J'ai escaladé puis déscendu les Vosges

This last stage of the ride took me through the Vosge Mountains. I took two days to do this. The first stage was quite short from Strasbourg to a hotel near Grendelbruch in the foothills of the Vosges. I had intended camping but around 2.00 pm spotted this very nice 3 star hotel and 3 hat restaurant (Fischehutt Hotel) and succumbed. I felt tired perhaps from the previous days long train trip. The afternoon was spent dozing in front of the Tour de France commentary which is about as exciting in French as it is in English. In the evening I had a great meal with a nice Alsatian wine.

The Alsace people speak a German dialect and have traditions in terms of food, clothing etc in common with other Rhinelanders. However it would be wrong to classify them as German. They are French. During both WWs they suffered through forceable conscription into the German Army.

Alsace is very pretty and the villages are much more colourful than say a typical village in the adjoining South Lorraine just across the Vosge.

The following day I made the short crossing of the main Vosge range via Col du Donon at elevation 740 m. The Vosges are the left flank uplifted Rhine rift valley fault. They are geologically old and rise only up to around 1,000 m in maximum elevation. The descent was actually more challenging with a very steep initial slope where I nearly wore out my brakes. As Bill and Jim will testify, I am not the bravest when it comes to downhills.

In quick time, I was in Baccarat the home of the famous crystal of the same name. I had enough energy to camp and attend the Bastille evening party and fireworks display. It was good to witness how ordinary French people celebrate their most important festival.