Day 3 (James): Metz — Saint-Dié-des-Vosges — Colmar — Besançon
Today we decided to leave the cities behind and head south-east towards the Vosges mountains. The weather was atrocious here in Metz and has no signs of stopping for the rest of the week. It’s Molly’s turn to drive today which will be a test considering that we can barely see 2ft in front of us due to the sideways rain. We took it slow and steady and even in this gloomy weather the French countryside is spectacular. No photos of this because concentration was a must.
We stopped for a pee break in Saint-Dié-des-Vosges before heading into the mountains. We couldn’t have been wetter if we’d swam.
This place reminded us of a strange hybrid of ski-resort and Blackpool, though neither was true. I ended up driving, of course, for the rest of the day. Being a passenger does have its benefits (beautiful scenery) but I do get bored easily and become rather fidgety.
Ventured into Colmar - the other side of the Nature Park just before the border to Germany. Although Germany is ultimately our final destination on this trip, we still have lots of exploring to do first.
Colmar turned out to be a wonderful old town with cobbled streets and renaissance style architecture, though the majority of it was occupied by your standard high-street shops. The smell of this place was yet again tantalising and it was hard to resist the pastries.
The Christmas markets now seem to be leaving France yet the towns are still far more decorated than anything you find in England.
Had a cheeky little bevvy in Old Town and had our first experience of booking accommodation on the fly for tonight…. Scary. We didn’t know how we’d feel about booking on the go but it has actually turned out to be very freeing and also much cheaper.
Did the rainy drive from Colmar south to Besançon near the border of Switzerland. The drive was perhaps the scariest yet as for the first time we found ourselves off the beaten track and down country lanes. I thought I'd adjusted well to driving on the opposite side of the road but as soon as the streetlights had gone and there were no road signs for 15 miles, you soon start to doubt yourself that you should be on the left hand side as usual… FYI, you should not. Finally checked in, slept.
