France – Alsace/Lorraine

Last September (2012), my wife and I joined two other couples to take a week tour of the Alsace/Lorraine area of France, finishing up with 5 days in Paris.  I’ll talk about Paris later.  For now, I want to mention the trip and our companions.

The trip was organized by our good friend, Liane, who basically does this for a living.  But, our journey was one to catch places she and her husband, Jim, had not really spent much time in before.  This was fine with me … anyplace in France was new for me.  Plus, since she speaks fluent French (as opposed to my 10 word vocabulary), it was a no-stress journey through Wonderland (voyage à travers le pays des merveilles?). {Isn’t Google wonderful … LOL}  Our other travel companions are a fun couple and friends: Jim and Janet.

Now, it wasn’t without it’s mishaps.  Right away, our rental van was not there.  It took a few hours to get one that would work for six with baggage.  But, it all worked out well in the end.  We loaded up the van and were on our way.  The GPS was unpacked and plugged in (for insurance on getting where we were headed) and christened “Gracie.”  {I should note that Gracie gave us quite the chuckle now and then with her pronunciation of some of the French names.)

Later, at lunch at an open air café, I had the distinct pleasure of “wearing” a demi of beer.  I saw it happening in slow motion as the waiter leaned forward to set down one beer and the tray started to tilt. Now, I must say, if you are going to spill beer on someone, I’m your guy.  The poor waiter (in training) was terrified.  But, I just laughed, and wondered if I should suck it out of my shirt.  Liane had a lengthy conversation with the head waiter, who said he would offer me one of his suits, but I was obviously not his size.  LOL.  It’s all good.  I am NOT his size. I am probably twice his size. They paid for the dry cleaning and I got a great story out of it. And, I’m sure the waiter in training got quite the scolding.  I do feel badly about that, though.

I’m not going into details on every day.  We were in Reims for two days (the site of my beer bath), across the border to Luxembourg for one day, back down to Strasburg for two days, then two days in Colmar before heading back to Paris for five days.  And between each stop were lovely, peaceful small towns, castles, battlefields, and cemeteries, as well as one detainment camp: Natzweiler.

And grape vines! As far as the eye could see, covering hillside after hillside. We even got the chance to see a load of grapes “de-stemmed.”  It is fascinating how the machine can take the grapes off the stems without damaging the fruit itself.

But, the true delight of the trip was in meeting many, many wonderful people, including the many friends of Liane’s (because of her business and travels).  They gave us personal tours, shared lunches and dinners with us, and just added so much fun and laughter to an already marvelous trip.

So, I must say that if you travel to places new to you, do it with someone who knows the area and the language.  You will have so much more fun than just taking a standard tour.

As always, have fun … anywhere, in any life.