Plus conduire, Metz, Luxembourg et chambre d’hôte

Gare de Metz

Aujourd’hui (28 avril), je suis allé à Luxembourg.  Il est environs 60 kms nord de Metz vers l’autoroute. Avant, j’ai marche autour de la centre-ville Metz.  Les bâtiments de cite était très grande, dans le style d’Allemagne pour la plupart.  J’ai mangé un petit déjeuner lequelle était très bon, mais simple comme mes amis avait eu au Marche Français samedi matin. 

Luxembourg

Luxembourg était un surpris ; une ville ancienne situe dans une vallée et la ville moderne est au-dessus sur un escarpement. Je m’ai amusé marcher autour la ville ancienne. 

Presque j’ai été dans Luxembourg, je suis allé un magasin qu’il vend des choses pour la cuisine.  J’ai vu une série des poêles par Tefal qui était demi -prix.  En NZ ils auront été deux fois le prix au prix normal en Luxembourg. Je les ai acheté !

Une eglise ancienne

Ce soir j’ai reste à une chambre d’hôte à Montauville près Nancy.  Monsieur parle français et Allemagne mais ne pas Anglais. Je dois parler français maintenant.  Il devrait aider mon confiance parler français.

La Moselle a Pont a Mousson

Aussi, ce soir j’ai mangé au Restaurant le Petit Gourmandin à Pont à Mousson.  Le restaurant a recommandé par le propre de Chambre d’hôte.  Le repas a été très bon.  Premier, j’ai manage les demi-douzaines d’escargots de bourgogne, puis j’ai mangé un fricassée rognons de veaux aux champignons.  Il a été très gout.  Finalement j’ai mangé un nem du chocolat sur la recommandation de serveuse.  

Yesterday I had a quick walk around Metz.  It was a grey misty morning with a bit of drizzle.  An interesting city in that it is a mixture of Germanic and French styles, not surprising since it was part of Germany for a while.  They built the train station in the early 1900’s and it is really immense as you can see from the photo. 

I had a very nice breakfast, light and in the French style. 

I then headed for Luxembourg.  It is only about 60 kms from Metz up the motorway.  No tolls!! It took me a couple of circuits of the city of Luxembourg to find a place to park and eventually found a parking building.  It has been interesting being a new city regularly because you have to do everything slowly yet all the signs are set up infrequently and I think assume that one has a working knowledge of some sort of the city and only need a small reminder.  That is because the sign makers see, naturally, the city from their knowledge of it, not from the perspective of a stranger.  Hence you make a decision too late because you have just seen the sign and cause mayhem to the traffic behind.

The city seems to comprise two parts, the old part in the valley below and the newer part on the escarpment above.  Both have their charms.  I spent a pleasant couple of hours walking the streets looking.  The city is a bit schizophrenic, there are signs in French and German, and then some with English added.  Even the populous seem to speak several languages as I heard more English spoken than I have for quite a while.  French though is the primary language.  The other thing was that I thought it was really only a city like Monaco but it does seem to have some countryside as well.

While walking I popped into this shop that seemed to sell everything from electronics to kitchen ware and saw a couple of Tefal frying pans at half price which is about quarter the price I think I would have paid in NZ.  So not wanting to miss a bargain I bought them.  Heavens knows how I am going to fit them in my bag but I will worry about that later. Now all I need is a lid for them.  There was a deep one that had a lid and I almost got that one too.

I had decided to stay at a Chambre d’hote for the night and had searched out a couple on the internet and so headed for it.  I was lucky enough to find it, through some persistence.  They are a nice couple who are trying to do things environmentally.  The room was very nice and they only spoke French so I have been forcing myself to speak it and to ask questions.  I think they understood what I have been saying. 

Last night I went out for dinner to a restaurant they recommended.  It was very good food and there was even 20% off the price.  The restaurant was humming clearly the price reduction worked because the one across the road was virtually empty.  I had escargot, a fricassee of veal kidneys with mushrooms and on the recommendation of the waitress a nem du chocolat which was very rich and consisted of chocolate in a pastry case that was fried.  It was stunning and very rich.  The waitress was adorable and had this wonderful smile as described how much she liked the dish. 

Today I am off to Verdun and Nancy.

Chercher de camp de concentration , faire de menage, un fort et Metz

Watch towers Natzwillerp-Struthof

On Tuesday I went looking for the Natzwiller-Stuthof Concentration Camp.  Its location was not in my Navman and the resolution of my Northern France map was not good enough either, all I had were some roads to take and apparently some signs.  I knew the road I had to take was from Obernai and I assumed the Camp would be on the flat somewhere near the Rhine so I went east along the right road.  Could not have been more wrong!  Eventually after seeing a good part of the area around Obernai I tried another tourist guide and finally saw where it was.  It was in fact in the middle of the Vosges.  So up a few hills and after more wrong turns I finally found it.  The camp is the only Concentration Camp on French soil, although the Nazi’s of course believed that Alsace was part of Germany anyway.  It was where many French people, and others, ended their lives after being worked to death in a quarry for pink stone that Albert Speer wanted for his buildings. There were also a number of executions carried out.  The number killed there is around 15,000. What I did not realise was that this was not an extermination camp like Auschwitz although death was a likely outcome if you came to such a place.

The camp is still surrounded by barbed wire and the watch towers that were there over sixty years ago.  One of the barracks where the prisoners slept housed the museum and it was chilling reminder to get sense of the inhumanity that fellow human beings can have to one another.  The crematorium was still there along with the medical facility where several doctors would carry out experiments on prisoners using typhus and other particularly nasty gases etc. then dissect them.  There was a room for gassing prisoners to death which was done to meet the needs of the Nazi University in Strasbourg.  They even had a room for executing prisoners where the blood could drain away.  Such institutionalisation of death is almost beyond comprehension.  In another barrack there were the punishment cells and a rack on which they got beaten.

I sometimes wonder whether it is good to keep such reminders particularly since I come from far away where we were spared such awful things.  It reminded me that as a child growing up how much of WW2 hung over us.  Friends’ fathers had been to war and the comic we read were about the heroics of the allies.  At the same time we were informed about the atrocities and the murderous regime of the Nazis.  For me it is like seeing first-hand the reality of what those men and women who were caught and put in concentration camps had to endure.  They were really brave; particularly the partisans and those who worked against the regime.  Knowing that if they were caught that a life of hell or death awaited them did not deter.  It made me wonder whether our present policy makers have ever thought about the effectiveness of prison.

Place Kleber for drinks and protest

It was quite late by the time I had wandered around the camp so I headed back to Strasbourg as I wanted to get a 3G dongle so that when I did not have access to the internet through my accommodation I would still have it.

I went to a SFR store as they seemed to have the best and easiest deal (part of Vodafone I think) and asked for the prepayee 3G cle.  No, they did not have one I was told in French.   I went away for a bit and then thought I had better find out some more and explained in French that I had seen on the internet that they had them available .  Yes they do I was told but not at that store and to go the store in centre-ville and they should have them.  So I did, and they did but the guy kept talking to me in English rather than doing it in French.  Never mind! 

Afterwards I had a beer outside in the warmth of the late setting sun.  Just as I was peaceably having my beer there was an eruption a couple of tables away from a woman who then screeched away in French about something I could not make out.  The servers took it very calmly got their money and she headed off still screeching away about some injustice.

Yesterday morning was my last.  I spent the morning cleaning the flat and finishing my packing.  The proprietor came around about 11am and we had a brief chat about the apartment which he was happy about.  He is a policeman in Kayserberg about 70 kilometres south of Strasbourg.

I called in at IKEA which was not far away from the apartment (if driving).  What an amazing place.  We do not have anything like it in New Zealand.  The quality is quite good and you basically get anything for the home you can think of, from kitchens to other household furniture.  One of the things I noticed is that the design is superb, in a way that I don’t think that we do it in NZ.  For instance the chairs one might get for a lounge are not the big chunky things we seem to only be able to buy but much more elegant and less imposing. 

Tunnel in fort

Leaving Strasbourg I headed for one of the Maginot Line forts.  Fort de Schoenenburg near Hunspach.  It was a subterranean rabbit warren and I must walked a two or more kilometres looking around at the engineering but also at what had last been used about 71 years ago. 

It was getting late and I wanted to get to Metz so I decided to take the motorway, an hour less in time than taking the non-tolled roads.  It was an interesting and fast road.  It was so much easier doing it this little C3 than the petrol engined Fiat I had last time I was here.  It roared along at 130km an hour without too much fuss. At one point the heavens opened and there was flash flooding on the roads and I had to really slow down or I would have been aquaplaning.  It would have been really nice to have been driving my Golf on these roads. In NZ we don’t get a chance to really open out the car.  I must say though that cars are travelling slower than they were even 18 months ago.

In Metz I found a hotel that had been recommended in Lonely Planet guide, and got the last room because some person had not returned after saying they were going to take it. It is small but comfortable.  I had a more expensive dinner than usual including a crème brulee which was a disappointment because they had split the custard. 

Today I am going to look around Metz and then perhaps go north into Luxembourg or into Germany and the Moselle river area. 

Conduite, Allemagne, le Rhin et Massif des Vosges

Hier (24 avril) je suis alle a Haut Koenigsbourg vers Bergheim.  Château Koenigsbourg était le point fort.  J’aime les vieux châteaux forts parce qu’il y a toujours une impression d’histoire quand on a explore dans eux.

Quand j’ai essayé partir le château j’ai eu un peur car je n’ai pas trouvé ma voiture.  Il y avait beaucoup de voiture a bord la rue et il n’a pas été ou j’ai crois que je  se l’aie gare.  Pour une minute j’ai pensé qu’il a volé. Finalement, je suis marche un peu plus loin et il y l’avait !  Tel soulagement !!!

Part de Chateau Haut Koenigsbourg

J’ai visité une belle ville Ribeauville mais la batterie de l’appareil-photo fini donc j’ai revenu mon appartement.

Aujourd’hui (25 avril) j’ai conduit beaucoup de kilomètres, d’abord je suis allé à Neuf-Brisach une ville forte par l’architecte Vauban.  Il est très intéressante parce les fortifications compris était octogonal parfait. 

Cute - Ribeauville

Suivant, J’ai passé la frontière de France et Allemagne à Breisach.  Presque j’ai été là, il y a eu une protestation contre la puissance de nucléaire. J'ai marche à cote de Rhin.  Le fleuve est très grand!

J’ai visité Munster ou j’ai vu les cigognes dans leurs nids.  Puis j’ai conduit un part de Crêtes des Vosges avant visitant un autre belle ville, Kaysersberg. 

Je suis « stuffed ».

Yesterday (24 April), I went to Bergheim for a quick look around which is a small but important village in the wine business.  It was on the route to my main visit which was to Chateau Haut Koenigsberg which overlooks a number of villages high on one of the hills.  It was very windy route to get there and when I got there, there were cars everywhere trying to park.  I took a risk and headed with the car further up the hill and as luck would have it there was a spare place.  Because of the slowness of the traffic it had taken quite a while to even get to the point wehre I parked.  There was a nice heart pumping walk to the Chateau.  The Chateau is quite something.  It was a ruin at end of the 19^th century and the Kaiser, who was in possession of Alsace at that time decided he wanted to  do something impressive and so got a renowned restoration architect of the time to restore the Chateau to what it might have been like in 16^th century or thereabouts.  The work was completed around 1908 and it is a real gem.  It is not overdone.  There are period pieces of furniture, and of course the usual armour and axes and swords for hacking people to death as they seemed to do frequently in those times.  The whole restoration took about 8 years and used some advanced technology for the times.  During the time I was there my battery decided it was about to go flat!! So not many photos for me to look at which is probably a relief because the size of the place means that you have to be in a plane to get any sense of it as a whole.

Kayserberg

When I have finished savouring the history I wandered back down the hill to get the car to go on my way.  I had stomach churning moment of fear when I could not find the car where I thought I had left it.  I walked a few hundred metres up and down the hill trying to find it.  I thought I knew where it was but it turned out that it was parked further down the hill than I thought.  I was consciously trying to think of how I would tell the rental car company in French that I thought it was stolen, and then having to tell the Gendarmerie the same thing.  It would really have tested my French to the limits.  It was with some relief that I found it when I walked quite a bit further down the hill.

The next visit was a pretty village called Ribeauville which I quickly walked around thinking I probably will come back as was very nice but I had no battery and I had been through enough self-imposed stress with  thinking the car had been stolen.

Today (25 April), I went to another fortified village called Neuf-Brisach which is a rather unique fortification consisting of a revolutionary idea in the 17^th century by an architect Vauban.  It consists of a series of octagonal ditches and fortifications.  It was most interesting but best seen from the air I think, which is where all the pictures have been taken from.

As I was so near its namesake on the other side of the Rhine I decided to go across.  I then remembered that I had virtually no German, except as I drove into Germany a few words came to mind such as danke, bitte and few others.  It was very nice little place right beside the Rhine.  In fact it seems that at this part of the Rhine it is quite modified for electricity generation and there are locks for boat to go through.  While I was wondering around I noticed that there was a protest going on over the bridge which I think was against nuclear power.  Both French and German people were protesting with the usual chants that I could not quite hear,   I had lunch there and fortunately the waitress spoke French (fluently of course).  So at least I could order my meal of pork schnitzel (I am in Germany) which was very nicely done. 

Le Rhin - Breisach

I noticed quite difference walking around Breisach, it was slightly quieter as there were very few rattly diesels which is the noise of France’s streets.  I saw the price of fuel at a station there and it was easy to figure out why.  Petrol was around €0.88 ($1.65) litre and diesel was €1.45 ($2.80) a litre whereas in France diesel is about the same price or a bit cheaper whereas petrol is around €1.65 ($3.20).  The economics of petrol in Germany make sense on that basis.  The other interesting thing for me was that the Germans tended to drive bigger cars on the whole, perhaps a reflection of both being a wealthy country and having cheaper fuel than their neighbour.  These are just impressions and I could be wrong!!

Cigogne (storks) Munster

Next on the journey was Munster where I got to see a few nesting storks, then a drive through the Vosges on route called Cretes des Vosges, and then dropping down to another picture postcard village called Kayserberg.   I had a light meal of a Flamme Tarte which is very much like a pizza but with a very flat crispy base.  It was very nice sitting out in the warm air served by a waiter who was very bored and just wanted to talk to his friends. 

Un marche, l’asperge et une ruine

Ce matin, je suis allée centre-ville.  Il y a un Marché de Producteurs chaque samedi par la rivière lequelle j’ai souhaité visiter. Abord, je suis allé un libraire chercher un livre pour ma petite fille.  Malheureusement je ne l’ai pas cherché malgré que j’aie demande une agente m’aide.

Les fleurs (pour Janet)

La marche de producteurs était petite.  Il y avait beaucoup de nourriture et quelque fleurs (pour Janet).  Les producteurs ont vendu des fromages, viandes, poules, légumes, poissons, et les fruites.  Une tourte semblait si bien que je l’aie acheté.  Il est une tourte aux pleurotes.  J’ai hâte de le manger.  Aussi, j’ai acheté du fromage de vache et quelque légumes. 

Apres je les ai emporté chez moi, j’ai continué mon exploration d route du vin.  Je suis allé à Dambach-la-Ville ou j’ai trouvé un restaurant (la vignette) pour déjeuner.  J’ai manage asperges d’Alsace dans un sauce avec jambon.  Il y avait les pommes aussi. Il était très simple mais il a goute très bon. 

Mon repas

Presque, j’ai été là beaucoup des randonnées arrivent devant le restaurant, plupart jeunes avec quelque adultes.  Ils ont porté un uniforme qui a fait ressembler un groupe d’adolescent de 1930s en Allemagne.  Il était les shorts !  Je pense qu’ils ont fait une forme de «orienteering ».   Apres déjeuner j’ai acheté deux bouteille de vins a Beck le Domaine du Rempart, une bouteille de riesling et une bouteille de gewürztraminer.    Ils sont très bons !

Au-dessus Dambach-la-Ville il y a la ruine de Château du Bernstein.  J’ai décidé randonner le sentier a la ruine.  Il m’a pris 35 minutes monter la colline à la ruine.  La vue qu’il la valait.  J’ai explore la ruine avant retourne à ma voiture.

C’est tout pour ce soir.   Je ne suis pas sûr de quelque de la grammaire. 

I had a busy day on Saturday.  First there was a farmers market that I wanted to go to in Strasbourg and then there was my continuing exploration of the wine villages of Alsace.

Jazz band

I walked into Strasbourg centre-ville as parking is a nightmare and I like the exercise.  I could probably take a bus but the walk is nice.  After a look in the book shop for a book for Sophie and asking for help which was forthcoming but did not help me find the book I wanted.  The market was small but was only food that was produced I think locally.  There were vegetables that were mostly seasonal, fish, meat, cheeses from Vache, and cooked food.  I got a mushroom pie which looked really nice and used pleurote mushrooms.  There were even these beautiful flowers available.  Nearby there was a jazz band playing wonderful music. 

I made my purchases and after dropping them at the apartment I headed out to Dambach-la-Ville which was recommended in Lonely Planet.  Emily took me on a long drive through the suburbs and then put me on the motorway.  I think there has been a new piece built since the map I have was done.  Never mind I saw a bit of the country side I did not expect to see. 

Vines @ Dambach-la-Ville

At Dambach-la-Ville I found a restaurant, probably the only one that was open, and ordered Asperges avec jambon.  It was very nice, with a roux sauce.  It was simple but tasty.  I had a glass of gewürztraminer with it, which was superb.  I must say that I am enjoying the gewürztraminers.  They are far less intense than the ones that we get in New Zealand.  The flavour goes well with the food that I have been eating. 

While I was eating all these people in blue and brown uniforms wearing tramping boots appeared.  I must say it reminded me of times past in Germany with the youth.  They were mostly young, in their teens with a few adults around as well.  It seemed that they were doing some form of orienteering.  It is a nice area in which to do such activity.  As an aside I do notice a lot of people out exercising.  There are runners, lots of people on bikes whether around Strasbourg or on the very narrow country roads.  Cars seem to be very tolerant and patient when they come across cyclists, giving way to them.  There are also bike lanes on the busier roads. 

While in Dambach-la-Ville I saw an old castle on the hill and found that it was called Chateau de Bernstein.  I went looking for the road to get to the path that would take me up to it.  After a few false attempts I found the road and then hiked up the hill.  It was a good workout but worth the effort for the view.  My ankle, remarkably, held up to the rigours although I nearly managed to do the other one in.  The path was interesting as you could see the effects of so many people making their way up the path.  It was well worn.  The forest I went through was oak and I think this is one of the oaks that they use for barrels for storing wine before bottling it.  The oaks were all quite small and I happened to see one that had been recently felled and a quick estimate from the rings I would think it was 40 years old but comparable in diameter to one of our pines of ten years perhaps. 

Not the Chateau but its mate.

The castle is a ruin, but a maintained one.  It was built in the 13^th century and fought over many times according to the information sign near it. 

I am always amazed at how these structures have survived for so many years and also the ability to build these high structures.  I bet they did not have health and safety in those times. 

Emily then took me back to the apartment!