First Time France!

Officially, this is Ryan's first time in France! What an exciting moment when we crossed the border, going through a mostly defunct border crossing (due to the Schengen Agreement which barely holds still) but were profiled as we slowly passed by French military. Security is hightened and I was happy to see that; machine guns and soldiers at European airports aren't surprising sights, nor at border crossings, but in open squares in relatively small-time towns there was a moment of "wow, oh yeah, ok."

We drove about 2.5 hours south out of the Mosel Reiver valley backtracking a bit to the Rhineland-Phalz region, but then crossed over into France about 50km north of Strausbourg, where we spent a few warm hours seeing the town.

French beer at a cute Brasserie, eating Alsatian food and learning to order in French!

Strausbourg has the oldest and for some time the tallest cathedral in Europe. Trying to imagine oneself seeing this tall church go up between the 10th and 13th centuries is mind boggling. 

For lunch, we tried Alsatian food done for locals, sort of a "choose your own meat/sauce combo and get with a side of Spätzle" style. It worked -- Ryan went with Chicken and Mushrooms with a creamy Mushroom sauce, while I went for a Meatballs with a Mustard Cream sauce. The results were incredibly tasty!

Fettern, I believe it was called

After sweating a while and dodging the sun under building shade, we saw the rest of the town and headed out to the Alsace Wine Road.

To the West are the Vosges Mountains (pronounced VOOH-ghe) and several castles still stand. The French toppled most of the Mosel River castles as they came by and I believe they also toppled these as well, but will have to find out more tomorrow.

Concerned about our water intake, we skipped a gas station "platz" thinking we'd find a little market closer to our destination. Oh, France -- you and Sunday with everything closed. So, no water to buy ahead of time, we figured out host would know where to go.

We pulled into this tiny town with tiny streets and found the house number. The owner, who lives across the street, is nice enough and showed us into the little "cottage" which is more of a built out quaint garden room and the end of a driveway. OK that's being a little dramatic because it's not that drab, but the heat isn't helping. 

After avoiding a minor meltdown of disapopointment and shame, we hopped into the car, drove next door to Ribeauville and took a walk. Immediately, Ryan spots a small fair going on and we beeline it for a Waffle stand and buy 4 waters. It's so hot that everyone gets it -- gotta stay hydrated. We downed one each and started walking up the Grand Rue of the city.

It's gorgeous. Quaint. Touristy without being gross. The way to tell that the city cares about it's image is we didn't see one of those shitty stupid guys with metallic clothes and metallic makeup in some mind-bending stance where one guy sits cross legged and the other guy is sitting with his feet on the lower person's hand as if it's magic. Um, no, it's metal rods. Each town that has those stupid dumb people means the tourist council has given up and it should be removed from Rick Steves' guides as soon as possible. I imagine Heidelberg had it's turning point since Rick heartily does not recommend it. Cochem had it. Dear, sweet Cochem. Well, if it didn't have a wine festival we wouldn't have gone back for another visit and other than some tasty wine and two souvenir glasses, we weren't sorry to move on.

So, Ribeauville is adorable. Full of holiday-goers, younger couples with children, some older well-dressed couples but no tourist buses for dinner. And dinner came at just the right time. While in the Rhine River, the world goes to bed and kitchens close around 8pm, here the kitchens close until 6:45pm and dinner is best between 7:30 and 9.

We strolled up and looked at all the cute houses (named not by last name, since there were so many intramarriages over time, but by animal) and picked a nice spot for dinner. Through our mix of German, French, and English we had a polite server and a delicious meal. Pinot Gris is where it's at around here. In Mosel Valley, Germany, it's called Graubürgunder. Here it's back to Pinot Gris and still deliciously earthy. 

Ryan does great on the merci, Bon soi, etc. but we both laugh as we both try to also speak German along with it. Given this area's history of being claimed by both Germany and France at various times, no one seems to care.

Laundry Time

After finishing dinner and downing 1 Liter of water each, we drove the quick 5 minutes back to Hunawihr and are taking cold showers and getting ready to Xanax our way through the night.

Luckily, we enjoyed a beautiful time at Vino Thek, the restaurant of a winery between Cochem and Beilstein, and took two bottles with us. We promptly put them in the fridge here in Hunawihr, France, when we arrived and are having a nightcap of Graubürgunder. 

A nice transitional day with many of firsts for us! First time ordering in French, first time driving in France, first time to Alsace region, first time drinking Alsatian wine in the region, and many more firsts tomorrow.

I don't think we can stomach biking unless it starts to snow tomorrow, so likely we'll do a few wine tastings (Trimbach is in the lovely town next door!), explore the town, head over to Colmar for a tour, and then dinner back up here. Please, please be cooler! At least we'll be in clean clothes!