Alsace

2 June - 8 June

We took trains to Mulhouse from Lyon, and spent the night in Mulhouse camping ground, familiar to us already. Off on bikes next morning. Which is where this year's blog begins.

The trip Up north but Down the Rhine on the French side is at this stage largely through agricultural land, combined with the back streets of towns and villages. An interesting mix. Maize, maize and more maize, much as it was in Brittany last year. Also wheat, barley, hybrids of one or the other (we can't decide), a bit of canola, some sunflowers, market gardens - silver beet, carrots, beans, peas, asparagus, potatoes, cabbage...at least for starters. 

This is country that Vauban designed defences for, so we had to stay the night at Neuf-Brisach, a fortified town with brilliant, totally-Vauban ramparts, ditches and the rest built between 1698 and 1703 - the 'ideal town' of the times, which is on UNESCO's World Heritage list. The camping ground is just outside the outer defences and we could easily walk into the centre, where there was a museum with a cool model of the original fort/ town. As for us, we had our own fort in the camping ground, with a sleeping floor, a shaded table underneath and a ladder upstairs. There were two electric points, LED lighting across the top of the 'tent' inside, lighting for the table and all for €5 more than a tent site. There was also coffee for €1.00 and reasonably-priced beer at reception. Stayed 2 nights...

A second Vauban excursion occurred further north, where we followed 'deviation' signs that didn't follow through and we ended up by accident, but happily, at Fort St Louis. It is as recently as 2008 that the defining edges of the ramparts have been cleared away and you can now clearly see the outer shape of the fort. The interior is a sort of sports ground. We biked right to the edge of the Rhine, looking over to Germany, then found our way back to the deviation, around it, and on with the route north.

Germany is on the other side!

Meanwhile, further south, we moved on through agricultural land and small towns and villages, some with excellent pastry shops, where you can sit down with a coffee and some of the wares ( often savoury flans) for a reasonable price. We deviated to see the Maginot line memorial - not a lot to see but good to actually see, since we were brought up with the Maginot Line, this line of defence for WW2, designed to defend France from the east, along the borders of Italy, Germany and Belgium. A complex of large concrete bunkers with store houses, ammunition, sleeping quarters and extensive underground tunnels, unable to fulfill its purpose, since Hitler came into Paris through Belgium, not actively defended, as they were a neutral country. We kept coming across these concrete structures alongside the cycle path - there are over 2000 in Alsace. A huge undertaking but in the end, strategic nonsense.

Strasbourg was a highlight, as we stayed there for a Sunday morning and visited the cathedral during the morning service prior to ordination of priests in the afternoon. The choir's singing was a dream, there were a number of priests in their festive robes, and the cathedral was imposing even to seasoned cathedral visitors. The other thing that really struck us was the number of cycles. just everywhere. Our hotel (modest, shared facilities) was very near the station and the area was filled with bikes. These are additional to those parked under cover, both near the station and 500 metres on, where we parked our bikes in a secure, video-monitored, manned bike park covering a large area, for free. Bikes are everywhere, as are places where they can park. Streets are given over to bikes, bikes and buses, bikes and pedestrians, in a way which seems to work. We liked it.

The last place in Alsace before you cross the border into Karlsruhe is called Lauterbourg and it features on the signposts for many kilometres. By the time you get there it seems as if more people are speaking German than French and the architecture is either extremely Alsatian or plainly Germanic. The campsite is beautifully situated on a  river bank and people pay for access to a 'beach' area. Not our sort of beach but we did have access, had we wanted it. Luckily they had a few specialities available as we got there somewhat late and tired. Nothing that a beer and a local 'flamed tart' ( almost a variety of pizza) couldn't cure! Oh, I think ice cream also featured that evening...

Lautersbourg - our last campsite before Germany

Map here (can't download it onto the blog):  Alsace map