September 19, 2012
From Colmar to St Louise: This will be our last night in France this year
After we had admired all our clean washing and put it carefully away we went to explore Colmar. It is a maze of little streets and canals going in all directions – no wonder it took me 2 hours to find the hotel on Monday. Each street opens up another delight. Sixteen years ago, before the days of bikes, Ken and I spent 3 nights in Colmar. The thing that sticks in our mind most is a wonderful restaurant we ate at. Where we sat was on a platform built out over the canal and the waitress had to keep trit-trotting over the road to serve us and the meal was delicious. What should we see when we turned one corner but the very same restaurant – we had to eat there last night. It didn’t disappoint. It was raining a bit but we were dry (or almost) under umbrellas. The restaurant has gone a bit more upmarket since we last visited it, or may be we have become more downmarket. We had a lovely meal and a delicious bottle of 2011 Pinot Blanc from one of the little villages we had visited during the day.
Last night I had booked a hotel in St Louise which is the last little place in France before you get to Basel. Seemed better than struggling with finding accommodation in a big city. Our ride today was first away from the hills and towards the river to Neuf-Briscach. This is yet another example of Vauban’s works and is a huge complicated mass of defensive walls and gates. What I wonder is why build something like this on flat land, the enemies could just go round it. Here however we had the best coffee we have had on the trip. It was big, the strength exactly right and the milk had been heated. What is more it was inexpensive.
After that the rest of the day was spent riding through corn fields and small working towns. The towns interested me as no longer were we in towns vieing for fleuries and tourists. These towns were modern and looked strictly working towns. Although missing out on the cute index they were attractive and well kept with a lot of new housing developments which our route rode through. These new houses all looked of a high standard.
At the little town of Niffer we came on something we recognized. Over the bridge and we were on the same path as we rode on last year when riding the EV6. About 10 km along a fine gravel path beside the canal then the GPS guided us to our hotel in St Louise. This is not the most exciting place but we are well positioned to get through Basel tomorrow.
Today's ride: 82 km (51 miles)
Total: 2,871 km (1,783 miles)
| Rate this entry's writing | Heart | 0 |
| Comment on this entry | Comment | 0 |