Driving Trough the Mountain Towns

The wine fair at Colmar was only worth about three hours. So afterwards, I took the long way home by driving through the Vosges mountains. ( I didn't mention it before, but Theresa had returned to Indianapolis for 2 weeks so I was making this trip solo.)

August reached the halfway point and the weather was still more like November than summertime. Even the locals were complaining that it was unusually cool. Each day brought more clouds, more rain, and temperatures in the 60s.

Driving in the mountains in this weather just serves to bring the clouds and the rain even closer to you. At times, you actually climb up into the clouds and can't see anything for the fog. At other times, you can look out over the other mountains and see the patchwork of sun in some spots and rain in others. And of course, the higher you go the cooler it becomes. On this day, it was in the low 50s up there.

I stopped in the old mining town of Sainte Marie and then went across the pass to the town of Sainte Dié. St. Dié is actually far enough to the West that it has always been France. The towns all have French-sounding names rather than the German-sounding "burgs" and "heims" and "wihrs"and "willers" of Alsace.

You can also tell the historic boundaries between Alsace and France by the military cemetaries and battlefield monuments. Every time I drive in the Vosges I stumble across a different one.

The intro photo is of the clock face in the tower of the church at St. Dié.