Northern France including the British Military Cemetery at Pozières and Alsace Wine Route
Mittelbergheim to Camping Benelux-Bâle
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Mittelbergheim onwards along the Alsace Wine route
12°C outside when we awake on the Parking du Zotzenberg at Mittelbergheim, the forecast is for warm and sunny later. We breakfast, Mr C. visits the ‘art walk’ between the vines and does some sketching. Gill walks over to the cemetery and looks for the Schwob family grave, which is near the gate. She also finds the graves of the other Domaine families: Hirtz, Wantz, Gilg, Seltz and Rohrer.
A young German couple with a little boy come over and talk, asking what happened with the car that bumped into us. Gill explains and show him the place. They chat about journeys and explorations and he is interested that we had wine delivered to the Hymer! They bought one bottle of Sylvaner because they did not know what was best. We explained what we do and recommended Hirtz and Schwob, telling them that all their wines are good and to just go and try them!
We leave around 11.00am taking the road through Barr, an easier and more picturesque route. Then D1422 past Epfig and onto A35, a good dual carriageway past Sélestat to Colmar (and on to Mulhouse). South of Colmar we take D83 via Rouffach to Cerney. From Cerney N66 another good road but through the towns of Thann, Moosh, Wasserlinging to Urbès. Here the N66 starts to climb steeply through the Vosges Forest round some serious hairpins to Col de Bussana at 1820m and Saint Maurice sur Moselle, the source of the Moselle River. We take the small road on the right towards Camping Municipal Benelux-Bâle [Basel].
When we arrive, the office is closed for lunch so we sit in Hymer and eat our lunch, it is 26°C outside, hot and sunny. When the office at Camping Municipal Benelux-Bâle opens we book a pitch and find No.41 along the perimeter road facing south and towards the forest. It is a large pitch between pairs of mature fir trees, dense giving good shade. We park up, pull out the awning and set up for a lazy afternoon.
First we explore the site, about 150 grass pitches about half with static caravans, many have built elaborate constructions to enlarge the original caravan, and the rest for tourers. There are two shower and toilet blocks both recently refurbished and very nice. The site is quiet, no doubt because mid-September is near the end of the season here in the mountains, already the weather is cooling down. The emptying facilities are good, washing up and laundry area, washing machine and dryer and small children’s playground.
We write and draw under the shade of the fir trees, opening a supermarket Carmella Cava around 5.30pm. We enjoy the indolence of doing nothing but enjoying the forest, the mountains, the cows in the opposite field and the birds: black redstart, chaffinch, tits and blackbirds. When the sun drops below the mountains the temperature falls very quickly and we put on fleeces for the first time since we arrived. We eat inside and have an early night.
Day 2 at Camping Benelux-Bâle
It is cloudy and definitely cool when we wake here at Camping Benelux-Bâle, 12°C outside and 17°C inside the Hymer. We shower and breakfast and as we walk down to the shower block a raft of about eight to ten hang gliders rise up over the top of the mountain ridge. Gill walks to the field opposite the campsite and watch about six of them circle down and land. They are colourful, the riders skilled and older than one might have imagined!
Later we put a batch of washing in the washing machine and drive to U-Express supermarket at Wasserling. U-Express is busy but well stocked with fresh food and a good range of wines (very different to Intermarché at Moyenmoutier). We only need milk and baguette as the bread is no longer delivered daily to the campsite. Later back at the campsite we have a new neighbour, a German couple in a small tent.
We hang the washing on the line next to the awning and have lunch. The hang gliders are still taking off from the mountain and landing in the field. A lazy afternoon sunny with clouds and 23°C, Mr C. watercolour painting and Gill writes and journals. We enjoy crevette (purchased this morning) with a bottle of Roche Maze Sauvignon, about 6.00 in the evening. The sun has dropped behind the mountains here at Camping Benelux-Bâle, the air soon begins to cool. It is tranquil and pleasant jus the general background sounds of people returning to their tents/motorhomes, the last of the hang gliders are returning and the sound of music somewhere in the background.
As the dusk descends we move inside and cook chicken stir-fry, it is filling and tasty.
Day 3 at Camping Benelux-Bâle
This trek across France is unusual for us, we don’t often stay at campsites, and when we do our stay is seldom more than two nights. Our intention when setting out was to drive to Spain as quickly as possible, but . . . the temperature was much hotter than we liked, so we stayed in France hoping to avoid the intense heat of Spain. In view of that we have taken a more leisurely pace and stayed longer on campsites, so here we are on day 3 at Benelux-Bâle. Today is another clear sky, 15°C outside as the sun rises across the valley to the east. We have coffee, shower and Mr C. goes outside to do Qigong & Tai Chi. The early morning cyclists on the track in front of us, watch as they pass.
Later we sit outside and plan the day, the sun slanting through the trees with the pungent aroma of pine oil drifting by as the sun warms the trees. The 18th century Moulin de Huile (oil mill) in Urbès is open the first and third Sunday with demonstrations, so we walk down to the village of Urbès noting that a boy-racer appears to have taken out a telegraph pole lose to the campsite, likely at high speed as the pole, 6 – 8 inches in diameter has snapped off like a matchstick at ground level, it lies at a jaunty angle across the road!
We walk on along the road to Urbès, up the steep hill to Storckensohn village, elevated above Urbès and picturesque. We find the mill but it is closed, it opens 2.00 – 4.30pm! It is disappointing but we get good photographs of the mill and water chutes, we just miss the demonstrations. We call at the small church of St Claire & St Francis in Storckensohn and the big church in Urbès, both open with simple Roman Catholic interiors.
Back at Hymer we have some lunch and rest in the hot and sunny afternoon, it is now about 27°C. About 3.00pm we walk to the perimeter road of Chem de la Stickelmatt, past Hymer and the campsite and up into the forest to Le Tunnel 20e siècle. The tunnel (and 3 arches of the viaduct) is all that remains of a 1930s grand plan to bring a railway through the mountain and over a viaduct across the river plain to the town of Urbès. Work started in the early 1930s but seemed to have stopped about 1935 or 1936 when Nazi activities became problematic for those living in eastern France. The Jews were rounded up from Paris and the cities and deported to workcamps. It seems that the project to Urbès was commandeered by the Nazis for their own use, to build heavy artillery using the deportees as their cheap workforce. Later in the 1940s, the tunnel also served as an excellent hiding place for their equipment and their activities from the allied forces. There were accounts from local people who were likely part of the French Resistance of how they survived during those war years. The place was both fascinating (in the scale of the potential project and sobering in the futility of war and the waste of the lives of so many young men.
We walked back via the viaduct, now a ridiculous looking monument of three arches that crosses the road but a stunning landmark that can be seen for miles around.
Later we open a bottle of Syrah/Grenache Languedoc wine from U-Express, at €3.96 we agreed it was an excellent wine and will return for more. Later as the sun set behind the mountain we enjoyed chicken stir-fry and sat late into the evening as the darkness started to fall. We bring in the table and chairs and put the awning away as heavy rain and thunderstorms are forecast for tonight.
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