Colmar and the German influence

Colmar is in the Alsace region of France, just 20 miles from Germany. The germanic influence is strong here...much like the Dolomites in Italy. Think sauerkraut and sausage, dry white wine and pretty good beer.

We started the morning with a walk through the town. About 70,000 inhabitants but they have a city center that dates back to the 14th century. There is a canal system that goes right through the middle giving it a very Venetian feel. The flowers are beautiful...they standardly have their first freeze in late October. Geraniums are obviously their favorites.

Colmars city center

Tom and Cilla in front of museum

Altar polyptyque

Wine Barrels

We were able to see their bi-weekly market... colorful fruit, lots and lots of sausage and bread. We then took in their church, impressive cross hanging from the middle of the church with statues of Mary and their patron saint, St. Anthony hanging from the rafters beside Jesus. We then went to the museum. They have some beautiful 15th century altar artwork.

We then had lunch, the best french onion soup ever and off we went to tour Keysbergers, where Albert Schweitzerm was born. Lovely little town, smaller that Colmar with a rich history from WWII. It is hard to imagine that Allied tanks could even negotiate the skinny roads.

We then took a 45 minute walk through a beautiful vineyard. We actually tasted grapes off the vine, watched workers harvesting the grapes and our local guide, Jean Claude told us how to cut a grape plant, harvest grapes and what weatther conditions are best.

Lastly, we tasted Reisling, Pinot Blanc, Gerwerstreminer, and something else that completely slips my mind....might be the wine...!

Tom, Cilla, Dar and Mary in Keyeserberg

Pinot Noir grapes on the vine

In berets eating grapes

Rose bush at end of row of vines. Planted so that if there is some kind of disease t will show on the rose bush first.

More beautiful flowers

Owner of winery with his son

Great day! This is a lovely area, wish the weather were a little warmer...it seems to hover around 60 to 63 degrees but rainy and damp. Just keeping the jacket and scarf on!

Colmar...pretty as a picture

Colmar has a canal system all the way through the town.

15th century building in downtown Colmar.

Market day in Colmar, the vegetables are beautiful

Anothe 15th century building, built by the butcher, his likeness is at the top

Floor the bus driver.

For all of you that went to Italy with us, think Kastelroot with a french twist. We are in Colmar, a sleepy french town very close to Germany. They love sauerkraut and sausage! We got here right at dark, we hit rush hour traffic in Strasbourg and that put our driver, Floor over his alotted time to drive so we had to spend 30 minutes at an autogrill. Floor is Danish and he speaks impeccable english but his eye sight must be bad, he thinks Dar looks like George Clooney! Stop laughing!

This is a town of about 70,000 people with a strong german influence. Many streets that are pedestrian only and the coolest thing is, there is a cathedral in the center of town that chimes on the hour...we can hear it from the hotel!
Had a great dinner, Tom licked his plate clean...seriously. We have been asked a few times to recount the story of the family trip to Italy...no one can believe it...from Caleb to Pop and that we had 24 friends and family that wanted and could spend 19 days together! Which always makes me homesick. Hope you are all doing well and missing us as much as we miss you!
Tomorrow sounds great...we take a tour of the town, hit the local museum and then tour the wineries in the area in the afternoon. Nothing like a nice walk with fresh air, a taste of good art and incredible wine...should be a great day!

Verdun and WWI

The sanctuary at Verdun

The graves of over 10,000 French WWI soldiers

The dormitory in the fort at Verdun, each bed can sleep 5 guys. They didn't use straw beds, they encouraged lice and bed bugs.

The gun turret at the fort.

Me on the bus.

Today was a fairly sobering day. We stopped at the WWI monument in Verdun. Pull out your history books, this was a long time ago, 1914 to 1917. A serbian killed a duke of Prussia and all hell broke lose! Because of all the alliances, the whole of Europe started fighting. Sounds like the French were spoiling for a war anyway, they had lost the Alsace region and the Loire valley to Germany within 50 years of this event and they wanted it back. Get some hot heads from Russia and Serbia in it, stir in some of the Brits because they were friends with the French and you have a mess of trouble. I am not sure when the US joined but we added our two cents sometime too. The conditions were horrible, millions of lives were lost in the Verdun area. We learned about hand to hand combat and livin/fighting in trenches. We saw a french fort that Germans took over for about 3 months...I have no idea how anyone could live in this fort...there were four levels, all underground. Cold, damp and absolutely no water to drink and very little provisions. Such a contrast with today and our drones, humvees and technology...To say that this was sobering is really under rating it...we saw bones of 130,000 men and boys all buried together because they were not sure who or where they came from. It took almlost ten years to compplete the monument, gather the bones from the battle field and put them in their final burial place. So tonight, when you say your prayers, thank God for America, for living in the 21st century and for all the prior generations that sacrificed their lives for us and our freedom!

Reims, a hidden gem



Lunch at l'atmosphere in Reims, salad and wine!



Front of the Cathedral

The top rosette was saved before the cathedral was bombed in WWI. The only original stained glass left.

The view of the cathedral from behind

Above the entry to the catedral

We spent today walking through Reims. A fairly large city, 200,000 population but it has the feel of a smaller town. This city took a big beating during WWI. Over 80% of the buildings in the city were hit during the war. The town has been rebuilt through donations from the likes of Rockefller, Carnegie and UNESCO. The cathedral is spectacular. Gothic, very tall with wonderful statues. All the stain glass blew out during the war, it was hit over 300 times with bombs, shrapnel, etc. The new stain glass is so unique and beautiful. Really a hidden gem.

We spent most of the afternoon at a champagne tasting. We tasted 5 different champagnes and learned a few important things about champagne. 1) champagne is made with 3 different grapes. Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot minure. 2) The champagne region in France has very strong controls over the production even to the point of not allowing them to irrigate. 3) this is important and Brandon you must listen to this...Champagne is bottled at the point when it should be drank. Champagne does not improve with age. It should be drank within 3 years tops of bottling.
So Bran, have a party and enjoy that Dom!

We leave tomorrow for the Alsace region but first we must try more champagne!

Travel from Paris to Reims

Monument in downtown Reims

A restored building in Reims, 80% of the buildings were destroyed in WWII

A view of the cathedral in Reims

side view of the Cathedral in Reims

Did laundry this morning in Paris...quite nice really..clean and pretty quick. our camera bit the dust...wouldn't you know. Dar and Tom took off and tracked down a new one...it has a European plug and all the instructions are in french...again the Rick Steves book comes in handy for translation of the directions!
We road a high speed train here...great landscapes and scenery... Rolling hills and lots of wooded areas. We walked around the town, seems Reims is not only known for champagne but also the treaties for WWI were signed here...lots and lots of history. met with the group at 5:00 and then had dinner. We are the young kids on the tour...that's the way I like it, makes me feel young!
Tomorrow we see the town and historical sites...afternoon champagne tasting!
Until tomorrow!

Versaille and those damn wake up calls

Overslept again...the front desk did not give us our wake call but Tom and Cilla did. Woke up to a light knock and a sweet Bonjour. I responded thank you...heard a giggle and Tom bellowing wake up! It was 9:30 and we had asked for an 8:00 wake up call! We flew around and managed to make it down to the lobby at about 10:15...there went our early departure for Versaille. We rode the subway for the first time today...pretty much like the Italian trains. We got to Versaille at about noon...the same time 28,000 half marathoners got there from Paris! It was a zoo...took us an hour and a half to get in the front door to the Chateau. And we also had to endure a rain storm (thank goodness for my new raincoat).
 My God those French Kings lived lavishly...bought a book because it was so over the top. The gardens are spectacular! We returned at about 5:00, had a snack and then took the bus to Montmarte and the church, Sacre Couer. We got there at dusk and as we went through the chapel the lights of the city came on...breath taking church on top of the hill and the city spread out before us twinkling. It was lovely. We all wish we had more time to explore Paris...we must come back!
Tomorrow we do laundry in the morning and then we are off to Reims(they pronounce it like you have something in your throat and then say "ance"). We have a high speed train at 1:00.

The rench Raffetto's and French Chaffin's at Versaille

The Raffetto's kissing french style

The Chaffins enjoying the view

A portion of the gardens at Versaille

The fountain in the gardens at Versaille

Entrance gate at Versaille

View of a small portion of the west gardens at Versaille

Having a ball...weather very cool and a little rainy. Cilla and I might need to visit a store or two, she didn't pack warm enough! Yahoo, I love having a shopper with me!

Saturday anniversary Dinner

You know how each time we travel we seem to meet a character or two that goes down in our travel journal as the quinessential "italian" or in this case "Parisien"? We met him last night...he was our waiter at the restaurant, Leo li Leon. This little restaurant is about a block from our hotel and Louise the receptionist said that every person she has sent there has never been disappointed...and we are no different.
From the moment he took our coats at the door he was something to watch. We have a very hard time reading french and he put the menu...all 3 by 4 ft of it on the edge of our table. We pulled out the rick steves dictionary and none of the words were there...I think we had that look on our face and the waiter, let's call him Jacque, told us to relax (very parisienny) and then he walked away.
We laughed and about 5 minutes later he told us in pretty good english what the menu was and then he took our wine order. We asked him to pick it..he did wonderful! Bordeaux all the way!

Tom, Priscilla and Jacques the waiter

The four of us having our Anniversary dinner

Strawberries with balsamic vinegar and whipped creme

Tom's dessert, something floating

Chocolate souffle

We started to order, he let us know that he wanted to know each of our starters, then each of our entrees. It went well until Tommy ordered lamb. Jacque asked him medium or well done, Tom said well, and Jacque had the funniest look on his face...a cross between a wrinkled nose and a bad taste and he even put his index finger against his nose...Tom got the hint and recanted the well done to medium. Jacque told him good choice, I actually think he giggled and off he went. We had a fantastic meal, hands down Dar had the best, prawns and risotto. We closed the place down at midnight and Jacque kissed us good-bye. Again we say that we have not met a rude Parisienne.

The Louvre, the Orsay and Saint Chapelle

We started the day out one hour late...the good news is, Tom and Cilla were later than we were. We had agreed to meet at 8:00 for breakfast. I woke up, thinking it was very early so I checked Dar's watch...8:15! We scrambled to get ready, couldn't figure out the phone so Dar took off at 8:45 to meet Tom and Cilla for breakfast and apologize for our delay. When I got there 10 minutes later Dar was having breakfast by himself...Turns out Tom and Cilla woke up at 8:45. We regrouped at 9:30, they ate breakfast, we exchanged currency and purchased train tickets to Reims for Monday and then we were off to view Museums.

The french Raffetto's and Chaffin's outside the Louvre. Notice we now have black berets.

The Mona Lisa

Venus De Milo

Beautiful ancient greek statues

The winged Lady

The rose window of St. Chapelle

Our Rick Steves book came in real handy at the Louvre...we avoided the crowds and went in a side entrance...We saw the 3 great pieces of art, the Mona Lisa, the Venus de Milo and the winged lady...can't remeber her name right now, Tom has my tour book. We had lunch and took off for the Orsay. Kind of disappointed, they are renovating and a lot of their collection is on loan while that is happening. We saw some Van Gogh, Cezanne, Gauguin, Renoir and Degas.
We then went to Saint Chapelle to see the stain glass. We were almost the last people they let in...matter of fact Dar didn't get in...he made a stop at the toilettes and they closed the door in front of him! That is another story that can wait until we get home but we did learn something...take extra toilet paper with you at all times! Heading out for dinner in about an hour! Another great day in the beautiful city of Paris!

Food parisien style

Tom eating his gelato, all FIVE flavors

Dinner the first night in Paris, we are very tired!

One of many flower shops on the Rue Cler

Candy lips in the display case in the Chocolate shop in the lobby of Hotel du Cadran

Breakfast room in hotel

In case some of you don't know, Tom is on his own mission to eat his way across France...pretty much the same thing he did in Italy! Dar and I on the other hand intend to come back much more knowledgable about French wine. I think Cilla is easy enough to help all three of us meet our goals!
Today we ate lunch at one of those typical Parisien outside restaurants. Dar, the guy who knows no strangers (remind me to tell you about his new friend he met on the airplane...an elderly gentleman from Paris) started talking to the woman next to him and pretty soon we had recommendations for tomorrows dinner! Tom ate steak and then proceeded to have, and I am not lying, a half gallon of gelato for dessert! Good thing we walked to the Eiffel Tower and then up to the second floor!
Did I mention there is a chocolate shop in the lobby of our hotel? My God the chocolates are too beautiful to eat...i will take pictures!
After walking a great deal with the very goal of just trying to stay awake all day, we succumbed to another beautiful outdoor cafe for dinner. Fantastic food...and really good wine! Dar is sound asleep and I am not far from it. Our first day in France has been more than we had ever hoped for. We were blessed with wonderful beauty, great people and pretty good weather! Off to bed...until tomorrow...arrividerci!