October, the nicest time of the year for a trip. Aimée, Steve, Sue Anne, and Bruce have done it together a few times in the past—trips to different parts of Canada, to the UK in 2008, and Germany, Poland, and the Czech Republic last year. This time it’s the Alsace region of France, up in the northeast corner. It’s an interesting area that has been swapped back and forth between France and Germany a few times in the course of history. You can see the two influences in the town names and in the cuisine. Sauerkraut in France? Mais oui! Il s’appelle Choucroute Garnie.
This time we’ll be joined by Aimée and Steve’s younger son, Nate, an adventurous guy. We’ll be flying separately to Paris and meeting up there on Saturday the 27th, spending a few days there in the City of Light, and then heading to the town of Bergheim (sure sounds German; it means ‘mountain home’), about 50 miles south of the major city of Strasbourg. This will be pretty much new territory for us. Bruce briefly visited Strasbourg, the nearby Vosges Mountains, and the wonderfully named citadel city of Bitche during his Army time in Germany; Sue Anne, the most fluent Francophone of the bunch, spent a junior year in Dijon, quite some distance away in the Burgundy region and has also been to Strasbourg; and some of Steve’s ancestors are said to have come from Alsace. So there will be lots for all of to learn about.
We’ve booked the basic arrangements—accommodations, RR tickets, and rental car—through Untours; the rest of the trip is up to us. We don’t have any specific plans laid out yet, but I’m sure we’ll be keeping ourselves busy. Stay tuned!
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