On 11 August I travelled to Wihr-au Val, still in the Alsace region and the mountain range of les Vosges. This was partly over the so-called Wine Route, taking you from one beautiful (traditional) village to another, and vinyards on every hill side. Again I found a nice green camp site (lucky me!), with very friendly owners, in a lovely little village, and ‘Voies Vertes’ nearby, as well as small railway station, and an Auberge (tavern). I had parked my camper van on a spot between an elderly French couple, from the Nothern part, and an elderly couple from Germany, who had a permanent site there and came regularly for a couple of weeks. The owner of the camp site organized tours in the village to explain about the history of Alsace (which has been on and off in French and German hands for quite a while), and taking us to a wine tasting at the end of the tour. One of the ‘green’ bicycle lanes was towards the city of Munster where I could go to a supermarket. To get there was a bit of a ride uphill, but going home was lovely, feeling the wind in my face while going downhill at higher speed! By cycling around I also discovered a small village with a historic center very nearby. The German couple had advised me to cycle to Turckheim – which I did – over some hills but do-able. Yet another beautiful little village, or perhaps small town, with a historic center. It was slightly touristy but not too much, not disturbing. On another day I took the train to go to Colmar, an old city, where they have a part with a river they call Petite Venise, which had really nothing to do with the real Venice, but it was quite fun to take the little boat ride on the river. On a rainy Friday I did go for lunch at the Auberge of Wihr-au-Val, at their bistrot, and I loved it, it was typical French and very good!!! They also have a gastronomic restaurant, but that one is more for travelers (and residents of course) on a (quite) higher budget.
This camping site was slightly different in the sense that many travelers who were there for a couple of days had made their tent or caravan or van very ‘cosy’ by putting some coloured lights and/or Chinese lanterns on their tent or caravan or in their ‘garden’, their little piece of land. And often a plastic (coloured) rug outside, I think mostly to keep the sand and the dry grass outside, but maybe also for decoration, and to give it all a feeling of …….. home?
Every day some people leave after breakfast. In the afternoon new people arrive and the people who were out for the day come back and some chat to their neighbours about it. On sunny days the code apparently is barbecue and you see a lot of smoke floating in the air or curling up to the sky as smoke signs trying to tell us something. The ambiance is quite relaxed, everybody seems to be at peace and have a good time. After dinner the men are sent to the ablution blocks to wash the dishes. At 22.00 everything is quiet, people slowly drift out of the day into the night to digest the good day they had and prepare for another one.
After Wihr-au-Val, on 17 August, I set out for Ecolonie in a village called Hennezel, a community of people who live according to community and ecological principles, they grow their own fruit and vegetables without using any chemical fertilisers, it is all purely bio. There is also a goat farm where they produce cheese and yoghurt. They organize many workshops during the year on a variety of topics, which generates income as well, and they have a camp site which actually is quite large. The permanent community members are being housed and fed and have a basic income. In addition to the permanent members there are many volunteers who stay from two weeks up to one year. I was curious about this set up, but I had not realized that it was a complete Dutch enclave, somewhere in France. I had not expected that and it felt weird, I am in France since I want to experience France. Also, there were no food shops anywhere near so you had to buy everything in their shop. The prices were quite high, biological stuff is always expensive, which is a shame but understandable. The way of growing the veggies is quite labour-intensive. I helped one morning in the garden and was given the task (together with a few others) of harvesting onions, with my own hands of course, no machines. The ambiance in the place was relaxed, all slightly ‘alternative’ people, with high numbers of decorated tents and caravans, and many self-made camper vans in all colours of the rainbow. It made me realise that my original dream was more about driving around in one of these type of vans but I have chosen for a more practical van, driven by my mind, not my feeling. To be honest also driven by the fact that I cannot build a van myself and do not know anybody who could have done this for me. Anyway, I can try to make my van a little more ‘personal’, a bit more Marianne. It was also nice to see a lot of people driven by a passion for a way of life, in particular the young tanned gods and goddesses, most of them full of confidence about their path in life. But the size of this community, and the fact that there were only Dutch people made me decide to leave earlier than planned.
I actually went back to Wihr-au-Val for a couple of days since I had felt so relaxed there and I did again the second time. Then I went home but made a two-night stop in Sierck-les-Bains, a nice village, with a camping site on the border of the river La Moselle. It was where the three countries Germany, France and Luxembourg meet.
I arrived home last Saturday, 29 August.
I intend to make another shorter trip in the Netherlands in September. Even if the plan was to go all over Europe I did not do that since I did not feel like doing that, it may be the Covid pandemic or it may be that I had no clue about how I would feel about it in reality. But that does not really matter, does it?? Maybe next year........
