Aujourd’hui, j’ai conduit sur la route du vin. Il est le premier route touristique en France selon aux guides en français. Afin que je trouverais les endroits en route j’ai utile mon Navman. J’ai pris le tourne faux plusieurs temps qui a eu Emily m’a dit prendre un u tourne ! J’ai visité une ville joli appeler Obernai laquelle j’ai eu déjeuner. Pour déjeuner j’ai mangé une quiche lorraine avec salade verte. Il était très bon. La quiche a eu chaud dans un four pas une micro-onde.
Apres midi, j’ai visité Mont Sainte-Odile, qui le site de couvent qu’il avait fondé dans le 8 siècle. Aujourd’hui il est un entrepris pour les touristes et les Alsacien qui font un pèlerinage. Il y a un long mur de Païen. Il avait construite par les Gallois environ 1000 ans avant J-C. J’ai randonne un sentier abord le mur. Il était très intéressant. J’ai tenté avoir une conversation avec une femme qui a mis quelque d’eau dans une bouteille d’une source d’Odile. Malheureusement, j’ai prononcé « g » comme en anglais. La femme n’a pas compris, mais son mari a compris. Il a dit qu’il goute bien. C’est assez français pour aujourd’hui !
Today is Good Friday. The apartment is on a fairly busy road so it gets a bit noisy from about 7am and doesn’t go quite until about 8 pm when it gets dark. I was wondering whether I would get my usual baguette this morning and fortunately when I looked out the window a person was emerging from the boulangerie with a baguette. A teeny sense of excitement came my way as I imagined a slightly warm baguette with apricot jam. Yum!
The weather was good again, a bit of cloud in morning. Today was to be my first real drive in the C3. I took the Navman down and then spent a little while trying to figure out how everything worked. Gone are the days when you can get into a car and quickly figure out which stick operates the indicators and which one the windscreen wipers and of course where are the lights. This car has four sticks, one each for the above described, then a very complicated one for the cruise control which required me to read the manual, in French and figure out how it worked. Then there is the other one for the on board computer. Eventually it was all figured out. I should say that from an ergonomic point of view I think the French should have looked over the border to Germany to see how it is done as my Golf was very simple to figure out and had all those functions on only two sticks and the information from the computer in front of one.
Today I decided do a bit of the Route du Vin which is tourist trail through the vineyards. I duly figured out which towns I should go to and set Emily up to tell where to go. One of the problems with a Navman is that the builders of them give you a wonderful toy which has to have maps that are regularly updated. For three weeks I was not going to update my one unless I could just rent it for a time. No such luck that is only available for a later model.
The vineyards stretch around 120 kilometres and I was do that much today as I had a walk I wanted to do. The first stop was in a little village at the beginning of the trail but it was unremarkable. The next was lovely. It is called Obernai and had the remains of the remparts when it was a walled village. I had lunch there ordering a Quiche Lorraine. It was one of the best I have had the filling was light and tasty, a bit salty from the bacon or ham and just the right size. I walked around a bit before plugging in my next destination which as Mont Sainte-Odile. There is a convent on the top of mountain (767m) and it is a bit of spiritual pilgrimage for the Alsaciens according to Lonely Planet.
The roads are quite narrow and I was keeping close to the left and trying to judge the width of a new car when I almighty bang occurred and the car bounced severely. I had hit a kerb where it sort of projected into the road. I watched a couple others do it further on.
The road to the summit was reasonably steep but the little car did easily. It is only a 1.4 diesel but has the pulling power of something in petrol much larger. I was surprised when I arrived to see so many people there. I found a park and walked up to the convent which is a major structure which is quite commercial, to the extent about the only things religious were a couple of chapels (pay a Euro to turn the lights on) and some pictures of priests and the Pope visiting. There were restaurants and a shop.
The view was wonderful. I took a walk down the hill to a spring called the Source d’Odile which is where this religious person found water. She had founded the convent in about 700AD. One couple were filling up their bottles with the water. After a few minutes I plucked up the courage to ask what it tasted it like but I managed to pronounce the “g” as in English not in French so she did not understand. The man understood but did not engage in conversation so my minor attempt at speaking today was a bit of failure.
Further along from the Convent were a number of walking trails one of them took you to a long wall of stone that had been constructed about 3000 years ago but the Celts and then rebuilt by the Romans. It was interested to see the wall which is visible in parts and to marvel at how they had carried what were rather large well shaped stones to make the wall. It was also nice to walk amongst nature and here the birds. There were lots of people out walking along the tracks which were not concreted and quite rough in places. What was noticeable is how many Germans were around and walking. I thought that it would have been about half the people. Not surprising I suppose since the border is so close.
I was pleased that I found it reasonably straight forward to drive on the right again after 18 months. I remember well the first time driving in France and being seriously fearful as the roads were so narrow. I think driving in Wellington is an aid to driving anywhere. I had one scary moment when this car seemed decide to go on my side of the road. I hit the brakes and fortunately he or she returned to their side of the road. I notice I am much slower on the roads partly I don’t know where I am going but also I am interested to see if there is anywhere I can stop to look at the country side.
While the day was nice a clear the brown haze really cut visibility so it was impossible to see Strasbourg from up high despite it only being about 40 kms away.
I still like my VW Golf to drive the best. This car is definitely better than the Fiat I had last time in France; the C3 has more power it is more economical, and feels more solid. The gears move easily into the right slot and so far I have not graunched them, which is what I did a few times with the Fiat. The suspension is a bit soft and it has a bit of understeer but overall not a bad driving experience. As I said earlier it is a pity about the poor ergonomics of the interior.
