northern Jura, we were almost enthused by the cliffs of Ornans!… 🤓

Ornans is also known for being home to the Alstom factory that makes the engines for the TGV (the French bullet train), but apart from that, let’s be honest, the city is not worth a detour. Initially, we had planned to spend the night there, but we were surprised to learn the Ornans city council had decided to prohibit any form of camping on the territory of the municipality (with the exception of the motorhome area managed by the same city council and which costs 17 EUR per night, services and tourist tax not included). The best thing is that, to justify this ban, the city council used the fact that the Ornans area was designated, a long time ago, a Natura 2000 site (the network of protected spaces created by the European Union that never had any real protection value). Coincidentally, the city council of Ornans rediscovered the value of its biodiversity and, obviously, felt the irrepressible desire to protect it. Coincidentally, they also consider that only camping is harmful to the “highly vulnerable” species present in the area. VTTs, cars, paragliders or the Alstom factory, they have no impact on biodiversity… This is undoubtedly Ornan’s interpretation of the original objective of the Natura 2000 network to “maintain the biological diversity of environments, taking into account the economic, social, cultural and regional demands in a logic of sustainable development, and understanding that the conservation of protected areas and biodiversity also provides long-term economic benefits”. At 17 EUR per night plus taxes and services, the long-term economic benefit is quite clear…

In short, after having happily witnessed that some municipalities do know how to remember their biodiversity (when it is in their own interest), we went to settle a little further away, in another village nicely called “Les Premiers Sapins” (The First Firs) and which does not appear to have any Natura 2000 site… 😉 There, about thirty kilometres from the Swiss border (Neuchâtel) and about 150 from the German border (Freiburg), from our meadow a couple of kilometres from the village, we had an impressive view over the last undulations of the Jura towards Besançon, and in the opposite direction, over the typical landscapes that we knew when we were in Switzerland: large grassy meadows and huge fir trees at the edge, where the forest begins. The typical postcard from around here, in a way…

Mounts and balloons (29/05/2024)

Departure from Les Premiers Sapins under the first drops of rain in the morning, and a journey under gray and rainy weather, until we reached our destination, the Vosges, where there… it was still raining, for a change! 🤓

We leave the department of Doubs and cross the Territory of Belfort (the only Alsatian territory that remained French after the defeat of 1871 and became a department in 1922 with the number 90) to pass near Mulhouse before heading towards our first stop of the day: the Big Balloon.

It is important to specify at the outset that in this region, the mountains are called “ballons” (balloons), probably in reference to their round shapes. The Grand Ballon (not to be confused with the Ballon of Alsace) is a bit like the mountain of all records, as it is at the same time the highest peak in the Vosges, in the Grand Est region, in the European Community of Alsace and the Upper Rhine department, and all that, from a height of 1,424 m! That’s all we can say about it really, because when we started our way up, we quickly found ourselves in the clouds, which did not move from there at any time… But apparently (it is the waiter at the cafe where we took shelter from the rain who told us), you can even see the Alps, from the top of the Grand Ballon, when the weather is good…

On the way, in a curve after a mountain pass and between two clouds, we were still able to take two or three photos of the other ballons in the surroundings (just to confirm that the region really looks very beautiful). Before settling in for the night, we reached Blanchemer Lake, a small lake surrounded by a large and beautiful forest, of which there are apparently quite a few around here…

The only thing we can explain about Alsace for the moment is that the people are friendly, but they speak with such a strong accent that sometimes you have to concentrate to understand what they are saying. It’s a lovely accent, a bit like a Swiss German trying to speak French. On the other hand, everyone switches from French to German without any problem, as if everyone here were perfectly bilingual…

Coloured lakes… (30/05/2024)

The night was a little… noisy. Sleeping under a tree to protect yourself from the rain is, in itself, a good idea, but it is important to choose the right tree… According to our experience last night, a conifer is better (the rain slides off the needles, which cushion its fall) than a deciduous tree (whose leaves accumulate water until they can no longer support the weight, and then drop a huge drop that makes much more noise when it hits Marvin’s roof). So next time we will look for a conifer, to see if we can confirm our theory. 🤓

The weather improved a little today, so we were able to tour the Vosges massif and even managed to enjoy some sunshine and two or three nice panoramas over the Munster valley and other famous places in the Vosges (well, ok, the rest are a little less famous, we must admit… 😉).

Our day unfolded in three colors: those of the three lakes we passed (yes, the lakes here have names of colors…), in this order: Green Lake, Black Lake and White Lake. And yes, okay, it’s ridiculous, everyone says it and I’m the first to criticise them, but yes, it’s true, places like the ones we saw today look a lot like Canada!… It’s like ridiculous to characterise the Vosges by comparing them to another place, when they stand perfectly on their own, but it is clear that small lakes like these, surrounded by immense forests, look like a postcard from Canada… But hey, that doesn’t take away anything from the charm of the Vosges, quite the opposite…

After all this exercise, a Marcaire meal was a must, so we followed the recommendations of the Ballons des Vosges Regional Park website to get to the Graine Johé farm. Marcaire food is the specialty of the Vosges massif and includes a meat pie, a piece of smoked pork and potatoes stewed with bacon, onions, butter and sometimes white wine, cooked in a copper cauldron over a wood fire during hours. We can confirm that Marcaire potatoes are really delicious (although not really recommended for those on a diet)… ☺️

To end the day, we only had to look for a place to settle and, following a forest track, we found the perfect small and idyllic spot, with its small almost flat plot of green grass, its small stream next to it with “private access” to a small beach, its small bridge over the stream and its majestic fir forest around it. The perfect place except for one small detail: there was no phone coverage at all! So, for one night, we were “sentenced” to a true Marvin-style evening, without any connection until we returned to civilization the next morning… 🤓

Medieval… or nearly (31/05/2024)

Before crossing the border, we still had to see (probably among many other things) the Upper Koenigsbourg castle. But before, we also had to do a logistical stop (laundry, etc.), and for this we chose the city of Sélestat. It was totally by chance, but it turned out to be a very good choice: a beautiful, typically Alsatian city with a cathedral that houses monumental stained glass windows from the 15th century. After washing our clothes and eating a pretzel at Marcel Kientz’s Fournil, we headed to the castle.

What can we say about Upper Koenigsbourg? The castle is impressive, that is undeniable. But the hordes of tourists, without any control of numbers or overload by those responsible for the management of the place, who jostle in the corridors of the castle to follow the course of the visit at the pace of the herd (so as not to be pushed, or even trampled by those coming behind), clearly, for me, it spoiled the fun a bit… No need to say that my famous sense of sociability was put to a test… 😅

Apart from this, the visit to the castle was certainly worth it, although in the first room we found out that it is actually a “fake”… Let me explain: the original castle (two towers documented for the first time in 1147 and which were used to control of the road to Alsace) were converted into a castle during the first half of the 12th century by the dukes of Lorraine before being conquered and burned in 1462. The remains of Upper Koenigsbourg were entrusted to the Thierstein family, who had the castle remodelled in the 15th century, but, drowned by debt, abandoned the building to the ravages of time, before it was again almost completely destroyed in 1633, during the Thirty Years’ War, in which, among others, the Swedes opposed Austria, and Alsace was severely devastated.

This is where the juiciest part of the story comes. In 1871, Alsace became German and, in 1899, Emperor Wilhelm II of Hohenzollern decided to rebuild the Koesnigsbourg as a symbol of the Germanness of Alsace and, more generally, of the Germanic world. Passionate about the Middle Ages and stories of knights and conquests (and with a certain delusion of grandeur), Wilhelm II entrusted the work to an architect with the mission of rebuilding the castle as it was around the year 1500. As a result, as explained at the beginning of the visit, Upper Koenigsbourg is not really a medieval castle, but a castle rebuilt according to the vision we had in 1900 (and that we still have today) of what a medieval castle should be like. Basically, a life-size setting of a fantasy Middle Age… The new Upper Koenigsbourg was inaugurated in 1908, and for “Kaiser” Wilhelm II it represented the western limit of the German Empire, just as Marienburg Castle, today in Poland, marked its eastern limit. The end of the story, we already know: two world wars and a redefinition of borders later, Alsace becomes French again and Upper Koenigsbourg is part of the national palaces and belongs to the General Council of the Lower Rhine. However, the coat of arms of Wilhelm II remains visible inside the castle which, therefore, remains one of the symbols of the German presence in Alsace between 1871 and 1918, shared between the restoration, for the most part credible, made by the architect and Wilhelm II’s romantic vision of the Middle Age.

As for the frequentation of the place, and not to blame only my asociality, the Upper Koenigsbourg is one of the most visited monuments in Alsace, with more than 550.000 visitors a year (half had probably decided to come today… 😜).

Willkommen in Deutschland! (1/06/2024)

And to finish this week and, at the same time, the French chapter of this adventure, we crossed the Rhine! We are officially in Germany, and more exactly in the Black Forest region, in the town of Bad Griesbach. At the moment, the weather remains the same on this side of the border, and we just received an alert from the German meteorological service for accumulation of rain and storms over the next 48 hours. So we’ll wait to see if the clouds let us see a little of the landscapes around here, which also seem spectacular…

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ON A BALLON DES VOSGES, as anywhere else, LEAVE NO TRACE!

– Always travel on public ways and respect the signs.
– Limit noise and interfere as little as possible with wildlife.
– Respect the other users.
– Leave rocks, plants and other natural features as you found them and respect historic sites.
– Take your waste with you and throw it into the appropriate containers, in the nearest village.
– Do not camp inside protected areas and do not make any fires.