Tag Archives: chateaus

Uncategorized

Parker goes to France, part four…

On Monday morning, we awoke to sunshine and chilly weather. Bill and I had decided that we wanted to visit Kaysersberg, since we didn’t have a chance to go there during our last visit over Memorial Day weekend in May 2018.

Before we drove to Kaysersberg, Bill and I dropped off some empty wine bottles at the bottle drop on the edge of town. Then we picked up a few items at the grocery store and took a short walk through a part of Ribeauville that we missed on prior visits. I don’t know how we missed the northwestern part of the main drag, but I’m glad we visited it a couple of days ago. I was rewarded with a few nice photos of the ruined chateaus that overlook the town…

  • Bill flaring his nostrils at breakfast, because I told him to “get to fixin’!”
  • A morning view of Ribeauville…
  • Dropping off bottles…
  • Still some Christmas decorations.
  • These were all over the northern part of the town…
  • Your chance to be someone else.
  • I might have tried this…
  • to look slimmer for a change…
  • A zoomed in shot of Château de Saint-Ulrich, one of three castles that overlook Ribeauville.
  • There is a third castle, Château du Girsberg, but I didn’t have a good shot of it…
  • Château du Haut-Ribeaupierre… perhaps in fitter days, I would have tried walking up there.
  • It’s easier to photograph the tower on a rare sunny day…

Some might recall that Kaysersberg has the distinction of being the quaint French town where famed chef and food writer Anthony Bourdain committed suicide in June of 2018. Bill and I were rather mystified that we had been so close to where Bourdain was at the end of his life; but the truth is, we had wanted to go there during that previous visit. We’d heard it was a quaint town with good restaurants. So this time, since we didn’t have dogs with us, we decided we’d go to Kaysersberg. It was very easy to visit in January; we practically had the whole parking lot to ourselves.

The town was pretty much dead when we arrived, but I still managed to get some beautiful photos thanks to the splendid sunny weather. Yes, it was cold outside, but everything was still very inviting and pretty… and in a different month, I imagine Kaysersberg is hopping with tourists.

  • On the way into town…
  • Albert Schweitzer, famed physician, was born in Kaysersberg…
  • The town was dead…
  • But I still found a lot of photo ops…
  • It really is a cute place.
  • I heard the rushing water and was sad that someone threw a plastic bottle into the river.
  • The Kaysersberg Tower peeks over the ridge.
  • A shot made for Instagram.
  • This was in German, French, and English.
  • You can’t kill the fish here.
  • But you can enjoy baked goods…
  • A better shot of Kaysersberg Tower… perhaps on a warmer day, we might have visited the chateau.

We decided to stop for lunch at a hotel restaurant called L’Art is Show. It was one of two restaurants we saw operating in Kaysersberg on Monday, although I’m sure at least one or two more were serving. I’ve noticed that this time of year, some businesses close while others stay open, then they seem to switch in February. Art is Show gets very good ratings on Trip Advisor and, indeed, had a pretty decent lunch crowd. Our waitress spoke a bare minimum of English, but we still managed to order lunch. They had a lunch special, which included a trip to a very generous looking salad bar, but we opted to order a la carte.

  • Despite all the signs, Bill still tried to enter through the wrong door…
  • I really enjoyed this wine, which was composed of some of my favorite grapes…
  • Grenache, Syrah, and Mouvedre make a delightful red…
  • Parker changed her mind against getting a entrecote and went with the bouillabaisse…
  • Bill had carpaccio… thinly sliced, raw, beef…
  • I had the entrecote, but after seeing so many get burgers, I kind of wish I’d gone for that.
  • Excellent frites!
  • Bouillabaisse was a hit… perfectly seasoned broth with lots of fresh fish and crustaceans.
  • I wish I had taken a photo of the funny signs in the bathroom advising that garbage cans must be worn. Google Translate fail!
  • More Kaysersberg scenes…
  • Another gite possibility… this one is right over the river.
  • This is where Anthony Bourdain ended his life…
  • They were on vacation.

As we were leaving Kaysersberg, I got a private Facebook message from Ellen Stillman Thomas, an American who lived in Esslingen (and Heidelberg) for years and is very involved in arranging tours for Esslingen, a cute town near Stuttgart. I have been corresponding with her via Facebook and the Stuttgart area Facebook groups since about 2014 or 2015. She happened to be in Kaysersberg on Monday, with her friend, Louise, and had plans to visit a nearby winery. She asked if we wanted to join her… and we did. More on that in the next post!

Standard
Uncategorized

A pet friendly Columbus Day weekend in France… part four

After lunch on Saturday, we loaded up the dogs and set off for Chateau de Chateauneuf, the awesome 15th century fortress and chateau we noticed from the motorway as we were making our way to Semur En Auxois.  Bill decided he didn’t want to go on the highway, so we took back roads through some very pretty villages.  I noticed that things seemed a little quiet on Saturday, but we had such beautiful weather, at least until we got up on the hill.  It was a great day to go exploring.

We were in Chateauneuf too early to visit the chateau, which opened at 2:00, and I doubt the dogs would have been welcome, anyway.  However, the little village next to it was very charming.  Since we were on a hill, we got some great views of the area.  I took several photos.

I probably could have sat on the hillside taking photos all day…  But the clouds were rolling in, so we decided to keep exploring.

 

We parked for free in a generously sized lot and walked around.

The entrance to the chateau offered information in several languages.  When the weather is warmer, this little village bustles with activity.  It was fairly quiet when we visited, though.  On the way back to the car, we ran into a local lady who admired our beagles.  She didn’t seem to speak English, but she knew what we had and was very pleased to greet them.  I am proud to note that her cat was sitting on the front porch.  Zane noticed and took interest, but never uttered a word.  Arran was oblivious, thank God!

If the weather had been a little less cloudy, we could have taken a stroll in the hills.  This sign tells visitors how long it takes to get to points of interest.

Chateauneuf is definitely a place I want to explore sans dogs.  But if you do have your dogs, you can enjoy some lovely walks.  I noticed several gites (rooms for rent), too.

 

We enjoyed good music and conversation as we drove along the country roads.  I saw several places that begged for me to jump out and take pictures.  We did stop at one point because someone failed to use one of those handy dog clean up stations.  We noticed others had stopped on the side of the road.  Unlike Germans, who take walks to take walks, I had a feeling there was something going on in the wooded area near where people were parked.  But I decided to wipe the poo off my shoe and keep going…  and we ended up in the lovely abbey town of Flavigny Sur Ozerain next.

 

A sign…  The 2000 movie Chocolat, starring Juliette Binoche and Johnny Depp was shot in Flavigny Sur Ozerain.  It is also the only source of the anise flavored candy Anise de Flavigny, which was first made by the monks. 

 

Points of interest…

While we were walking through this town, we ended up having yet another encounter with a local.  Two little old ladies were chatting as we rounded the corner with our dogs.  One of the ladies was in her house, looking out the window.  She did not speak English, but was bound and determined to chat with us about Zane and Arran.  She asked us how old they were, if they were brothers, and curiously enough, why they didn’t have their balls.  Actually, at the time, I was trying really hard to understand her because I never studied French in school.  I stuck with Spanish.  Curiously, I seemed to be picking up more of what she was talking about than Bill was.  And I caught myself answering in German a couple of times (and my German is only slightly better than my French).

Anyway, I posted about this odd conversation on Facebook.  Of course, my American friends wondered if there was a pet overpopulation problem here like there is in the United States (not that I’ve noticed).  But here in Europe, dogs aren’t spayed and neutered as often as they are in the States.  My German friend, Susanne, explained why, at least in Germany, a lot of dogs retain their equipment.  Indeed, there is a law that covers it.  That doesn’t mean you can’t get your animals castrated in Europe; but apparently, it is discouraged.  According to a 2011 article I found, it’s illegal in Norway.  You can read more about the cultural differences between Europeans and North Americans and spaying and neutering here.  Interestingly enough, there have been some folks in Germany who have noticed our dogs are neutered and they seemed puzzled by it.  Now I know why.

A couple of shots of the beautiful church in Flavigny.  It’s very quiet and peaceful there.

Right across from the abbey…

A World War I and II memorial…

Another welcome sight was the public (and free) WC.  It was pretty clean.  People must have read the sign!  I noticed that the French seem much more liberal with free parking and WCs!

The sun was out again as we left Flavigny…  I caught some good photos.

 

We were all pretty tired after our three walks on Saturday, so Bill went out and bought food from the grocery store, along with more wine… and a lovely lemon meringue tart for dessert!

What a lovely dessert!  It capped off a great day!

 
 
Standard