Mittelbergheim to Habay, Roman Villa

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Mittelbergheim to Habay

Wine Tasting and Buying in Mittelbergheim

It is mid-morning before we are up and had breakfast here on the parking lot next to the cemetery in Mittelbergheim. Mr C. walks into Mittelbergheim and looks for the bakery, it is closed! I catch up with jobs and our travel journal.

Late morning we walk into Mittelbergheim to check out the wineries, all are closed and out working the vines on the slopes, with the usual arrangement of a phone number if we want a tasting. This is to be expected really, each winery is a small family business and early May is a busy time of year for any agricultural community. There are three wineries whose wine we favour, Schwob, Hirtz and Wittman, all very close to each other in Mittelbergheim. The wines from each winery are different even though they use the same grape varieties.

Later, we walk down to Hirtz but there is still no reply. We walk on through the village to Wittmann, where Madame Wittmann is checking a couple into her accommodation. She gives us a glass of Sylvander to drink while we are waiting leaves the bottle and tells us to help ourselves. In our three-way French-German-English we pass a pleasant hour tasting Sylvaner, Pinot Blanc, Pinot Gris, Pinot Noir and Crémant d’Alsace. The Crémant is very good. We buy all except the Pinot Blanc and later she delivers the boxes to us at Zotzenberg. We remember that last time Mr Wittmann’s mother delivered the wine to us, an old lady in her eighties, she tells us that she will be 88 this year!

We are now full with our quota of wine to meet our duty-free allowance, and so begin to plan our route home. I cook turkey stir fry for tea… no more wine for us today, we have done a lot of tasting. The car park is much busier tonight with six motorhomes (plus us) staying over here at Mittelbergheim.

Motorhome Journey Mittelbergheim to Habay

The next morning, the sun is shining across the valley highlighting the rows of vines as far as you can see, all in bud and ready to flower. The narrow tractors are back and forth, clearing and turning the ground between the rows of vines. It is a tranquil and idyllic rural setting and very hard to leave Mittelbergheim. Reluctantly we do, and leave the car park at Zotzenberg around 10.00am, through Mittelbergheim to D35 and on to D425 south west towards the Voges forest. Here we start to climb up and up on D253 round some long but quite tight hairpin bends, up and forever upwards to the summit, Col de Voges at an altitude of 602m. Mostly it is through thick pine forest but every so often a break in the trees shows the alpine valleys far below us.

It is a magnificent drive, although it requires much concentration for the driver. From the Col we drop down through Hohwarth to Ville where we take D739 through Fouchy, another high altitude alpine road with some tight hairpin bends. Onto D23 through Lubine, a lovely alpine village, Colroy le Grande and Provenchères et Colroy. Here we pick up N159 (better road) and descend to St Dié des Voges. Onto N59 coming out of the forest through Lunéville and back to civilization at Nancy. Back in rural/agricultural France A31 takes us to Metz, a lovely city with its tall cathedral which we wish we had more time to stop and explore (next time perhaps).

Through Thionville to Luxembourg where we fill up Hymer with diesel (best price around) onto 109 to a small Aire at Koerich. Unfortunately there are only 4 spaces and all are taken. Pity as it is a new and very nice Aire. Now after 4.00pm and getting tired we press on taking N4 again to Arlon in Belgium and E45 towards the small village of Habay la Vieille. Here we take a small road into the middle of nowhere, getting narrower it becomes a very small country road between a farmer’s fields. We find the sign for Villa Romano de Mageroy, a Roman archaeological site. We stop and walk the 150 metres down a rough track to another car park, we are the only ones here.

There is a large square gravel car park mostly level. We stretch our legs and wander around the site between the parts of the once-magnificent Roman villa, taking ourselves back 2,000 years to first century AD (CE). It is quite big and well signed (in French and German) but the visitor centre (with toilet) is closed for refurbishment, that’s what the sign says, but our assessment is that it is closed, has been for some years and is very unlikely to reopen.

No matter it is sunny (although a little cold wind), quiet and just what we need to relax. We walk back up the hill and move our motorhome down to the square car park and park under a tree overlooking the remains of the villa on one side and under the shadow of huge pine trees on the other. There are kites and buzzards nesting here and from time to time make their appearance swooping down and perching on the fence posts, huge and magnificent and deadly to small things. Hummus with cold white wine and later smoked ham salad. Later still another campervan comes down the hill to join us overnight on the car park, just the two of us.

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