It's days like today when you know why you have a motor home and go on touring holidays rather than spending the time in one place!
We got up early this morning and we're away by 09:30, retracing our steps about 20 km to visit the town of Bitche (pronounced "Beach") which we had gone through yesterday and looked worth visiting.
Indeed it was. The motorhome aire was free, although we only used it to empty grey water (I believe buying water and rinsing one's loo out did cost about €2, but we didn't need to do that), and actually parked in the main car park. What we had come to visit was the Citadelle, which was up rather a steep slope - to my irritation, I couldn't manage it without a couple of stops for breath. But I got there in the end, and the SW was very patient with me!
Once we got there, we discovered that there was a path all the way round, about 1km long, and fairly flat, which they recommended you walk round, so that's what we did. It was seriously lovely, views both over the town and of the citadel itself, now a monument.
When we had gone all round it, we went back to the van and headed to a local Intermarché, where I did a shopping and the SW got diesel. I don't know why people say the French are unhelpful - this is almost never true in my experience, and today was no exception; the bill came to a little more than the authorised limit for contactless, and I'd left my credit cards in the WoMo - so she suggested I pay in two lots! Which I did. Very helpful.
Then it was time to head on - not very far today, just to Kehl, where we have been so many times before, usually much later in the year as a base for the Christmas markets in Strasbourg. The SW set the Satnav to cross the Rhine at a barrage - forget its name - and then take us up-river towards Kehl. It was lovely - you can't see the actual Rhine, as it is up a high embankment, but there is a small stream or canal flowing alongside - presumably for overflow purposes - which obviously has a lot of fish in it. We saw loads of heron, a coot or two, masses of swans, and a cormorant. I could not think what the latter was called, and had to have recourse to the silly poem about laying eggs in paper bags.
The aire is fuller than it usually is in December (such a surprise!) but there was still room for us. I would have liked to have gone into Kehl to shop, but when push came to shove, I realised I would get over-tired if I did; I still have to pace myself a bit despite being massively better. The SW set off to go to Strasbourg, but he missed a tram and then it started to rain, so he came back. And I had bought us choucroute for supper - we were, after all, in Alsace - so we have just eaten that, and I think it is time to close our shutters for the night.
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