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

On Tuesday, 20 July, we visited the first corner of the Hexagon. We first drove to the lovely town of Wissembourg. The church has a beautiful though unfinished cloister, and just in front is a lovely, flowery park. We continued on to Cleebourg, where we bought a bottle of crémant with which to toast our visit to the first corner. It was a gorgeous day, and when we got to the corner we were stunned to see a local fisherman sitting right there, who spoke neither French nor English. Since we couldn’t explain why we were at that exact spot, I’m sure he though we were completely insane with our crémant and camera.

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

While planning our trip, we’d decided to celebrate Bastille Day in Strasbourg, and as luck would have it the town of Niederbronn held their fête on the 13th, so we were able to attend two completely different celebrations.

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

Back on the road after two days in Colmar, we visited a few more villages on our way north to Niederbronn-les-Bains, in Bas-Rhin, where we would stay for the next two weeks. The timing couldn’t have been better: while the preceding week and a half of traveling had been a lot of fun, we were ready to kick back and relax, swim and write and just be for a while.

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