Alsace Has Seen Better Days

It’s been 7 years since I was last in Alsace. This sounds like a long time but it was probably 7 years since I was last in Paris. It’s certainly been more than 7 years since I was last in Florence. What HAVE I been doing all this time? Well there were three girls to raise, and work, and, okay, we’ve been to Russia at least 7 times in as many years. I don’t know if this counts. I do know that Alsace is much different than I remember it. Or perhaps we always remember things differently to how they are.



The weather was hot and sunny and the girls were mostly in a good mood. Hubby drove the entire 1600 kilometers without complaint. However he balked at the chance to see Heidelberg on the way. We hit Strasbourg and got caught first in rush hour and then a 9 kilometer construction zone which added 2 hours to our trip to Basel. Switzerland btw, even at the corner of Germany and France, is green and clean and wonderful and you should drive to Basel whenever you can.

My French is rustier than my bike, and I found myself using English more than German for whatever reason. The girls have as little French as I but hubby is quite fluent which always came in handy. However it was in Russian that I exclaimed while toweling off after my shower in the hotel gym a large and very hirsute and naked young man came in through the door which did not have a lock!



On the minus side: Where did all the roundabouts in the roads come from? And when did the food become so tourist class? I couldn’t eat another frozen tarte flambee if my life depended on it and I was completely disappointed by tasteless choucroute which last visit I so enjoyed. I ate raw duck and overdone deer. The wines were insipid and I felt so completely uncomfortable and unhappy I didn’t steal ONE bunch of grapes from the miles of vineyards that spread in all directions.

On the plus side: Walking in the early morning sunrise through hilltop vineyards. Our wine merchant was still in Eguisheim, and the butchers who make quiche you can sit outside and eat at the edge of the fountain, and the hotel in Riquewhir was still there - though the swimming pool seemed much smaller – perhaps we were simply more people? Or larger? :o)

Poka! Katrin