I spent a couple of nights in Longueval with ZC and Anna… catching up, enjoying delicious Raclette and wine… and preparing for our upcoming road trip.
I had rented a car online from Europcar in Reims… close to where ZC lives… and we went to pick it up on the morning of our big road trip departure. We were heading to Colmar, in the Alsace region.
I think I’d probably seen photos of the Alsace region, but I don’t think I’d ever actually heard of Colmar… although it was pinned as a “must see” on my Google maps. I should say though… it didn’t sound familiar when ZC mentioned it, but I had probably seen an alluring picture or two of it on social media somewhere.
Anyway… that’s where we were going.
Colmar.
The car rental bill turned out to be quite costly once we added a second driver and daily insurance… but having both of us drive was well worth the price tag. It meant we could split up the long journey. Anna offered to drive as well, but it would have been even more expensive to have her added on.
Our car was a Lexus hybrid, running on both petrol and rechargeable electricity… and it felt like it had a mind of its own, as most newer pieces of technology do. It was like trying to drive with ChatGPT. While some of its smart features were helpful… like cruise control and the occasional automatic speed adjustments… it also seemed to predict things in a way I couldn’t quite understand. At times, it would straighten itself out or slow down behind other vehicles. It even alerted me if someone was passing me… or insisted, somewhat rudely, that I keep my eyes on the road. I found it strange that it would beep sharply at me even if I was just scratching my neck… with one hand.
Eyes still on the road!
Overall… it was a good vehicle… aside from the obnoxious beeping, its unpredictably corrective behaviour… and the limited trunk space. What worried me most was its tendency to take control… completely undermining any defensive driving skills built up over time… like checking blind spots, staying in my lane, and matching the flow of traffic in front of me.
Basically… you didn’t really need to keep your eyes on the road. The car took total control.
Sometimes.
Driving in France presented a whole other challenge… the speed limits change constantly. One moment it’s 50 km/h… then 80… then 70… then 90… back to 50… up to 110… down to 30… then 20… then suddenly 70, 50, 120, 90… and back to 30.
It’s impossible to keep up.
No wonder I got so many speeding tickets last time I was driving here. It’s tough… especially when the speed limit can change so drastically within a one kilometre stretch.
On top of that… and back to the vehicle’s brutish beeping… the car seemed to GPS register every speed limit… and if we were going even slightly too fast or too slow… it would beep incessantly until we matched the exact speed. If I was going 51 in a 50 zone, it would beep beep beep and flash flash flash the limit circle until I decreased my speed by 1 km/h.
Odd… considering it would sometimes manually slow itself down. “Sometimes” being the key word here. If it was a mere minimal amount, the car seemed to take pleasure in annoying the driver to the max.
The car was a bit of a pest.
A brat.
I started calling it Erkel.
We left Riems and as we headed east, the landscape became more rural, with vast agricultural fields, wind farms, and patches of woodland. As we approached the Vosges mountain range, the terrain switched from mostly flat to gently rolling… with small rivers, dense forests and scenic valleys.
The Vosges had a gentle, inviting feel.
Our Airbnb was right in historical and picturesque Colmar… a lovely little flat with just one small drawback. It had a LOT of random steps up and down throughout the entire apartment. I had to be mindful of each step I took… being so careful not to trip. I kept thinking of my poor knee and my poor heel if I were to go down… and I would probably go down hard. The layout of the flat was a bit unusual… with one bedroom leading into the other… but it worked fine for us. After spending days exploring the region in the bitter cold, stepping back inside our AirBnB was always a huge relief. They must have spent a fortune on heating. It felt like walking into a wall of blazing fire warmth every time we returned.
That was really nice.
Because it was really cold.
Our home for the week had been described in the write-up as a peaceful haven. Mostly it was… fairly peaceful… if you disregarded the rambunctious and incredibly loud children who ran up and down the stairs each morning and afternoon. So maybe slightly less peaceful and slightly not so much of a haven, but still slightly wonderful… despite the random steps.
We did love it.
Our first evening and first full day was all about exploring Colmar… and it was absolutely stunning. I’d never seen anything like it before. We wandered through this gorgeous little town… ambling up and down every charming cobblestoned alley.
It felt like I’d stepped straight into the most vivid fairy tale imaginable. The entire town was romantic, whimsical, and almost mythical… like something out of a children’s storybook. I couldn’t get enough of it. I kept just breathing it all in, unable to believe it was really real. It felt like… at any moment, someone was going to come and shoo us off the movie set.
I must have taken a million pictures. Or more.
Probably more.
We escaped the chill occasionally, ducking into various “bistrots” (which is actually how you spell it!) and wee cafés for pain du chocolat & café au lait, then later tried flammekueche (or tarte flambé as the French call it) at the local marché. Mostly, we just took our time… lackadaisically strolling and soaking in everything adorable Colmar had to offer us.
Our main plan for our second day in the Alsace region was to visit a nearby castle and explore some of the surrounding villages. One town, in particular, had us all in a bit of a tizzy… and that was Riquewihr.., the charming village nearby that inspired the backdrop for “Beauty and the Beast."
Of course… if we’re being honest, every single village in the entire area looked like it belonged in a fable or a Disney movie…
I was already sashaying along the cobblestone side streets, singing “No one's slick as Gaston, no one's quick as Gaston… no one's neck's as incredibly thick as Gaston…”
Well… despite our big plans for the day, we had another think coming…
We were not permitted to leave Colmar.
Not in our vehicle anyway.
Our plan for the day quickly crumbled when we were stopped by a security guard who informed us that everything (including the parkade) was closed for the entire day.
You’re probably thinking what I’m thinking…
Everything?
Excuse me?
True story. We weren’t allowed to go any further.
No parkade.
No road.
No car.
No surrounding villages.
No castle.
No Beauty and the Beast.
The entire scenario seemed quite bizarre… like… what if there was an emergency and people needed to leave? What if we’d had a flight to catch? No one had warned us about any parking or road closures.
Actually… they had.
That was our bad… kinda. There had been signs posted up… taped on random exit doors around the underground car park. But we hadn’t paid much (any) attention to them… only noticing that other people were reading them… and in our way when we were trying to exit.
We didn’t bother reading what everyone else was reading. That decision certainly bit us in the ass.
Colmar’s central Parc du Champ-de-Mars was shut down for a major celebration… the 80th anniversary of the town’s liberation on February 2, 1945. The streets were lined with American flags in honor of the U.S. troops who had freed Colmar from German occupation.
Given that the U.S. had just launched a trade war with Canada, I wasn’t exactly ecstatic to celebrate their flag, nor their presence. Still… it was fascinating to be there, to witness the observance of such a monumental piece of history.
We thought we might be able to attend some of the ceremony… but access was restricted to ticket holders. Large screens were set up for the crowds, but we were too far back to see much. And it was cold. Baltic. Much too bleak to stand idle… straining to see a screen.
I’ve always had a keen interest in learning more about WWII… and to have the chance to experience such a significant moment in history firsthand was overwhelming. But as I mentioned… it was cold.
Really cold.
I don’t do well in the cold.
Perhaps the AirBnB guy could have given us prior warning about the event and the closures? Right?
Right.
The craziest thing about it all was that no one seemed to have a clue about when the parking lot might re-open. No one was privy to the schedule of events or when the ceremony might come to an end. Each person we asked just shrugged and said it “might” be “later”…
That’s all the confirmation we could get out of anyone. Riot police, regular police, security guards, onlookers… believe me, we tried asking everyone.
With our plans thrown off for the time being, we ended up wandering around Colmar again… which wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. How could anyone complain about stepping back into a fairy tale for the day?
At any moment, we might have seen Cinderella dashing down the street with one shoe, Little Red Riding Hood hurrying through the lanes, Sleeping Beauty just waking up, or Hansel and Gretel following a trail of breadcrumbs. Maybe Belle would have been singing “Bonjour! Bonjour! Bonjour! Bonjour!”
We were surrounded by magic, love, inspiration, and adventure.
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