France 13 - Eguisheim Is Beautiful!

Sitting in the motorhome on a campsite in the beautiful village of Eguisheim, one recommended by Robbie Roames from his ‘France Road Trip’ book. And I want to start by showing you some photos of the lovely colourful buildings and cobbled streets with their quaint shops. It has been voted one of France’s 5 most beautiful villages, and I can see why.

We arrived around 2.00pm on Saturday 20th, assuming we would stop for one night, but after spending the evening in the centre last night, we extended it to another night, and as I write this part on Sunday the 21st at 4.30pm, we had decided to have a lazy day as you do on holiday and chill, do a bit of sunbathing, and not much more, maybe reading and writing and snoozing!

But things sometimes go against you, like the weather! I am writing this in the motorhome sheltering from the rain while listening to the thunder, and it is close, very close! I still don’t know why I bothered having a shower earlier, as I am now dripping sweat rather than water.

We did our sunbathing, reading, writing, and snoozing, and then the thunder started, with small drops of rain. We have never had the motorhome in this type of weather, so we decided it would be best to take the awning down and pack stuff away so nothing got soaked in what we assumed would be the impending torrential rain. But it hasn’t quite materialised from when we came inside about 40 minutes ago, and it’s a case of watching this space to see what happens with the rain.

And days later up in the Alsace region, it never did materialise; however, back to the town, it is very, very nice, and we are heading north tomorrow to see more recommendations and to take in the Alsace Valley, with nothing really planned yet again. We will just use apps and instinct along with the internet. Imagine doing this 30 years ago; we wouldn’t know where to go or where to stay.

There was a choir singing in town last night, and they seemed to sing a couple of songs and move on to another bar/restaurant area and start again, and it was good to see and hear.

As were the local storks, nesting on a town centre church, and we could see them heading off in search of food for the youngsters. Thankfully, I had my good camera with me, and I got these photos, which made up for my last attempt at photographing a wild bird! It was lovely to watch, and the stork is synonymous with the Alsace region, and I was told by a very helpful waiter that it is regarded as the symbol of the region!

He worked in the bar/restaurant Au Chateaux Fleuri, and this was the first time in these 63 years I had eaten Tarte Flambée, a specialty of the region, like the storks, and it was once again delicious. It is best described as a very thin pizza, with predominantly cheese ingredients and others like a pizza, bacon, mushrooms, and onions. And along with a local Riesling white wine and, of course, a cold lager, it was a lovely night in a beautiful town!

The weather over the last few weeks has been too warm for my liking, but then I believe there is a heatwave forecast for the UK too. It is taking its toll on the dogs, but we are keeping them as cool as we can. They like chilling out under the motorhome to keep cool; they have a cool mat and enough water at all times, and we are rarely out in the hottest part of the day to the extent I have already said, they do restrict us, but as also mentioned, we would rather have them and be restricted than not have them.

We are into week 7 tomorrow, and we had no option but to bring them; however, for those popping over for a week or two, it may be worth looking at dog sitters so that you can make the most of your time away. It’s not just the weather; as with the UK, it is entry into buildings and tourist attractions, but it’s something to consider. I can’t even take my dog to the toilet here – if I wanted to, of course!

And talking toilets - they start them young in France, though I’m not sure my nearly 5-year-old granddaughter would like to be sitting there doing her business for the world to see

This has been a very relaxing break, more so than I expected, especially with my concerns about being away from home, but I think I covered that in the ‘bricks or wheels’ story. My co-pilot and I haven’t had any bad words (well, out loud anyway.) There have been a few ‘snappy’ moments, but I didn’t think that was too bad considering we have spent over 1,000 hours non-stop in each other’s company!

Do you ever have a lazy day, when you have done nothing, but you look back and think ‘that was good?’ Well, today has been one of those days for me, and I believe the co-pilot thinks the same.

But Alsace here we come and another post will follow, but if you are down this way, please try to visit Eguisheim; you won’t be disappointed – I promise

Thanks for reading

DJ