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Obernai
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Obernai
December 6, 2001
Dear Friends and Family,
We started out on the road from Strasbourg to Nancy. We were being guided by the descriptions in our Lonely Planet Guide to France and their description of Nancy seemed interesting enough and the distance was about right. We still haven't figured out exactly how far we can comfortably go in one day because we shift from back roads to freeways and we've found that it makes a difference what country we are in. This was our first full road day in France.
The first town we came to is called Obernai, 35 kilometers (20miles) south of Strasbourg. It's too small for much of a Lonely Planet description but we detoured into the center of town and found ourselves in the middle of the weekly street market. This looked interesting so we drove out to the edge of town for a parking place. "Edge" back to "center" was only about a five-minute walk; this is not a big place.
The market kiosks were scattered over several of the central streets. There was a wide selection of clothes and household goods but that's not on our shopping lists anymore. We focus on food. And there was plenty of wonderful food from the French countryside: cheese, meat, salamis, bread, fruits, vegetables. Everything looked so good, it was a shame we were just passing through.
Or were we? We found ourselves in front of a small hotel. We looked at each other and said, "I wonder if they have space?" They did and our long driving day thus ended by 10:30 in the morning. We returned to the market for some of that bread, cheese, fruit and salami. We added a bottle of the new Beaujolais Neauvou and settled into our hotel room for a wonderful picnic. Now this is my idea of road travel.
After lunch we explored Obernai. Of course there was a central church and graveyard. The names on the family plots were the local mix of German and French or maybe they were all just Alsacian. Next, we walked around Obernai - along the rampart wall that still encircles the central town. The moat is now filled with gardens and backyards. We saw a moat-side fixer-upper for sale but decided that we've had enough challenging home improvements for awhile.
That evening, still full from our picnic, we skipped dinner and settled in early. Marianne promptly fell asleep and didn't get up for 10 or 11 hours because jet lag from the San Francisco to Frankfurt was still dogging her. One more week and we'll go back across the Atlantic and start the time adjustment all over again.
Friday morning we left just after breakfast, filled with resolve to really make it to Nancy and get some distance behind us. We'll see.
Take care and stop along the road if you can.
Regards,
John and Marianne
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Created December 18,
2001
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