E5 Days 66-70

Friday, May 10th

The chocolate egg dog

• The sun is shining today!

• Less than two kilometres into the stage, I put on all my sun protection again.

• The stage is around 30 kilometres, but no problem – we’re fine and the paths are great, relaxed forest trails. We are slowly beginning to overcome our 30-kilometre stage trauma, it seems.
• We make such good progress that we treat ourselves to a snack break on a bench with a wonderful view at kilometre eight and send my family a message telling them about the beautiful view.

• Shortly after the break, we turn off the GR7, along which we have not found any accommodation (for over 60 kilometres …) and instead take a variant that follows the red triangular path.

• As soon as we turn off onto the path, we think to ourselves: Ha, the GR might as well run here, because it’s mud, mud, mud and fallen trees and the whole thing is beautifully framed by barbed wire fencing.
• At least, when we leave the forest path and reach the road, we see a donkey as a consolation.
• Right on time at kilometre 16, which we think marks about the halfway point, a bench appears in the shade, where we enjoy our baguette with pâté and cheese.

• We’re just packing up when a dog sticks its head through the bench from behind and – whoosh – sucks up the last blob of pâté with its tongue.
• It’s a good thing I’ve already packed the rest.
• What we haven’t packed, however, and what is now lying on the floor, is the empty packet of chocolate eggs (an Easter sale item that made me very happy), which we have stuffed full of rubbish.
• The dog sees this packet, grabs it with great enthusiasm and runs off triumphantly with it.
• Before we’ve even properly understood what’s going on, the dog has already disappeared round the corner to the yard.
• Mmmh, should we run after him and clear up our rubbish? Well, let’s leave him to it, we think, and continue on our way, relieved of a box full of rubbish.
• Shortly after the village, we see a few more benches – which we affectionately call ‘Bratbankerl’ (red, metal benches in the blazing sun) – and one is even occupied!

• The route takes us through other small villages, one of which has a beautiful stone washhouse that is still in really good condition and delights us, as cold water comes out of the tap, which we use to cool off.

• It’s not long before we reach Monthureux and our hotel through a long landscape of fields with a very lonely farm.

• We check into the hotel, take a shower and eat in the restaurant, which turns out to be surprisingly good again and also offers upscale cuisine – mega!

Saturday, May 11th

Saint Marie?! No, bank robbery

• Our first stop today is at the Carrefour Express and the boulangerie, where we stock up for the next few days, during which we will again be in the middle of nowhere and there are no towns, let alone supermarkets, along the way.

• We buy fresh strawberries, which we eat straight away during our break on a bench that appears in the middle of the forest (?!?!) – mega!

• We think to ourselves that the bench is probably there because there is an old railway bridge here from which you can bungee jump.

• Apparently there’s also a Voie Verte and a mountain bike route along here, but it looks VERY wild.
• From the Voie Verte, we meet a cycling family turning off onto the crazy-looking mountain bike trail – with two younger children (I’m guessing younger than ten, but I’m notoriously bad at guessing ages – especially of children) and a bike trailer!

• ‘That could be my family,’ I say to Matthäus and he agrees.
• We ask ourselves: should we warn them? Well, they’ll notice, we think, because they’re speeding past us rather than travelling at a comfortable, conversational pace.
• We pass through a lot of forest today, for which we are grateful, as it has become really warm and the sun is beating down from the sky.

• There is a ‘village’ in a valley that consists of three farms and is called Sainte Marie, which we naturally find super funny.

• Here we meet our cyclists again, who have apparently turned round (not surprisingly) and are now catching up with us.
• There’s a swing at a playground along the way, which I immediately use and feel like a child again.
• After our break, we come back to a larger forest path where logging work is apparently underway, which is super exciting to see – all the big machines!

• Here we meet our family of cyclists again, where both parents have now taken to looking very desperately at their mobile phones – oh dear…
• Sainte Marie is not very fitting, because I’ve put on my bank robbery outfit with the sun beating down and I feel a bit funny when I walk into a bank.
• ‘Do you think if I go to the ATM now, security will come?’ I ask Matthäus and try it out – everything goes well, I even get money (after I’ve inserted my ATM card and robbed no one other than myself).
• In the afternoon, we arrive relaxed at our accommodation with the Dutch ‘Tussen de Bronnen’, where Michel welcomes us and shows us around.

• Michel tells me enthusiastically that he has often hosted the Dean of TU Delft: ‘And he even sleeps in a tent, imagine that!’ I should give him my regards (well, sure, I’ll do that in my next coffee chat with him, which we hold regularly…)

• At the table d’hotes, we eat together with other guests, a Belgian motorbike group and two Dutch people, with whom we have a great chat.
• They were originally travelling through to the south, but got stuck here, they say with a laugh, and have been coming here regularly for a few years now because they like it so much.

Sunday, May 12th – Mother’s Day!

L’Escargoterie – the snail farm

• Breakfast with the Dutch guests, who are in a bit of a end-of-holidays-depression.
• However, when we discuss at breakfast that today is Mother’s Day, Patricia says: ‘Every day should be Mother’s Day!’ – Yes <3, where she’s right, she’s right.
• So to mark the occasion, I call Mum, who is in Gerasdorf at the moment and has gathered with the whole family (except me…) – Dad has even baked a cake – moooi, I’m about to get a missing-family depression.
• After saying goodbye to Miranda and Michel, really great hosts, we set off on today’s stage, which first takes us along beautiful little roads into a forest.

• We are once again very grateful for this in view of the sun beating down on us – it has to be said, we are having marvellous hiking weather at the moment.

• The path leading to the GR 7 is quite wild and leads us a bit through the undergrowth, but the GR 7 today is a really thick forest path that you can’t really miss (although we still take a wrong turn at the first attempt…).

• We take a cosy lunch break with a baguette and tapenade in the shade before our route takes us to the Canal de Vosges and along the ‘Voie Bleau’ cycle route.

• We haven’t met any hikers or walkers yet, but we do meet a few cyclists here on this sunny Sunday afternoon.
• We reach the foothills of Uzemain via small roads, where we are staying today: We have found something very special: A snail farm with a tiny house on it.

• It’s great and it looks exactly as it sounds: Anne Marie welcomes us and shows us around the Tiny House and asks if we would like to do a snail tasting later – of course!

• After showering, we meet her on the terrace, which is beautifully exposed to the sun and where she immediately pours us a glass of wine (rosé from the market) and has already prepared a snail aperitif.

• We try snails in butter with herbs and snails with sun-dried tomatoes and even snails with their shells on.
• Everything is really delicious and super tasty – the snails have a similar consistency to mussels and are even a little more flavourful than mussels.
• Anne Marie tells us that she has many guests here from the Netherlands, Germany and Switzerland and that most of them don’t even want a taste.
• We laugh and say that we don’t usually eat snails.
• In France, people like to eat them, says Anne Marie – it’s a tradition, especially at Christmas.
• She and her husband have been running the snail farm for a year, so last season was their first, after her husband decided to quit his job and set up a snail farm instead.

• On May 20th, Anne Marie continues, the babies are released and then stay and thrive until October and then – njam, njam!
• She also shows us a special snail specimen with a very curved shell – wow, really beautiful, but probably also impractical for the snail.

• After this great experience, we spend a cosy evening in the Tiny House, watch another great thunderstorm, read, do puzzles and talk about snails and eating habits.

Monday, May 13th – Fatima Day (says Grandpa)

Race to the supermarket

• We are woken by the sun shining into the Tiny House. =)
• While we’re making a cosy breakfast in bed, it starts to rain and we’re already thinking: ‘Oh great, rain right in the beginning’, but by the time we’ve packed up and done a quick booking session, it has stopped again.
• We set off shortly before 12 noon and say goodbye with a heavy heart to the Tiny House, the snail farm and Anne Marie, from whom we pick up some snail pâtés as provisions.

• The paths that the GR 7 takes us along today are beautiful, even if they are poorly signposted.

• The landscape becomes hillier and takes on a more mountainous flavour – we climb up and down into valleys through which small rivers flow.

• We also pass a few springs that offer great refreshment, which we are very grateful for today – another sunny, hot day.

• We pass through small villages consisting of scattered farms with cow pastures in between, through which small single-lane roads lead, framed on both sides by wooden fences, which gives the whole thing a very beautiful and idyllic character in the summer weather.

• However, we can’t enjoy the scenery in peace and quiet because the supermarkets in Remiremont close at half past seven and the delivery service – apart from a sad McDonalds- looks poor.

• We therefore start a final spurt towards the village and actually make it to the supermarket in time, where we stock up on dinner ingredients, which we then prepare and eat with relish in the flat where we are staying today.
• Our hosts are a bit complicated and insist on handing over the flat in person (and a deposit of €500 in cash!), but as we’re hiking, can’t predict when we’ll arrive and don’t usually have reliable reception, it’s all back and forth.
• In the end we have to wait quite a while for them, as they don’t live in Remiremont itself – but at least the sun is shining – we still find it a bit tedious (not very nice after a long day of hiking and already hungry for dinner, sitting around on cold stone steps and waiting…)
• Patricia, who is actually very nice, shows us around and says of the washing machine ‘You won’t need it anyway’ – Dude, that’s why we booked the flat in the first place!

• Doing the laundry, cooking, watching climbing and good night!

Tuesday, May 14th

Bain Nordique and Le Dôme

• We set off and our first stop is the supermarket, where we stock up on food for the next few days in the ‘mountains’, i.e. around the Ballon d’Alsace.

• We also find a ‘Marie Thérèse’ beer, which of course I’m absolutely thrilled about, so we take a bottle or two with us for tonight, when we treat ourselves to some luxurious accommodation: A sphere with a hot tub!
• ‘Beer for hiking?!’ says Matthäus, “All right, but you’re carrying it up the mountain!”, and sure enough – I feel up to the challenge!

• As a result, to Matthäus’s absolute delight (not), I have an earworm of ‘Und ich taufe meine Kinder mit Bier’ (translating to “And I baptise my children with beer”) for the entire ascent….
• Here in Alsace, the hiking trails are marked with colourful symbols, which adds a bit of colour and a nice change from the red and white striped GR markings.
• What’s more, as soon as we leave Remiremont, small mountain paths begin – a hiker’s dream!

• We are thrilled, just as we are happy to be able to make up some metres in altitude – a steep climb is waiting for us right at the start of the stage and makes us pant after all the flat kilometres we have in our legs!
• The view we then have of Remiremont – albeit through the dense forest – makes the effort worthwhile.

• Once again, the weather is marvellous – so the forest looks wonderfully bright green and real!
• Here and there we pass rocks that immediately put me in a climbing and bouldering mood.

• At one point, we can already see the highest peak in the Vosges in the distance, the Ballon d’Alsace, which our route will take us up to on the stage the day after tomorrow.
• The stage is short because we want to make maximum use of the hot tub, of course – but I still need a break rather abruptly – fortunately, a bench by a lake appears at that moment.

• Matthäus is still unpacking food when I’m just as abruptly ready to move on again! Sighing, Matthäus packs up all the food again…
• The sphere is just as great as we imagined – beautifully made and you almost feel like sleeping outside!

• While the hot tub is still heating up, we have an afternoon snack with coffee and tea and I write a bit.

• Then we think: ‘Well, now we can get into the hot tub!’, but it turns out: I’m definitely used to heating hot tubs in sub-polar regions and have fired them up so much that the water is now more than 40°C! So you can heat hot tubs too hot!

• That’s why we have to let it cool down first, as we don’t have any snow to throw in to cool it down.

• In the meantime, we treat ourselves to dinner, open the beer and then finally go into the hot tub, although it’s still so hot that we have to keep going out to cool off.

• At the end we enjoy the starry sky in the hot tub and later fall asleep nice and warm under the starry sky in a cosy bed – mega!