We also visited the marché populaire and sat at a café drinking beer and eating frites in la Grande Place writing postcards of, justement, la Grande Place. We’re such tourists sometimes.

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About 6 corners of the Hexagon

In Fourmies, officially a Most Beautiful Detour, we had a picnic at the lake. We would have rented a paddleboat but the rental company was closed.

Another Most Beautiful Detour, St-Amand-les-Eaux was really lovely, but both of the churches were under renovation and therefore closed, so we soon continued on our way.

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About 6 corners of the Hexagon

Upon leaving Metz, we decided that, instead of going southwest toward our next stop, we would go north, and even back east a bit, to visit the recently restored Château de Malbrouck. I particularly enjoyed the workshops and explanations of how the restoration was done, and as an added bonus, throughout the château and grounds were works by the French-American artist Niki de Saint Phalle (no photos allowed).

We also, stupidly, decided to continue west along the border and then zip up north to the border town of Givet. It was very cute and I’d love to spend a few days there; unfortunately, we still had several hours to drive to our lodging for the night, in Épernay. So we spent most of the day driving and arrived exhausted and cranky.

But we were able to recover the next day, which was pretty much bliss: we had a picnic in Epernay and then did a terrific champagne dégustation during which we shared most of a bottle with the propriétaire while trading travel stories for an hour. We would have stayed longer, but we had to run because we’d reserved places on the canal cruise. That was lovely, and then we spent the evening chatting with 2 Swedish couples in our chambre d’hôtes.

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About 6 corners of the Hexagon

The heart of Nancy is the beautiful gold-and-black trimmed Place Stanislas, named for Stanislaw Leszczynski, the deposed Polish king who became Duke of Lorraine and created this royal square. Other points of interest are the Saint-Epvre Basilica, the Cathédrale Notre-Dame-de-l’Annonciation, numerous gardens, and various museums.

We also visited nearby Toul and tasted the famous Gris de Toul, a type of rosé wine found only in this area. We were very surprised at how much weaker Lorraine wine is than its neighboring Alsace’s – the food in the two regions is very similar, but the wine couldn’t be more different.

Metz has a reputation as a dirty, industrial city, but in fact it is very beautiful and full of flowers, and the cathedral is stunning. We’d already gotten a good taste of Metz during our visit in 2008; we went this time solely to visit the brand-new Pompidou museum (Centre Pompidou-Metz), which I’d been dying to see since I first read about the construction plans about 7 years ago. I wasn’t disappointed – it’s an amazing building.

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About 6 corners of the Hexagon

Here’s our map up until we reached the first corner. 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, but I recommend either high-speed internet or patience, as it is 2.5 MB.

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About 6 corners of the Hexagon

On the 15th we headed south from Strasbourg to retrieve the wallet in Annecy – more than 4 hours each way. To make the most of the trip, we rented another paddleboat and spent two glorious hours out on Lake Annecy. We also found a terrific fromager and stocked up on our favorite cheeses plus some local specialities.

Coming home, we stopped in Ribeauvillé in hopes of buying more of the wine we’d liked best during our dégustations the week before, but we were 45 minutes too late – everything had closed at 7pm.

Niederbronn’s weekly marché, held every Friday, was a little disappointing, as it is mostly clothing, with only a few food stands. (The one in the nearby town of Reichshoffen, on Thursdays, is much bigger and better.)

On Sunday, we went to la Fête de la myrtille in Dambach, bought a bunch of blueberries, and tasted blueberry wine, beer, and jam.

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About 6 corners of the Hexagon

The fireworks were terrific in both, but Niederbronn’s were preceded by a rousing speech and a short rendition of la Marseillaise.

Strasbourg’s, on the other hand, looked like they might be rained out when a rather violent storm started up, but it was over within 45 minutes. The river was lined three deep with spectators for what seemed like miles, so we followed some locals to a more secluded spot.

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About 6 corners of the Hexagon

We spent the first two days just hanging out by the pool, then explored the town of Niederbronn, which is far bigger than we expected. A driving tour of some typical villages, as recommended by the tourist office, was interesting, and we also did a dégustation of some excellent beers at a brasserie in Oberbach.

A sixth call to the lost and found in Annecy bore fruit – my husband’s wallet had been returned, with credit cards, driver’s license, and 175 euros! Since we can’t remember exactly how much was in it, we’re not sure whether the good Samaritan who turned it in took something for his trouble, but even if he did, he left quite a bit, and we’re grateful for that.

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About 6 corners of the Hexagon

After crossing back into France, we visited the tiny Most Beautiful Village of Lods and regretted not being able to rent a canoe or some other craft to enjoy the lovely stream.

We spent one night and half a day in the beautiful city of Besançon, where we rented an electric boat to do the “loop” around the city. After lunch, we continued north into Haut-Rhin, Alsace and visited an organic wine cave in the Plus Beau Village of Hunawihr before settling into our chambre d’hôtes for two nights in Colmar, one of my favorite cities in all of France – and the world, for that matter.

The next day we took a tour of 5 nearby villages as well as the Château du Haut-Koenigsbourg and did a bunch of wine tasting.

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About 6 corners of the Hexagon

Next we headed to Seyne to spend the night chez our friend Guy. We drove through part of the Gorges du Verdon (one place in Provence that we never got around to visiting) and, later, endless fields of poppies and other wild flowers.

Lunch the next day was a picnic in Barcelonnette, followed by a major map error that added two hours to our trip. Finally arrived in Risoul, where we stayed for three nights. We visited Briançon and another Plus Beau Village, Saint-Véran – at 2,040 meters in altitude, it’s the highest commune in Europe.

Upon leaving Risoul, we drove to La Mure and took the little tourist train to Saint-Georges-de-Commiers, round trip. Continued north and arrived in Annecy, where we stayed for two days. We enjoyed a lovely day of biking and paddleboating and could easily have stayed a week. Truly a lovely city, and one of the most beautiful lakes I’ve ever seen. Unfortunately, my husband lost his wallet with his license, credit card, and, as far as we can remember, about 200 euros.

Two more Plus Beaux Villages: Sixt Fer à Cheval, which was cute but unremarkable – though definitely worth the visit for the beautiful drive, and apparently it’s a favorite spot for hikers. Then Yvoire, which was like a town-sized flower shop – it seemed to be filled and covered with flowers as far as the eye could see. We spent night number 7 in Amphion-les-Bains, on Lac Léman (Lake Geneva).

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About 6 corners of the Hexagon