Leg 1 – the Metro

This morning we bid adieu to Paris and moved on to Colmar, in the Alsace region on the border with Germany.

I have to say, we were feeling pretty good about ourselves midway through the day.  We’d arisen at 7am and gotten out the door by 8, without (as far as we know) forgetting anything.  We successfully walked to the Place Monge Metro stop, figured out how to buy five tickets, and sauntered on to the #7 train just as it pulled into the station.

Half an hour on the train and we’d arrived at the Gare de l’Est to catch the train to Colmar.  We were especially pleased that (a) we could take a train in just over two hours, while it would have taken five and a half to drive, and (b) we’d found some kind of budget train line (OUIGO) that got us all there in less than 100 euros.

The canals of Petit Venise

Our luck continued to hold.  The train became available for boarding just as we arrived on the platform.  The OUIGO app I’d installed on my phone was able to pull up our tickets, and they scanned successfully, even without wifi.  We had four seats facing each other with a table in the middle (plus one extra seat across the aisle), perfect for holding the cheese and baguette feast we’d brought along for breakfast, and afterward for playing hearts.  We watched the French countryside whiz by outside the window as we sped comfortably east.

Rosti lunch

The train arrived on time, and there was wifi in the station that allowed me to send a message to our airbnb host saying we’d arrived.  He responded that he was at the apartment ready to receive us.  All that remained was the 1.5-kilometer walk from the station to the apartment.

That’s when it all went horribly wrong.

The first problem is that one of the wheels on our very large roller suitcase (which we’d brought instead of our usual backpacks because of the per-bag fee on WOW Air) has broken off, meaning Bob has to carry our very heavy bag.  (We know it weighs 20.2 kg, because we just squeaked by on the WOW limit of 20 kg.)  Still, we were fairly cheerful setting off, our google directions in hand.

Then we couldn’t find our first turn.  (Later we discovered it was a street that was blocked off by construction and incorrectly labeled.)  This started a nightmare of wandering back and forth, up and down, asking directions and then getting lost again.  We didn’t have a detailed map or a functional phone and it was extremely hot.  On the verge of despair, we finally found our way to a street on our directions only to be blocked by construction again.  In the end, the ten-minute walk took us well over an hour and we almost got blocked inside a construction site.

Finally, joy of joys, we’d located the address.  It was an old-fashioned house, with a set of modern apartments behind it.  We didn’t know where to go.  After knocking on all the doors and ringing the buzzer for all the apartments, in desperation I left the family sitting in the driveway and set off to find wifi.  Here our luck improved again, with a McDonalds right around the corner.  Upon getting my messages I found that our host had left to get lunch and would be back soon.  (Apparently he drove around in his van for a while looking for us, without success.)

The girls spent some time and money in this visually appealing but exorbitantly expensive candy store.

Finally the good luck gods returned.  The apartment is spacious and lovely (though everything is blindingly white, so I’m very afraid of messing it up).  After a little recovery time, we headed into the nearby town center and were agape at how beautiful it was.  We’re near the neighborhood called “Petit Venise” because of its canals.  Every street seemed more quaint than the last.

The architecture, food, and culture here is more German than French.  For a late lunch/early dinner we found ourselves at a restaurant that almost exclusively served many variations

on a local specialty called a “rosti”, which is a baked meal based on potatoes, bacon, and onions — Zoe’s dream come true.  Nadia tried spaetzle and was pleased with the result.  Bob and I shared a carafe of local Gewurztraminer.  The girls found tiramisu-flavored soft serve.  We found another pleasant park for Zoe to run laps around.  Life was good again.