Mama H Visit (part 2 - quick trip to France)

We were sad see to see Dad go, but decided to press on with more adventures!  On Saturday we loaded back up in the car and made the quick drive over to the Alsace region of France.  It's just over an hour away but provides amazing difference in language, food, and culture.  Plus this particular area is full of fun little wine towns.  You might remember our adventures here with Abby and Jack.

Since we had been a couple of times before, Kristin picked out a new town to see and we settled on Riquewihr.  Having made it through World War II relatively unscathed, it still features much of what was built here in the 16th century and has retained the medieval architecture, including the wall around the city and a small castle.

First stop was lunch, so we had crepes and cider just outside the wall to get into a French spirit.

Next we headed into the center of town.

Despite the rain in Stuttgart, it was a beautiful day in Riquewihr.

Again, Natalie slept right through it

Once we had enough touristing, we headed to the supermarket to grab some French delicacies before heading back across the border.  We stocked up on goodies like chocolate, cheese, and wine...but there were a few things I couldn't convince the ladies to let me sneak into the cart.

Wow France, did you import this from Minnesota?

On the way home we took advantage of the long, long summer day and stopped in Baden Baden for dinner.  I enjoyed our trip but was happy to be back to the land of wurst, kraut, potatoes, and beer. 

Wow, sehr deutsch!

The other notable part to dinner was an infamous diaper Natalie left me to handle by myself in the back of the restaurant, but I'll save that story for another day.  Afterward we did a quick walk around town to enjoy the beautiful buildings by sunset.  Fun facts: Baden Baden was a site for Roman baths in the first century and was the headquarters for the French occupation forces in Germany after WWII.

We were happy to bring a little France home with us.

This kind of trip reminds me of how lucky we are to live in such an awesome area.  And makes me wonder how I have not gained 50 pounds!

Weekend in Paris? Oui!

With the impending arrival of Baby Cupcake, Matt wanted to surprise Kristin with a fun weekend away (before weekends away required frequent diaper changes and carrying lots of gear).  It was also a fun substitute for our trip to Turks for our anniversary, since Kristin could no longer fly.

Luckily, Stuttgart has a fast train to Paris that takes only 3 1/2 hours.  The train travels at nearly 200 mph at its peak, which makes for a quick trip through the French countryside.

Stepping off of the train in Paris, we hopped on the Metro and arrived at our hotel between Opera and Place Vendome, an area we had not explored on our previous trips.  Matt made sure a few of Kristin's favorite things were awaiting her in the room.  

Laduree macaroons and flowers?  Oui! Merci!

Our first adventure was to the Musee de l'Orangerie, which is home to eight panels from Monet's Water Lilies series and other impressionist works.  The museum was originally built to house a collection of orange trees for the Tuileries Palace and was eventually converted into an art gallery.   

I usually paint rooms a single color.  Flowers work too.

On our second day we headed to Montmartre to check out the view of Paris and the Sacre Coeur.  The weather was  ... interesting -- super windy, mixed with downpours.  And it was a bit of a hike up hill for the pregnant lady from the Metro station.  But with all of our apartment stair climbing, she successfully conquered the ascent up a few hundred stairs.  We rewarded ourselves with a delicious brunch at La Boite aux Lettres after wandering around the crowded streets for a few minutes.  

Our afternoon was spent at the Musee D'Orsay.  Kristin received her best pregnancy-related benefit to date when the guards allowed us to skip the hour-long security line.  The museum is an old railway station that had been converted into a gallery housing mostly impressionist and post-impressionist works.  The beautiful architecture alone was enough to warrant a visit. 

Enjoying the view.

If the coat don't fit ... you should probably let that lady skip the security line.

The next day was spent walking around Le Marais and the Jewish Quarter.  We did a lot of shopping and eating along the way.  The goal of any trip to Paris should be eating as many sweets as possible.

We took the sweets challenge to heart and embarked on a private chocolate, pastry and bread tour of Paris with Carine from Tours for Foodies.  We wandered through the Left Bank for more than 3 hours, stopping at 8 chocolate, pastry and bread specialty stores.  She did an amazing job describing the sweets and why they were the best Paris had to offer in that particular category.  Our final stop was La Grande Epicerie, a fabulous and comprehensive gourmet food store in the center of Paris.  Matt grabbed a few kinds of cheese to eat with his baguette and we headed home to Stuttgart with our bellies totally full.  

Matt's favorite from La Maison du Chocolat -- The Traviata

Bonus Travel Tip:  If you can't find your iPad and you swear you didn't take it outside of the hotel room, check the roof of the safe.  It may be magnetized to the top.  It only took us 5 panicked phone calls to the hotel to figure that one out.  And the Find My iPhone feature was a total lifesaver for tracking it down.

A Little Bit of Baden Baden and a Bit More of Alsace

We wanted to show Abby and Jack a bit more of Germany and some beautiful parts of France, so we headed out one afternoon to Baden-Baden, Germany.  It is a famous spa town very close to France (baden translates to bathing, to bathe or baths).  And so nice they named it twice (not my joke).  

We found a festival on the grounds of the Baden-Baden Casino and grabbed some French food for dinner.  The dress code for the casino is jackets and ties for men, so we just stuck to walking around outside and enjoying a beautiful night.

The next morning we spent a few minutes checking out the town (but saved the spas for our next visit).  It's a beautiful and historic area that was initially founded in the Middle Ages and has been popular since Roman times for the natural spring baths.  Its heyday was during the 19th century when celebrities and other wealthy people were attracted to the high class casino, the luxury hotels, the horse races, and the gardens.

And then we were on our way to France!  We took the scenic route through the Black Forest, stopped at the ruins of Kloster Allerheiligen (All Saints' Abbey, built in 1192) along the way and checked out the nearby nature trail.  

Which included a long stretch of rushing waterfalls (Allerheiligen-Wasserfälle).

Jack loves it when you take pictures of him.

And then we finally made it to France!  Our first stop was in Colmar, a very cute town filled with colorful homes down every street. Of course, we started with food.

Rosti potato deliciousness.  And more macaroons.

Our last stop in Colmar was a section of town called Little Venice.  There is a canal winding through the middle with some of the prettiest buildings and flowers you've ever seen.

The next morning we headed out to explore the Alsace Wine Route, a series of towns among the vineyards of Alsace.  We started in Eguisheim, which is a particularly tiny, but cute town.  The roads in the town extend in a circular pattern from the town square.  Many of the roads are too narrow for cars, so you have to park outside of the town and walk (we found the outer ring to be the cutest).

From there, we rented some bikes and headed out into the vineyards for a lovely ride.  The weather was perfect and the vineyards were getting close to harvest time.

After all that hard work biking, we rewarded ourselves with a few more glasses of Cremant d'Alsace (French sparkling wine that doesn't actually come from Champagne) and some crepes.  

We spent a few more minutes enjoying the vineyards on our way back ... and then stopped for more wine.

After a long day, we headed back to Germany.  And Matt got to impress Abby and Jack with his Autobahn driving speeds.

I think they enjoyed driving fast.

We're so glad that Abby and Jack were able to visit us.  We love the opportunity to take visitors to explore new places around us.  Come back soon!!!

Rendezvous in Provence

Over Memorial Day weekend I got an email from my good friend Rich saying he was going to be here in June in case we could meet up.  "Here" is actually the south of France but that's still much closer than his home deep in the heart of Texas, so I said of course.  Never mind that it's an 8-9 hour drive from Stuttgart...it would be an adventure and great chance to see the French countryside.  After a half day of work on Friday, Kristin and I set off and made it just after sunset to the hotel in Aix-en-Provence, in time to drink some German beers I had brought to celebrate.

The next day the three of us ventured into the city to see the Saturday morning markets.  Every few blocks through the old city, the streets would open into a small square and a new type of market was there to greet us.



Lots of delicious stuff 

The French know baking 

Lots of good looking seafood at this market

We also found the flower market

It wouldn't be a European city tour without a church so we popped into the Cathédrale Saint-Sauveur, the Catholic cathedral for the region.



Rich was impressed with the organ...it's much larger than the one he plays

Despite the snacks we had at the market (squash blossom fritters, nougat, and some amazing macaroons), all of the touristing made us hungry so we decided to partake in some oh-so-French crepes.  What goes well with crepes?  Local apple cider, of course!

After lunch we met up with Rich's tour group at a winery.  The inside wasn't that interesting but the outside was beautiful and they had a huge garden out back.  From what little I know about this area, and all around the Mediterranean, the garden seemed very fitting.  Fields of lavender (which Provence is famous for), Cyprus trees, and many other flowers, fruits, and of course...grapes!!

Oh, and there was wine too!  It actually wasn't very good so I wasn't sorry to be sober driving us but Rich and Kristin managed to drink it with a smile and we all had fun.

After the tour, we had some time to kill before dinner.  Despite consulting multiple guidebooks, nothing peaked Kristin's interest within a reasonable distance so I just started driving.  After finding a couple of interesting towns, we sprung upon the village of Ansouis and it was an incredible find.  Built into the hill overlooking a valley of grape vines, it had a uniformly old and sun-washed look while also sporting pockets of color, culture, and fun.

Thanks for the picture Rich!

We reluctantly headed back to Aix for dinner, which turned out to be really good, and then were lucky enough to experience Fête de la Musique.  According to Wikipedia, it's supposed to be a world music day but is really a night across France to celebrate music on the first day of summer.  This translated to musicians around every corner and in every square un downtown Aix-en-Provence.  It was an amazing experience with an incredible number of people out and about to see it.

There were a few main stages with big acts:

There were some medium-sized stages amongst the historic statues and fountains:

There was a very packed DJ stage that was waaay too hip for us:

There were even acoustic musicians playing things like Billy Joel:

 And these guys were doing samba music:

Needless to say, it was an interesting cultural experience and a very fun night.

The next day, Sunday, the tour group was going to a museum that didn't sound very interesting so we struck off on our own to check out the Pont du Gard, the highest of all Roman aqueduct bridges and one of the best remaining.  I often forget how much Roman stuff exists outside of Italy, and how close we are to Italy, so this was a welcome surprise when we found it in the guide book.  While I regret still not having ever seen the Mediterranean when we were 45 minutes away from it, heading north also meant 45 minutes less of a drive home instead of 1.5 hours more.

Our trip started with some more modern Italian engineering as the local Ferrari club passed us on their Sunday fun day.  I saw more Ferraris in this group than I had ever seen before moving to Europe.  While French highways have a speed limit of 130km/h (~80mph), they also have big signs announcing every speed camera.  I'll bet these guys are pretty good at spotting the signs.

While the journey was fun, the aqueduct was really impressive in its own right.  It's a massive structure and it blows my mind that this aqueduct was just built to carry water 30 miles from the spring to the town.   The water runs across the top of the arches, which is almost 150' high.  The smooth yellow part in the front has been refurbished over the years, formally as a toll bridge and now as a pedestrian bridge.  The whole area is a UNESCO world heritage site and also offers hiking all through the area and swimming in the river.

View from the pedestrian bridge.

We hiked up the hills on both sides because it was a beautiful day.  Here's the view from about halfway up the hill looking down on the pedestrian bridge.  It's almost totally separate from the aqueduct.

Here's the top where the water would flow.  The channel is about 2.5' wide and 4' high and it drops less than 1" across the whole 900' span (a gradient of only 1 in 3,000 for you engineers)!

That's enough Wikipedia facts; you can go there if you want to read more.

All in all it was a wonderful trip and a great chance to see an old friend.  I'm not sure if this is a threat or a promise, but if anyone else is coming to Europe, we are always happy to travel out of Germany to see you!