Alsace

We spent four glorious days in the French wine region of Alsace. Stayed in a little, medieval village called Riquewhir, near Colmar, and leaning out of our bedroom window, we can gaze on the vines that grow down the hills right to the edge of the village. All the towns around here are breathtakingly beautiful - half-timbered houses painted in all sorts of vibrant colours with eccentric turrets and balconies, cobbled courtyards, forged iron signs and flowers spilling in all directions. Many still have their city ramparts in tact. We've spent a couple of days driving around the villages and went north as far as Strasbourg - the number of tourists is just horrendous in the centre of Strasbourg. Coconut macaroons seem to be the local specialty and outside just about every shop selling them, there's a lady handing out samples to passers-by. I think we had four each one day - they certainly knock the socks off Schneeballen! And of course there are caves everywhere for degustation and wine-buying.

A bit of a surprise when you drive into Colmar and there in front of you is a 12-metre high Statue of Liberty. Frederic Auguste Bartholdi, whose greatest work it was, is Colmar's most famous son. One really pretty place we went to was Uttenhoffen, where many of the houses are painted a magnificent blue - le bleu de Hanau. Take a look.

Drove along a part of the Route de Cretes (Crests), partly built during WWWI to supply the French frontline troops. It's a skyline drive through the highest and most beautiful part of the Vosges. It's a ski area in winter but they cleverly extend their season but opening the slopes up to mountain-bikers in summer and take bikes on the chairlifts. It was a Sunday when we were there and there were lots of motorbikers, cyclists and walkers out - we even saw a couple of men on rollerblades, sweeping down the middle of the road, complete with ski poles - absolute madness! Also lots of parapenters - on one of our walks we came across a plaque that said something like - "To our friend Raymond, who took his last flight here". At least it's a beautiful spot for a last flight.

And my last word on cars - I've now seen the ultimate! We went to the Cite de l'Automobile museum in Mulhouse, which is apparently the largest car museum in the world with over 400 luxury cars. It started as a private collection of Bugattis and just grew. It is just immense - so big that there's a little train that can take you up and down the rows to see all the cars. An attendant told me that if you walk around the entire collection, you'll have walked 4km! And the ultimate car? A Bugatti Veyron - it can do up to 404 kph and costs a mere 1.3m euros! It actually did look pretty nice but where on earth could you drive it?? I'd be at the supermarket before the garage door had closed. The little bubble car would suit me much better. Apparently they could still be seen on the streets of Paris until 1989.