Turkheim 7-8 Oct 15

Leaving Colmar we stopped at the huge Wolfberger cave to have a look around and a tasting. We ended up buying a few boxes! We then moved onto Turkheim and decided against staying on the aire as the site was only a few euro more using an ACSI card. It was great sitting outside feeding the very tame storks that wander around quite happily. We had a wander around Turkheim and visited the very interesting museum commemorating the battle of Colmar in the 2nd world war. A quick glass of excellent Gewürztraminer and Riesling in the café, then back to the van for dinner. At 10pm we joined the night-watchman on his rounds of the town - an interesting experience but we understood little of what he was saying.  

We liked the site so much that we decided to stay another night and do some washing. We had, however, run out of clothes pegs, so a quick dash into town to buy some more, hung out the washing, ate lunch and then a very long walk around the stunning vineyards into Niedermorschwihr, scrumped a few grapes (delicious) and bought a couple of bottles of local Gewurtz and Riesling on the way back. 

On Friday morning we bought some onions (can't get decent strong onions anywhere) in the local market before continuing our journey along the Alsace wine route. 

Colmar 5-6 Oct 15

A very short journey into Colmar, which we have been to before and thought again that it looked pretty industrial compared to the small, pretty villages elsewhere in the Alsace. That said, the centre is very pretty and we parked up in a muddy pitch on Camping d'ill, walked into town and had a very nice lunch of Rosti. We then walked...and walked...and walked, had an ice cream, had a beer and then found the small café where the Keston Cobblers Club, a band we had seen previously at the Cambridge Folk Festival, were performing. As usual, the band were superb and it was great watching them in such a small intimate setting. Unfortunately it was raining when we left and we arrived back at the campsite soaking wet and knackered after having walked around 13 miles that day.

On Tuesday the forecast was not too good, so we walked into town again to buy a few essentials (books and new cushions for the van), visited the covered market and then, as it started to rain again, we caught the bus back to the campsite, had lunch and then wandered back across to the massive hypermarket for groceries. As for the site - tired, muddy but popular with a constant stream of units arriving and departing. We should have stayed on the aire.

Kaysersberg 4 Oct 15

After picking up some shopping we travelled the relatively short leg of 80 miles to Kaysersberg in the Alsace, deciding to cross the Vosges mountains rather than going through the toll tunnel. The weather had improved and the trees just starting to turn, so the views were spectacular. We stopped for lunch near the top and then descended down into Kaysersberg, spotting a very large aire next to the town. An instant decision and we decided to stop for the night, parked up and wandered into this lovely town. Having bought some new cremant glasses we decided to get something to put in them and visited a vigneron about 20 metres from where we parked. We eventually found the cellar and admired the massive, old oak barrels cheerfully fermenting away. There was no ventilation apart from the door that we came in and the vigneron was puffing like a grampus, so we bought two bottles of cremant to taste before beating a hasty retreat into the fresh air before we passed out with CO2 poisoning.

Lunch in the Vosges

Nancy 3 Oct 15

The next leg was a 120 mile hop across to Nancy where we decided to pitch up on a campsite and get into town to find a pub to watch the England v Australia game. Accordingly, we pulled up at Camping Campéole Le Brabois and Debs jumped out to rehearse her fluent French at reception. After watching her suffer for a while the owner finally admitted that he spoke perfect English as he is a Mancunian (perfect English - Mancunian?).  We settled in then took the bus into the middle of Nancy, which we found to be a very attractive and friendly city. The mayor even allowed us up on to his balcony to admire the view. As ever, we wandered around trying to find somewhere to eat from the vast choice of restaurants and cafes, but eventually found a great little bar with a very friendly owner. Unfortunately, he didn't serve food at the weekends, so we had to sprint into the main square for a pizza (very nice, but slow service) then back again to the bar to watch an awful game of Rugby and England being knocked out of the world cup. Slightly depressed, we caught the bus back and went to bed.

Champagne 2 Oct 15

To save time we zoomed down the autoroute and had a quick look at the aire in Reims. It was rammed, so we set off towards another aire at Mutigny, near Epernay. Big mistake in that we followed the satnav which took us along a route with a low bridge - 500mm lower than the van! Accordingly we had to "wing it", but eventually found the superb free aire on top of a hill overlooking the champagne vineyards.  We sat out in the sun for a while, then wandered around the stunning vineyards before retiring for a good night's kip in very peaceful surroundings.

Gravelines 1 Oct 15

Off on another tour of Europe, hopefully with an intact windscreen this time! After a quick run down to the tunnel, it was a short hop under the ditch and then parked up at the Gravelines aire for the night. Even better news was that it is now low season and the aire was half price at £2.60. We wandered into town, bought a massive lump of flan and a pot of jam, went back to the van and drank a bottle of Cremant to celebrate the start of our travels.