Today was Jenny’s birthday and she had picked out a French town, Eguisheim, to visit as it reported to be one of “the” places to see. On the outskirts of the town were several aires and we easily found a place to park within 10 minutes’ walk of the old town. It was quite a warm day and after spending the morning wandering the streets and taking in the sights we had lunch in a restaurant with a three course menu for the day. There were two choices for each dish and we chose one of each to get some variation. The meal was delicious accompanied by some wine and when we had finished we strolled back to the “Bunyip” where we spent a lazy afternoon and evening in the aire near the village.

The village was indeed picturesque and everywhere you looked there were quaint houses and streets. Flowers were everywhere even on the walk into town the flowerboxes were full, they must have had an army of gardeners. It was a very pretty town and deserved its reputation as one of the pretties in France.

This is not the first time that Jenny has had her birthday in France, two years ago we strolled through Monet’s Garden and stayed near Paris.

Colmar
Saturday 25th July 2015

After a quiet night in the Aire at Eguisheim it was only a short drive in the morning to the town of Colmar. Near to the centre on one of the streets there is an area specifically set aside for motorhomes, you just have to love the French they are the most motorhome friendly country in the world. We parked up, paid a couple of euros in the parking machine and headed into town.

We found the tourist information office and they gave us a map with a walking route on it together with descriptions of the things that were numbered as we went. The map was not as straight forward as some we have used and we could see other people who were also having difficulty.

We managed to get around and found ourselves at the covered market where we had a typical French lunch of a baguette with and éclair for desert. Further along from the market was little Venice which is the most picturesque part of the town. Here we took plenty of photos and while doing so saw a rat like creature in the canal swimming and eating crumbs that the people in the restaurant were throwing in the water, not sure what it really was!! We had spent nearly five hours in the town and we headed off to our next destination staying overnight in an aire near the town of Remiremont.

Sunday – lazy day

It was a slow start and after we showered and wash some clothes we headed to the nearest McDonalds to use their wifi, having lunch in the van while uploading some photos. We are having some problems with the sim card as it will not hotspot to the computer. The afternoon was spent driving through some country roads for about 70 kms before finding our place for the night, a French Passion place.

If you want to know what French Passions are, click on the link HERE.
The people were not home but the places were clearly defined and we parked up in their back yard with a lovely view of a pond, the rain started so we both settled down for a nap for a while. When they arrived they were very pleased to see us and took our photo in front of the “Bunyip” as a souvenir, they gave us their visitors book to fill in as well as some information about the area.
It was a quiet night as the place was on the edge of town on a few acres with a garden that included a pond.

Monday – Chocolat Town

We drove through the back roads with our destination being Flagivny–sur-Ozerain. This village was on Jenny’s wish list as it is where the film Chocolat was made. We arrived late in the afternoon and it was very quiet with only a few tourists walking around. It is not a big place and it took us an hour to see the village and especially the facade that was used as the chocolate shop in the film. It was a pretty village and we will have to get the movie and Ewout can see the places where Johnny Depp and Juliett Binoche filmed Chocolat.