Alsace Wine Tour 2023 – Tournai to Rodemack

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our route from Tournai to Rodemack by motorhome

We wake on the aire at Tournai to a blue cloudless sky with the hint of a hot day to come. We have a little excitement when one of the German motorhomes can’t get the barrier to open so that they can leave. Earlier I had been irritated to note that our electricity from the hook-up point had been turned off (no hair dryer), I now reconsidered and decided there was a power cut. There was, the building site opposite had no power either. One of the other motorhome owners phoned the city council, while we waited power was soon restored to the building site but not us.

Two young women arrived in a little car, the younger one did nothing except mince up and down in her little, short skirt and high heels. The older woman had the manual over-ride key which was useless (it was electricity dependent) and there was no mechanical over-ride. She phoned the office who (at last) sent two suitably dressed workmen who knew the business, found the electricity box with the trip switch and restored the power! It had taken a good hour to get this barrier opened, we speculated on what the emergency procedure was to get the vehicles out (there was none…). On the road we leave Tournai on E42 to Namur, E411 and then E40 through Belgium to the border at Arlon.

We drive around Luxembourg city on A6 and south on H3 through the small villages of Frisange to Basse Rentgen to the aire de camping cars at Rodemack, today 186 miles (300km). It was quiet, rural and with only five other motorhomes it was perfect and just what we needed after a long drive. We call at the brand new water and disposal point to fill up with water only to find that the electricity has not yet been connected… not our day for electricity! We have enough until tomorrow so park up near the hedge and sit in the shade to drink wine and make stir fry chicken for tea.

In the evening we walk down the many steps, over the little stream by the stone clapper bridge and into the village of this walled Medieval cité. It is quiet and just how we remember it from July 2022: the chateau, the little chapel, the lavoir and water tubs, the walls and cite gate. Later we return to the aire, another two motorhomes have arrived, but all is quiet and we sleep well.

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