For the second week of vacation, a friend will be coming to stay and my partner will spend the week working with the Montpellier Orchestra so he and I will take the opportunity to travel during the first week of Easter. Before settling in Montpellier, my partner was happily working and living in Belfort, a town in the east of France in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté (BCF) region so visiting his old home and friends has been central to our vacation plans. Belfort is found at the very east of the BCF region, on the border of the Grand Est region, home to Alsace, a historically important region which has a long border with Germany and which also borders Switzerland.
So as we'll be in the east of France, we will be exploring the beautiful Alsace region (hence the 'the Alsatian adventure' title) and we'll also dip a toe across the border in Germany. All of our flights, trains and accommodations are booked, so here's a look at what we'll be doing:
Day 1: Montpellier → Strasbourg → Baden-Baden
Unsurprisingly, the first leg of our journey will be getting to the right part of France which involves a 1 hour flight from Montpellier airport to Strasbourg airport. Easy!
We are due to land at about 13:35 so we'll take lunch in Strasbourg and then take a train to the southwestern spa city of Baden-Baden. My partner insisted we visit this German town for its thermal baths so our time in the city will be mostly spent relaxing in a naturally hot pool. I'm also interested in seeing the city a little before I lose my partner to the thermal bath as this will be my first ever time in Germany.
 |
| Baden-Baden vista |
By train, Baden-Baden is about an hour away from Strasbourg and it costs something like 14€ for a single trip for one person, handy and cheap!
We'll spend the first night of our journey here too, ina centrally located hotel, a short walk away from the thermal baths. Tariffs in Baden-Baden aren't bad at all, particularly for a nice hotel in the centre and the breakfast offering looks incredibly generous, they even offer cake, as in a full, big cake!
Day 2: Baden-Baden → Belfort
 |
| Le lion de Belfort |
After breakfast in Baden-Baden it's time to head back to the train station and back across the border to France, this time the journey will take 3 hours and is naturally a little more expensive (26-33€) to the eastern city of Belfort, the city where my partner first rooted himself in France following his studies.
As well as sightseeing, the main purpose of being here is for my parter to catch-up with old friends and colleagues whom he doesn't often get to see so it's really great that we can centre a holiday around this. One of his friends has very kindly offered to host us, so no need to book a hotel here.
Day 3: Belfort → Colmar
 |
| Colourful Colmar |
Following another morning of sightseeing/catching-up it's time to head back in the direction of Strasbourg, stopping short in the immensely picturesque Colmar, an hour away from Belfort by train. Colamr is considered the capital of Alsatian wine and is also well known for its stunning architecture, a lot of which predates, and was lucky to survive, the French Revolution in the 18th century, not to mention all the following wars and the invasion of Germany. In fact, Colmar was the inspiration for the setting of the hugely popular anime film Howl's Moving Castle.
For a town that's very popular with tourists, hotel rates are thankfully not bad and to keep the costs down we settled for a night in an Ibis hotel as we'll literally only be in our room for sleep as we have a very early start the next day...
Day 4: Colmar → Strasbourg
 |
| Strasbourg panorama |
To really experience Strasbourg in a day requires an early start so we'll be leaving Colmar very early so that we have as much of the day as possible in the huge, important city. Naturally, as someone very interested in European politics, the first thing that came to my mind when talking about Strasbourg was the European Parliament so we will certainly visit the Parliament and take a tour, both of which are totally free.
Other than the Parliament, we haven't yet really thought about what to do but we are spoiled for choice. Strasbourg is home to a wealth of fascinating architecture, both ancient and modern, there are numerous museums and cultural centres, and so many other things that they're overwhelming to list!
We'll spend our final night in Strasbourg before another very early start, this time dictated by our flight time as our flight is at 6:30am the next day so we chose a mid-price hotel near the Strasbourg train station.
 |
| The European Parliament in Strasbourg |
So that's the plan for our first week of Easter vacation; what do you think? Have you been to any of these places or ever fancied visiting the yourself? If you have any tips on where to go and what to see and do please let me know!
No comments:
Post a Comment