Loving France more each day...

At Caylar, we saw our first snow. It was 0C so that made sense. I didn’t make the mistake of sticking my tongue out to catch any, but a flake caught in my eye and it stung! Ross woke early and decided to head off with me still in bed. I heard James (our GPS) say, “Drive carefully. Have a good trip” and was awake immediately. We were heading for Orange, motorway all the way, so thought I could catch up on some more sleep, which I did until I was bumped awake. “Why aren’t we on the motorway?” was my first question to Ross. “James told me to exit,” was his reply.

Many roundabouts later, we finally rejoined the motorway and were on our way again. Because Ross had made such an early start, we were close to Orange before 10am. He decided he could drive a little further so we headed for Tournon-sur-Rhone where we had camped at a stellplatz on the way down. We headed for the same place, and made it without any real difficulties.

I was completely knackered and fell asleep almost immediately, but when I woke up, was full of energy and wanted to explore. We walked down the main street where most shops were closed, but walked over to two river cruise boats in the hope of being let on for a “look round”. They were both closed, I suspect, for the winter. We then discovered a camping ground that was OPEN. Ross hightailed it back to our camper and drove it in, while I “barred” a good spot with a lovely view of the river.

Hot showered, hair washed and properly clean at last, I was ready for anything, which turned out to be a game of cards. Ross finally made the pasta he’s been promising for days, and it was delicious. It was lovely to have a break from cooking! We tried to finish off the tiramisu but couldn’t manage it.

Early to bed and early to rise, but ended up going back to bed and sleeping till 10am! It was 3.6C, so bed was the warmest place! We drove all day without venturing far from the motorways, and saw thousands of trucks! We passed hundreds too, some of them more than once, as we had to stop to refuel both the camper and ourselves. I had a coffee and a delicious “pain aux raisins” and Ross tried the “galette du roi”. We must have been lucky up until now. Maybe the truckies were all on a Christmas-New Year break and were all back at work today. Let’s just say, I still hate trucks! Huge trucks were trying to pass other huge trucks going up hills- it’s just pure craziness on the roads.

We arrived at a little stellplatz at Mullheim just across the border into Germany from Mulhouse where I couldn’t find a single place to camp overnight. By the looks of it as we drove past, Mullhouse is just a huge industrial town with Citroen and Peugeot factories. We had an easy dinner of a fresh baguette with cheese and jam, and still didn’t manage to finish off the tiramisu.

After twelve hours sleep (navigating is tiring!), I awoke to a fine day. I cooked a delicious, but messy bacon, eggs and white pudding before having a hot shower, actually a bit of a dribble of water all over the body, and setting off to Mittelbergheim. I had wanted to see this purportedly prettiest village in France since last year when I made the unforgivable mistake of accidentally booking accommodation in Marckolsheim. They actually weren’t that far apart geographically but were worlds apart in every other way.

Mittelbergheim did not disappoint; snow-covered roofs of the cottages, narrow, winding streets through fifteenth century dwellings, and best of all, no traffic!  It’s such a photographic village I went a little snap happy. Ross easily found a place to park, and we toddled down to the village and found the only restaurant that was open at this time of year; the Restaurant Raisin d’Or (the Golden Grape) where we indulged in a hearty meal. We were very lucky as they go on their annual holidays on Monday! I tried the duck with honey and raspberries and oh, it was melt-in-the mouth delicious! I ordered a half bottle of the local pinot noir to wash it down, followed by the “tarte aux myrtilles”. I did not leave one skerrick of pie!

While I was enjoying my dessert, Ross befriended the local pooch; a golden lab who was very friendly and loved the attention Ross gave him. Our hostess spoke French slowly so we were able to understand her and carry on a conversation.

Just as we climbed into our camper, it started snowing so we just sat and watched the snowflakes swirl around us. I wanted to stay forever and take it all in, but we had to make tracks.

Back on the highway north to Germany, it continued to snow almost the whole way to Landau, our camping spot for tonight. Snow must have a calming effect on me or maybe it was the wine at lunch but I kept falling asleep the whole way. Simon (our new GPS guy) was pretty good apart from two errors, one of which Ross managed to correct immediately when I yelled, “Not here!” the other put us back on the highway for four kilometres and then back four kilometres, before we repeated the manoevre, staying right instead of left!

All in all, we enjoyed a memorable day in beautiful snowy countryside, and a very special visit to Mittelbergheim. I wished we could have stayed longer, but we may have been snowed in!