Westhalten

Saturday 11th July

A France Passion site in the hills of Alsace surrounded by vinyards and so quiet we slept like babies. We cycled into the tour of Soutzmits for some supplies down a very steep hill, Paul made it back up - I got halfway before walking!

Ribeauville

Friday 10th July

We cycled to Kintzheim and then on to Selstat to tour the wine towns - a distance of about 30km in total up and down hill through the vinyards.
It was very windy but the sun was out and both got a little redder than we intended.
We stayed on another very quiet site and treated ourselves to a take out kebab ( the only food we could get apart from Five Star restaurants.)

Thursday 9th July

On the way to Ribeauville we stopped at Obernai for a quick visit around the town, a services stop at an Aire to take on water and then we headed to a France Passion site further south.

Molsheim, Alsace, France

Wednesday 8^th July

We woke up late as the farmyard was so quiet, plus we had been the only people to stay. It rained more-or-less all day so we pottered about site speaking with the farmer’s brother and went to see the locally famous Bugatti Museum, which incidentally included a look around a re-constructed monastery. We later discovered a Bugatti history exhibition in the town hall. Finished the afternoon off with a gaufre (waffle) topped with chocolate and cream whilst sat in town square.

Back at the van Alfonse (our Farmer host) wandered over with 3 glasses and a bottle of his own brew. After about 30mins of Suzy overdosing on Alsace/French/English translation he donated the rest of the bottle to us as thanks for Paul helping to plant lettuces for the restaurant and bid us bonne nuit and bon voyage.

Tuesday 7^th July

Next stop was a France Passion site in Molsheim. France Passion is a scheme set up for Motor home owners, allowing them to stay for up to 24 hours on a farmers land with a view to sampling and purchasing local farmers produce, although it’s not compulsory.

Molsheim is a very sleepy village with the obligatory collection of stalks’ nests.

The farm also had a restaurant serving tarte flambé and a very jolly farmer who was entertaining wine samplers. We decided to park up and go for a wander about town and returned to find the farmer lighting up a wood burning stove. Paul helped Alfonse to plant lettuces in his extensive garden whilst waiting for Suzy to cook dinner.

Strasbourg

Monday 6^th July

The same person who turned up at 11:30pm the previous night decide to leave at 7:30am in the morning, this kick-started us to get up early and cycle into Strasbourg for the day.

Stopping for a hot chocolate by the cathedral, we went on to see the astrological clock strike and perform at half past twelve. True to form the heavens opened the minute we decided to leave the café and we got soaked through. The clock was a complete waste of time, no pun intended, but the cathedral was stunning.