LKL's Blog » France

2 February is Crêpe Day

lklawless — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 15:00:12 +0000

Forget standing out in the cold waiting to see if a groundhog is afraid of his shadow – let’s celebrate Crêpe Day instead. The French traditionally flip crêpes while wishing for prosperity while Americans celebrate Groundhog Day – which one sounds more fun to you?

Happy Bastille Day!

lklawless — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 23:00:14 +0000

14 July is the French national holiday. Learn about the history behind the celebration of Bastille Day and make some French food to celebrate!

Niederbronn-les-Bains

lklawless — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 10:00:00 +0000

Although it has taken me months to write about our trip around the Hexagon up to this point, we’d actually been traveling for a week and a half: one night in Seyne-les-Alpes, three in Risoul, two in Annecy, one each in Amphion-les-Bains and Besançon, and three in Colmar. That summary, however, doesn’t include the 20 or so towns we visited near and between those places, so you can imagine that we were pretty tired.

Fortunately, our next stop was Niederbronn-les-Bains, where we’d rented an apartment in an old paper mill for two weeks. The price was amazing* and everything exceeded our expectations: a large and light-filled apartment, nice pool, and lovely grounds. We also lucked out on the weather – it was almost always hot and sunny. We spent the first several days relaxing by the pool and cooking for the first time since we’d left Hyères, then we started exploring the town of Niederbronn and beyond.

*We paid 200 euros a week, plus electricity. While chatting with the owners, we found out that we were among their first renters, and now that they had a better idea of what running a gîte was like, they were planning to increase the price to 250/week. Still a bargain, in my opinion: Chambre d’hôtes "Le Moulin"

This article is part of my travelog about my summer 2010 trip along the French borders, including the six corners of the Hexagon – see map.

Château du Haut-Kœnigsbourg

lklawless — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 07:00:38 +0000

From a distance © LKL

Originally named Staufenberg, this fortified castle was built by the Hohenstaufen, a German noble family, in the 12th century. The name changed to Königsburg (king’s castle) and eventually, in reference to its altitude of around 3,000 feet, Hohkönigsburg (king’s high castle), which was adapted in French to Haut-Kœnigsbourg.

After being destroyed in 1462, the castle was rebuilt and enlarged, only to be burned and abandoned less than 200 years later. In 1862, the ruins were declared a historical monument, and the town of Séléstat began a restoration project, which was abandoned due to lack of funds.

Model of the ruins © LKL

The monumental task of restoring the château finally got underway in 1900 and continued for eight years, before the château was opened up to the public. The workmanship is fantastic, and different tours are available based on your interests; we visited the château as part of our Route des vins d’Alsace tour. Apparently it’s particularly nice to visit at Christmas, but whatever time of year you might be in Alsace, be sure to include a visit to this beautiful castle on your itinerary.

Official site: Château du Haut-Kœnigsbourg

This article is part of my travelog about my summer 2010 trip along the French borders, including the six corners of the Hexagon – see map.


© LKL		© LKL

6 corners of the Hexagon: Fourth corner!

lklawless — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 14:15:20 +0000

The fourth corner of the Hexagon, at least according to the way we mapped out our trip, was the southwesternmost point of France. This is at the Spanish border, in the heart of Basque country, and the French side is Hendaye, one of the largest towns in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department. The beach is lovely, and from the languages we heard seems to be equally popular with swimmers and sunbathers from both sides of the border. The end of the jetty is the actual corner; to the left (south), across the water, you can see a bit of Spain.

Here’s our map between the third and fourth corners. As always, pink indicates our route as well as towns we actually walked around and/or ate in, while blue highlights where we stayed. You can click the map to see a much bigger version (MB).

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About 6 corners of the Hexagon

6 corners of the Hexagon: Basque country

lklawless — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 10:16:42 +0000

After traveling almost constantly (one three-night stay, a few twos, but mostly singles) for about three weeks, ever since leaving Chinon, we were grateful to arrive in Guéthary, just north of Saint-Jean-de-Luz. We stayed in a little vacation apartment for a week and were able to catch up on laundry and even do some cooking.

St.-Jean-de-Luz © LKL

Guéthary is tiny and cute, but Saint-Jean-de-Luz and neighboring Ciboure are truly lovely. We’d thought that it would be quick and easy to get there from Guéthary, but traffic was horrendous, even in September: there’s a toll road, but most people choose the free and therefore far more crowded Route Nationale. So we only spent one afternoon in St-Jean-de-Luz; it’s definitely on our list of places to revisit.

Petit train de La Rhune © LKL

One of the best parts of the week was our trip on le petit train de La Rhune, a cog railway that ascends 905 meters to the top of the La Rhune massif and offers a spectacular view over Basque country.

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About 6 corners of the Hexagon

6 corners of the Hexagon: Atlantic Coast

lklawless — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 13:00:13 +0000

Some of the most interesting places on France’s Atlantic coast are quite remote.

Quiberon © LKL

We spent two nights on the presqu’île of Quiberon, in southern Bretagne. The beaches are lovely, and the town of Quiberon is kind of cute, but the others on the peninsula are nothing special.

La Flotte, Ile de Ré © LKL

In contrast, Île de Ré, in Poitou-Charentes, is home to numerous cute towns (including two Most Beautiful Villages). We spent three nights in Sainte-Marie-de-Ré, and enjoyed talking to our hosts about the boom in housing and tourism that has occurred there since the car ferry was replaced by a toll bridge in 1988. Fortunately, there aren’t as nearly as many houses as there could be, as a lot of the land is covered in grapevines; as for the wine, however, c’est pas terrible.

Arcachon © LKL

In Aquitaine, the small town of Soulac-sur-mer is filled with lovely, unique villas, as are a few streets in the much larger Arcachon. They both also have beautiful beaches and I can easily imagine living in either town for a year or two. A short drive from Arcachon is the Dune du Pilat – at 107 meters, it’s the largest sand dune in Europe. The climb up can be a bit difficult, but the view from the top is extraordinary.

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About 6 corners of the Hexagon

6 corners of the Hexagon: Third corner!

lklawless — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 11:00:00 +0000

The exact location of the third corner isn’t obvious like the others. The westernmost point of France is l’île d’Ouessant, but we wanted to stick to the continent for the purposes of our hexagon. The westernmost point of continental France is Pointe de Corsen, which is considered the theoretical divider between the English Channel and the Atlantic Ocean. (Source: Pointe de Corsen, Terres celtes) In looking at a map of France, however, this point doesn’t exactly stand out. We feel that the part of Finisterre that pokes out just north and south of the Crozon peninsula is more corner-like, so we decided that those points together constitute the third corner.

The point to the north is Kermorvan, a small cape with a lighthouse near the town of Le Conquet, from which the ferries to île d’Ouessant leave. It was incredibly windy the day we visited, and one of our umbrellas, already fragile from Bretagne’s infamous weather, more or less self-destructed, leaving behind a naked skeleton with the ripped waterproof material flapping in the wind. It was a memorable visit.

Our second contender to the third corner crown was la Pointe du Raz, which turned out to be an internationally renowned, protected site, and was far more popular among hikers and picnickers than we’d expected.

Here’s our map from the second corner to the third, complete with detours to Paris and Loire Valley. Remember that pink indicates our route as well as towns we actually walked around and/or ate in. Blue highlights where we stayed. You can click the map to see a much bigger version.

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About 6 corners of the Hexagon

6 corners of the Hexagon: Bretagne

lklawless — Sat, 09 Oct 2010 14:00:52 +0000

We only spent a few days in Bretagne, and it rained most of the time; nevertheless, the entire coast is breathtaking and I look forward to returning for a longer stay.

In Perros-Guirrec, we took a boat ride around the Archipel des Sept-Îles nature preserve, during which we admired thousands of breeding pairs of Northern Gannet seabirds on île Rouzic, and then cruised along the famous Côte de Granit rose. It was cold and rainy; I can only imagine how much more beautiful the pink granite is when the weather is nice.

Next we spent two days in Morgat, a small town on the Crozon peninsula in Finistère. This remote area is incredibly beautiful and surprisingly colorful; during our visit in late August, nearby Pointe de Dinan was covered in purple heather and other vegetation. We also took a cruise of the Grottes marines de Morgat, the “painted” caves accessible only by sea.

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About 6 corners of the Hexagon

6 corners of the Hexagon: Saint Malo and Dinard

lklawless — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 15:00:39 +0000

Our next stop was Saint Malo, just a little further west along the coast.

We walked all over within and then on top of the walls of the fortified city, before sitting down on a stretch overlooking the vast beach for our picnic. Though we couldn’t see a guard station, every so often an admonishment about bikes on the beach would come over the loudspeaker. We kept half-expecting to be told to get off the wall, but it never happened.

Other entertainment came from watching a photo shoot of a group of 5 men, who we figure must have been some rock group doing an album cover. They started out walking along the beach in nice jackets, then changed into more casual clothes before doing a sort of rugby scrum for photo after photo. Thinking they might be famous, I took a few pics of my own, but I have no way to identify them. I tried Googling things like “rock group photo shoot in Saint Malo in August,” but no luck. One wore a jacket that said “Nickelson,” their van had Dutch plates, and we caught snatches of both American and British English. So here’s today’s challenge: anyone recognize these guys? You can click on the images to see larger ones.


© LKL	© LKL

We spent the night across the river in Dinard, the furthest west into Bretagne I had ever previously been. From here on out, it’s all brand-new!

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About 6 corners of the Hexagon