Start of the big road trip - crossing France

Time to set off on the big adventure ! The plan is to drive through France, cross Germany, take the ferry to Helsinki and then do a tour of Finland (attending my cousin’s wedding in Carelia on the way). Then take a ferry to Sweden, and drive back through Denmark, Germany and Luxemburgh, and then on to Normandy for another wedding. And then, hopefully, arrive back safely on the Cote d’Azur one month later, safe and sound. The plan was of course to meet up with loads of friends on the way as well!

So today, we started our journey by driving up to Valence (which was at a suitable distance from Cagnes for an evening drive). The drive was pretty much eventless, thankfully we didn’t even encounter any traffic jams (good idea to leave on a Thursday, methinks). Valence is a nice enough town south of Lyons, nothing spectacular, but it makes for a nice stop-over. After a perfectly decent and very reasonably-priced dinner at the lively main square of the old town, and a quick stroll through the old town, we hit the sack. We had a long drive ahead of us the next day...

Our next destination was Strasbourg, all the way in north-eastern France on the German border, a good 700km from Valance. A bit of a drive then – thankfully the French motorway network is very good. Traffic was also smooth, apart from one bit around Lyons (we stupidly blindly followed the GPS through Lyons, rather than taking the ring road...). So we arrived late afternoon, eager to start exploring the city.

Strasbourg is the capital of Alsace, a region of France with very close ties to their dear neighbour Germany (the region has changed hands several times over the last couple of centuries). A fact which is very visible, notably in the architecture and cuisine (also, especially the older people seem to speak German pretty comfortably). We started our visit by a walk around the enchanting old town – where the German influence is particularly noticable in the architecture. The canals that criss-cross the city also adds to the charm. We naturally paid a visit to the famous cathedral, with its impressive astronomical clock.

After our tourist walk, we made our way to my aunt Tutta’s place, who lives in Strasbourg. Her appartment is very nicely located in the middle of the old town, in a peaceful courtyard. After a quick tour around her cozy place, followed by an aperitif, we headed into town for dinner. She had picked a very nice and lively place in the old town, nicely located by a canal, where we eagerly devoured the local cusine (since I’m not a big fan of sauerkraut, which is a major ingredient of Alsacian cuisine, I went for spezels with lamb stew).

After dinner, we contently made our way back to the hotel, our stomachs filled, ready to tackle Germany.