We had to climb over the Vosgien Mountains which I have been wrongly referring to as hills but mountains are foreign to we Australians. As we began the climb we stopped at Ribeauville, one of the wine places we visited a couple of days ago for some lovely views back down over the foothills. Ribeauville is 279 metres above sea level and has views up to 3 ruined castles and begins a sharp climb to 742 metres with a drop to 373 metres in just over 10 kilometres all told.
With time for the Tour de France start approaching we have noticed some very serious cyclists each time we have been driving in the mountain areas and today there was a whole pack spread out going through the Vosgiens. While it was pretty driving in the mountains we decided to take a tunnel through the next section to save time and wear and tear on the driver. It went for a little over 7 kilometres straight through the mountain and cost 7.60 Euros and we came out the other end in the Province of Lorraine in the rain!
We wasted about an hour trying to find somewhere to have lunch at a place called Mencel-les-Luneville and ended up with McDonalds. Strangely, once again most of the items have pictures on the wall with English names, like "Royal Deluxe Burger" but when you ask for them the staff look at you like you are insane. If they teach any English in French schools it is hard to notice because even the young kids have no English at all.
The landscape had changed considerably by the time we came out from our long tunnel, with farms with crops and sheep and cows replacing the endless grape vines of Alsace. We thought we would like to go off the main road to have a look at a couple of villages but the weather had degenerated into heavy rain squalls.
When we went into the lovely little church in the village of Lucey the clouds burst and we were half drowned getting back to the car.
Last night and this morning we had pinpointed what we thought was our destination village and planned the journey, but when we discovered the village we were aiming for did not even rate a name on the main road we became worried. However, when by some miracle, we actually reached the village we became even more worried as there was obviously no hotel or place to stay in sight.
Back to basics and the discovery of our real village about another 120 kilometres further on! Apart from the difficulties with the signs pointing in the wrong direction there is the abbreviation of names and the optional dropping off of part of the name you are expecting to find on your map to contend with. The first village was called Lachaussee and the real village is La Chaussee Sur Marne and Alan could not find that in the index of the atlas so assumed he had the correct place. Yes we do know what happens when you assume… but without a certain amount of assumption when travelling in France you would never have a clue which way to go!
After not being able to find lunch in Luneyville I found it particularly funny that one of the nearby villages to our wrong one was called Woe!
Just before we finally arrived at our little village we saw a wonderful field of sunflowers all in full bloom and I hoped this was an omen that all was now well. Our hotel is OK but smells a bit musty, however it did have a restaurant, so that was a great relief when we arrived at 7.45 pm. It was really lovely when a young English couple having dinner with their kids offered to help us order our food as the menu had no English at all and the waitress, receptionist, problem solver, telephonist and barmaid had not one word of English. Some of these hospitality workers work so hard and for such long hours it is amazing.
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