Our initial plan was upon departure from our gite in Auvers-sur-Oise, to travel quickly via the toll road to the Alsace region; however after staying in our gite for 5 days we grew to love that area so we decided to explore more with a side trip to Giverny before heading to Alsace. Below are the details of our trip. This is a long blog post as I am trying to get caught up.

Auvers-sur-Oise, France: What a magical place this is. It is located 20 miles from Paris, but a world away from chaos in the city. We found the local produce market on arrival the first day which was just a short distance from our gite and we bought amazing produce for our visit. We quickly embraced the slower pace of life which involves walking (vs. driving) and generally just being more intentional. We were also fighting some serious jet-lag so many naps were had over our first few days of arrival in France as there is a 9 hour time difference between France and our home in Arizona. This geographic area provided much inspiration for artists such as Cezanne and Daubigny, but it is best known as the location that Vincent Van Gogh painted many of his works. We did the Artist’s Walk around town and surrounding areas which highlighted many of the locations that Van Gogh was inspired by. We also visited Chateau d’Auvers which is a fabulous Vincent Van Gogh museum. We had the museum and grounds mostly to ourselves and enjoyed learning about his life, artistic philosophies but also about his relationships with his brother, Theo, and with his fellow contemporary artists. The museum even included a large scale immersive video and graphical representation of Vincent and Theo’s relationship. It was a high quality and worthwhile museum and a great start to our road trip.

Giverny, France: Our 1^st overnight in our new van was in a parking lot in Giverny, France. Not the idyllic camping experience we had dreamed about, but it was adjacent to Monet’s House and Gardens. We slept well, cooked a couple of meals and just spent some time getting used to all of the features of our new van. We were ready bright and early the next morning so we could be one of the first customers through the gates, but it seems like many people had the same idea. In addition, tour bus after tour bus poured in before the official opening time and all of those customers were able to get (early?) entry through a group entrance. When we finally made our way into the garden it was already full of many hundreds of people.  The line to view the house was at least a hundred people long so we chose not to wait for that as having lived in Chicago for over a decade, we have seen 40+ of his works on display at the Art Institute of Chicago including the haystacks, water lilies and scenes from around Giverny. The gardens were indeed quite beautiful. We did our best to find some photo opportunities which minimized the number of people in the photos. The flowers were in bloom, the weather was lovely and all in all it was a lovely morning with a thousand of our closest friends.

Verdun, France: We jumped on the toll road and traveled for about 4 hours before arriving in Verdun, France. This location was also not originally on our itinerary. At this point travelling and driving the new van was starting to get a wee bit easier, but still a bit stressful as everything was so new and different. On the toll roads, we encountered 3 separate toll booths with large numbers of National Gendarmerie (military national police). It appeared they were randomly pulling cars from the toll lanes to the side and then checking their papers and doing complete searches of their vehicles. Twice the vehicle in front of us was selected, but we passed through. We were a bit nervous trying to explain how 2 US English-only speaking individuals own a French plated vehicle. It wasn’t until later that Tony even told me that he didn’t have hard-copy of any of our ownership paperwork and only had PDF copies on his phone.

Verdun France and the surrounding areas were heavily bombed during World War I and this area would oscillate back and forth between German and French control. The loss of life in this area was staggering. Many areas are still considered part of the “red zone” which are not able to be built on or developed. The area itself is gorgeous, with rolling hills blanketed with forests of trees. We went to the Mémorial de Verdun (a museum) which was an educational experience for us.  Our formal school education failed us as we were not well versed in WWI history and we learned a lot from this museum. The museum did not glorify war, but showed the high human cost, including lives lost, injuries, sacrifices by soldiers and their families as well as the mental toll of war. We also visited the Douaumont Ossuary which is a memorial containing the skeletal remains of soldiers who died on the battlefield during the Battle of Verdun. Tony slipped in a quick bike ride before we headed back into the city to the Underground citadel of Verdun, Parking was a bit of a challenge in this area, but we persevered and just fit in a standard parking space next to the citadel. The citadel tour involved riding in a train car while wearing virtual reality goggles on a guided tour through the underground portion of the citadel.  It was VERY cold on the ride and neither of our headsets worked well visually or acoustically, but we still enjoyed the experience nevertheless. The premise of the tour was to join a soldier who had just come back from the WWI front lines on leave as he explored the underground citadel, which is huge and included dorms, dining halls, medical clinic, office, supply rooms and gave shelter to up to 6000 soldiers at time and included 7 km of underground tunnels.

Colmar, France: We finally made it to the Alsace region and our first visited city was Colmar, France. We learned our fellow Arizona friends were in town and they were going to be in Colmar so we rearranged the order of our schedule just a wee bit to meet them in Colmar for the day. The weather was not being cooperative, so after a bit of a rain delay, we met Ginny and Benny and their friend, Cindy, for a tour of the Unterlinden Museum and a walk around Old Town. Benny was our personal Rick Steves tour guide and expertly guided us around the museum and city. The museum was housed in  a 13th-century Dominican religious sisters’ convent and  is home to the Isenheim Altarpiece by the German Renaissance painter Matthias Grünewald and also features a large collection of local and international artworks and artifacts from prehistorical through to contemporary times. Colmar has a population of 70,000 people and it is a mixture of new and old. Our tour of Old Town included seeing colorful half-timbered houses, canals and cobblestone streets. It was a lovely day spent with lovely old and a new friend. We spent the night at a city campground by the marina, which was not our favorite for its atmosphere but walkable location was appreciated.

Strasbourg, France: We headed back north in the Alsace to Strasbourg with a population of 300,000 people. As this was more of a city, we are restricted from driving in this area from an emissions standpoint so we parked at a Park & Ride at the edge of town and took the tram into the city.  The city was very busy, again even though it is shoulder season for travel. We did a self-guided audio tour of the Old Town area which guided us to all of the highlights of the city.  The cathedral was closed as we arrived during the noon-2 pm closure so we did not get to go inside. We did enjoy walking along the Grand Rue which was full of restaurants and shops. We found a great vegan bakery which served French style patisserie and also ate at a plant-based restaurant called Velicious that we found quite good. The one unsettling part of our visit to the city was that we saw 10-12 commando style military soldiers with large weapons patrolling the streets. While we enjoyed our day in Strasbourg, we would not visit again as it was a bit too big, too crowded and too touristy for our tastes.

Mont Sainte-Odile: At this point, we both realized we were well behind our proposed schedule. Everything was taking longer than expected and there was things we wanted to do that were not even on the itinerary. We decided to use the itinerary as a guide, but not follow it religiously. If we wanted to spend extra days at a destination we would and if we wanted to wander to someplace not even on the itinerary, that was OK, too. We agreed we would get through as much of the itinerary as we could before our flight home on June 13^th  and then pick up where we left off when we return in September. At our current rate of travel, we probably will only get through Alsace, part of Switzerland, French Alps and the eastern aspect of the French Riviera, but that is OK. A slower pace is much more enjoyable.

Mont Sainte-Odile was our first entry into the Vosges Mountains. We walked around the picturesque Honnenburg Abbey which was initially built in the 7^th century. As Americans, what we consider old and what France considers old are hugely discrepant. Odile, whom this area is named after, was born blind and abandoned by her parents. She was taken in by the monastery where she reportedly recovered her sight. She had a complicated relationship with her father after they re-established a relationship and he founded Honnenburg Abbey for her where she lived the rest of her years dedicating her life to helping others. We also hiked the entire 6 mile Pagan Wall trail which encircles the Abbey. The wall is beautiful and is comprised of large stones meticulously balanced on each other which are now moss and vine covered in many places. The origins of the wall are in dispute as either a Druid construction or possibly constructed in the 7^th century when the Abbey was built. Regardless, it was a lovely walk with some nice climbs amongst the trees, on soft pine needles, cool temperatures and few people.

We camped for the night in a camping-cars location in Dambach. We have come to love this organization as there is a key card to gain access to the facility, an app and the facilities themselves are low-key but clean, quiet and in generally nice locations.

Chatenois, France:  We camped at a lovely city run “Aire” in Chatenois mainly due to its location. Not realizing how busy the holiday weekends are in France, this one being V-E Day and Ascension Day, we naively planned to visit Chateau du Haut-Koenigsbourg. We again arrived early only to realize cars were already parking on the sides of the narrow roadway leading to the chateau. The whole area was gridlocked as the one narrow lane leading to the chateau was being used by pedestrians, strollers, cyclists, motorcyclists, cars and motorhomes. It was a colossal mess. We joined the hoard of others and proceeded up to the chateau. While the chateau is a huge, beautiful medieval castle, there were just WAY too many people for us to enjoy it. We found a hike which went around the perimeter of the property and through several ruins and enjoyed this experience much more. Departing from this area was wild! So many people and vehicles, people fighting  over our parking place on the side of the road and literally 2 miles of cars in a traffic jam trying to get up the hill to the chateau. It was utter chaos and we couldn’t get out of that area fast enough.

Our next stop, was Struthof, high up in the Vosges Mountains. Again, being European vanlife newbies we had no idea this place would be busy. It was quite a drive, up steep and narrow rural mountain roads for almost an hour. We arrived to see hundreds of cars parked everywhere including ½ on the street and ½ in the ditch and completely full parking lots. By some stroke of luck, there was 1 motorhome spot vacant so we snatched it even though technically we should probably leave those for larger vehicles. Natzweiler-Struthof is a World War II Nazi concentration camp and was the only camp located in France. We watched a movie about the history of the camp and then toured the camp itself with the aid of an audio tour.  This camp and its subcamps had 52,000 prisoners pass through of which almost 40% were killed making this the deadliest of the Nazi camps. The tour consisted of walking on the grounds and through various well-preserved buildings. The hardest part to witness was the prison, crematorium and ash pit. This camp was also one of the main locations where medical experiments were carried out on the prisoners related to sulphonamides, mustard gas and on typhus. The Nazis also tried to compile an anatomical collection of Jewish skeletons. The museum and memorial were very well done and the buildings were well-preserved. The information was presented in a non-graphic way which we immediately contrasted with the graphic genocide memorials we went to in Rwanda. It was a an emotional and somber afternoon, but we are both glad we chose to come and bear witness to the atrocities that occurred here, not that long ago.

Route des Vins: After another night in Dambach, we finally started to explore the Route des Vins in the Alsace where we spent 4 days. This is a legendary 170-km-long wine route which passes through a string of picturesque villages, well-known wine-producing towns and exceptional landscapes. We scored one of the last campsites in the full-service campground in Riquewihr which was the perfect central location for exploration via bicycle. We had purchased 2 new electric Bromptons in Paris, but we had yet to use them. Over the course of the next 3 days, we e-pedaled our Bromptons almost 60 miles to many of the area villages including: Ribeauville, Riquiwihr, Turkheim, Eguisheim, Keyersburg, Burgheim, Zellenburg, Hunawihr, Mittelwihr, Bennwihr, Barr, Kintzheim, and Rorschwihr. This is pretty much most of the “-wihr”, “heims” and “-burgs” in the area. Between towns, we cycled mostly on paved and/or graded secondary roads designated only for local farm traffic and bicycles which included going through vineyards, fields and pastures. We feel this is truly the best way to explore this area. The scenery was spectacular as there was rolling hills, flowering wildflowers and sunny temperatures, even a bit too warm a few days.

The towns themselves ranged from larger more touristy ones like Ribeauville to smaller almost devoid of tourists like Eguisheim. The later was our favorite with its steep and windy cobblestoned streets, medieval vibes, colorful timber houses and city fortress wall with entrance arches.

Tony did a few additional bike rides on his road bike including one of the famous Tour de France climbs. He also cycled back into Colmar to access an Amazon locker where I had some items delivered. He carried back in a make-shift backpack made from a reusable shopping bag my new frying pan amongst a few other items. It is amazing what can be carried via a bicycle in an informal backpack.

Gérardmer: We drove an hour west to the town of Gérardmer which is situated in the Vosges Mountains on a lake with the same name. It is a well known ski resort, but also has some great hiking. We hiked up to Observatoire de Merelle, which for us, was a pretty challenging hike. We scrambled up a rocky section for almost a mile and traversed some muddy areas before arriving at the Observatoire de Merelle, a 85-step tower which offers 360 degree views of the lake and Gérardmer. It was worth all of the effort for the views! Sadly, the route down was closed so we had to detour and take the road part of the way before walking around the entire lake. All in all, we walked almost 9 miles that day. Tony got in another bike ride on his road bike and we settled in for a quiet night in the city-run Aire, which was just a glorified parking lot in the center of town. It poured rain all night so we were glad to be on a solid surface.

Overall Alsace Impressions: This is a beautiful area of the world with rolling hills, Vosges mountains to the west, vineyards, medieval towns with cobblestoned streets and a mixture of French and Germanic influences. We tended to like the smaller cities and less touristy places the best. For the most part we have had great weather, sans a few days of intermittent rain. The temperatures overnight still require us to use heat and we are very thankful the heater in our new van works flawlessly. The wildflowers, including red poppies, are in bloom. Even though this is supposed to be the less busy shoulder season, we found this area to be quite busy with tourists and even more busy in the larger cities. Our impression is the tourists are either French or German, we have seen very few other country license plates. We have not seen (heard) any other Americans, Australians or British tourists. The cycling has been great, both for the Bromptons and for Tony’s road bike rides. Infrastructure for bicycles and pedestrians is well-established and there is clear signage. While there are certainly cars in the area, this area of the world is not centered around cars and that makes it quite enjoyable to explore. Our biggest obstacle with exploration of this area is that we don’t drink alcohol and we are plant-based. This area is a winery area and therefore drinking wine is the main attraction. Also, the cuisine is a mixture of French and German influences which lends heavily on animal flesh, milk and cheese which does not match with our plant-based lifestyle and values. Lastly, all of the locals we have met have been more than friendly and kind to us; however we do feel a bit isolated not being able to have meaningful conversations with others. Several of our campgrounds were quite social, but we couldn’t really take part in that due to our inability to speak another language. The only other negative for us, which we mentioned before, is the large number of cigarette smokers.

Onwards!

Next Up: Western side of Switzerland