Our first few days in France...

We woke to a bright sunny day and decided to catch the bus and tram into town. Ross had taken a photo of the bus number and tram number to catch and where to change, but we didn’t know where the bus stop was, so went into the hostel to ask. We both had the same thought almost at the same time; let’s see if we can book a room for tonight, do our washing, have a proper shower, and hook into their free wifi, as we just can’t seem to have any luck with our phones. Well, two outta three ain’t bad. I managed 20 minutes of wifi before losing connection, and was too tired to be bothered trying again.

We were told the bus stop was behind the Pharmacie (the green building) so we walked and walked and finally spotted the pharmacie! First one we’ve seen, and we are out of panadol and advil. This phone saga is giving us both headaches! We looked behind the pharmacie but no bus stop was to be seen. On asking the pharmacist, we were told it was down near the church (not just behind the pharmacie!) Talk about misleading directions!

At the bus stop, we caught the bus to Aristide Briand, all on our own with no help. Then caught Tram D into Grand Rue, where we discovered Christmas markets galore. Which one to explore first? The Marche de Luxembourg looked friendly, so we stopped for a bite to eat; a big saucisson (sausage) on a crunchy baguette with lashings of moutarde. (mustard)

Now to buy a local French SIM. We went to the Office de Tourisme, where the line-up was out the door and waited our turn to find the location of a phone shop. We located the Orange Shop and after waiting half an hour, Ross got to see a representative who informed us we needed two 15 euro SIMs but we would have to wait for this request to be processed. After waiting another three quarters of an hour, we walked out very disgruntled with the treatment we had received, and with no SIMs!

We weren’t letting this spoil our fun so we checked out a few more markets; one with just books, another with sweet-smelling “vin chaud”(mulled wine), another with craft items of every description, and finally the markets in La Place de la Cathedrale, and bought some beautiful placemats. The Cathedral itself was beautiful, and if we hadn’t spent time stuffing around with phones, we would have had time to see inside. Our feet could carry us no further so we sat down to enjoy the biggest Belgian waffle you have ever seen, and the smallest coffee! You can’t have everything!

Back on to Tram D for the return journey. The tram was packed, and we both had to stand up. There was no chance of falling over, however, as it was a body-to-body crush. Out at the stop Aristide Briand, and over the road to wait for the bus. The first one drove straight past us; it only took one glance to see why- it must be peak hour. The next bus collected us and we stayed on past our stop all the way over the Rhine to Kehl, where we wanted to post our Rothenburg postcards. What a shemozzle! We wound up walking every bloody street before eventually locating the post office. People we asked for directions tried hard but did not succeed. I was almost tempted to give them the postcards and say, “Here, when you are going to the post office, would you mind posting these for me?” if only I could speak German.

We found an O2 shop and thought it was worth a crack. We almost managed to get a SIM except we didn’t have a German residential address. If I had known this, I could have made one up! I went to the tourist office to ask directions to the pedestrian bridge across the river. She confidently told me straight down this street. With my mind set at rest about finding our way back to our camper, we set about finding a bite to eat and settled on  Kochloffen, a local version of KFC, but not as tasty.

We eventually managed to find the bridge after several left and right turns, definitely not straight, and the walk over the bridge was timed perfectly for the glorious sunset. (see photos) Our camper was in sight but we could not reach it as the gate was locked, so had to walk the long way around. We had covered almost 10 kilometres walk by the time we reached the Auberge.

After enjoying the hottest possible shower without scalding myself, and giving my hair a much-needed wash, I headed down to the ground floor to do a load of washing, walked up the two flights to wait for it to finish, and then walked down again to transfer the load to the dryer. I could not manage to stay awake for one minute longer, and when I woke up at 8.30, Ross had it all dried and folded.

Breakfast was included in out room charge so we availed ourselves of juice, coffee, hot chocolate, fresh baguettes with butter, cheese and jam, as well as some cereal flakes. Ross went to the camper to get it ready to go while I had another glorious shower!

He had one token left after filling with water, so gave it to two gentlemen who were trying to get the machine to operate with a credit card. In return, they noticed our water cap was missing (heavens only knows where we lost it!) and searched through several they had, and found one that fitted. How nice was that!

In high spirits, we headed off to Colmar. I should have been easy, but our stupid GPS took us over the Rhine River, right through the centre of Kehl, and then back over the river at another bridge. We figured it must have wanted us to spend as much time in Germany as possible, because the road to Colmar was clearly marked in Strasbourg but we were in the wrong lane to take it.

We drove into Colmar, having no idea where anything was, and pulled over momentarily to get our bearings. It actually looked like a good spot to park so we left the camper there, and set off on foot to find Petite Venise (Little Venice) and the Christmas markets. We could not have parked any closer if we had tried! Just around the corner and we were there, at both Little Venice and the Christmas markets! We loved both of them. I loved the painted houses and the buildings built right on, or over, the canals. We had lunch at a little Terrasse restaurant serving just “tartes flambees”, which were huge, but delicious. The mechanical horse ride fascinated me- I really wanted to have a ride, but couldn’t chance hurting my back. I had a warm spiced apple juice with honey (non-alcoholic), which was really delicious, and I couldn’t resist the home-made macarons. Ross opted for some nougat at the same stall. Our sweet tooth satisfied, we headed for the Cathedral and more markets! After getting our bearings from the photo of a map on a board (always handy to take photos of maps on boards!), we headed back to the camper. Keeley and Blair, you will be very proud to find that I was actually going in the right direction!

Back at the camper, we were relived to find we hadn’t been issued a parking fine, and against our better judgment, put the co-ordinates of the France Passion camping place in our GPS, and trusted it to get us there, which it did. We even had power for the night to charge up all of our electrical devices and run the fridge. Our hostess didn’t speak a word of English but I managed to have a conversation with her in very bad French.

Ross decided to take me out to dinner at Les Maraichers, a hotel restaurant just down the road, where we had access to free wifi! Our meals were very French and very delicious. I had escargots followed by chicken breast in a creamy mushroom sauce and potato skins. Ross had pumpkin soup followed by a ham hock. It was enormous! I had my doubts if he could finish it, but it was so mouth-watering, he cleaned his plate! Neither of us could fit in dessert! Back to our camper for a quick shower and an early night. We had a phone at last so made a few calls wishing relatives a Merry Christmas before falling asleep just after 11. Ross was awake at 3 and wanted to get on the road as we had an almost 400 kilometre trek to Nantua. We skipped breakfast and were on the road by 5.

It was great travelling in the early morning; very little traffic, and a beautiful sunrise. When the sky lightened, we stopped at a truck stop for ham and cheese bagels, which I cooked in the frypan. We were about half way there. I was pleased Ross had wanted to get going, but boy, was I tired! We played Spotto and I Spy, and 16 kilometres out of Nantua, Ross pulled over to close his eyes for 10 minutes. He was instantly asleep, so I thought I’d take advantage of our stationary position to get out of my sleep suit, have a shower and get into some clothes.

We had an altercation with the first toll plaza we encountered but managed to reverse and drive over about 5 lanes to the correct one. The supervisor was not friendly at all-he could have just opened the bloody gate. It was obvious we were tourists! He probably thought we were British.

On arrival in Nantua, we encountered a cold wind blowing off the lake but it was still warm and sunny. We parked and walked over to Le Bistrot to make a booking for dinner, but were told ”no dinner tonight, it’s Christmas Eve” so sat down and had lunch instead.

I ordered the salmon for entrée, Quenelle with the special Nantua Sauce for mains, a selection of cheeses and Brazil (glace café, glace rhum et raisin avec Chantilly) for dessert.

We walked round the entire village looking for the Lidl supermarket to buy some water and milk, but gave up, exhausted, and came back to the camper and drove to find it. It was right at the very edge of the village. We did find a parking spot right on the lake, and immediately fell asleep. I woke up two and a half hours later by the sound of cars driving past, and Ross decided to move to a more secluded location, so here we are around the other side of Lac Nantua overlooking the village lights reflecting on the surface of the lake, which usually freezes in winter. No chance of that happening now. It’s 8pm and 10C outside; a warm and cosy 20C inside our camper. It’s Christmas Eve here and we’ve talked about attending midnight mass, but I think we’ll be doing it in our sleep. Merry Christmas to all our family and friends back home. Joyeux Noel!