Thursday 2nd July – Week 3 – Ribeauville / Riquewihr / Kaysersberg

Have I mentioned that it is hot – man is it hot today. It got so hot that we eventually had to put the roof up on the car – 36 degrees is too hot to be driving round in the sun. We started off in Ribeauville, as we'd only gone half way up the main street on our walk the previous night. From there, we headed off through the vine covered countryside to Riquewihr. Riquewihr is a small town set on a steep hillside. You enter through the main gate, which is the archway in the middle to the town hall. The walk through the town isn't quite on hands and knees, but it is a fairly steep hill. We were there about midday, so the sun was high in the sky and there was no protection from the sweltering sun. Although it sounds like a fairly quiet day so far, the couple of hours walking in the heat had taken it's toll on our energy, so we retired to the shade of the campground and had a well earned siesta until some of the heat had gone from the sun.

5pm was a good time to be back out sightseeing and we visited a couple more small towns – Kaysersberg, which I'm sure we visited in the early 90's – it had a very familiar feel to it.

The big talking point of the day was, however, the dinner. Remember, the when in Rome comment. So tonight Anne and I tried the local delicacies. I had the Sauerkraut, with 5 different meats and potatoes, while Anne had the meat tourte (pie in other words). The previous night, these dishes had looked pretty good, so with great anticipation, we rocked up to a restaurant in Riquewihr (it doesn't matter what restaurant in what town – they all service it) and duly ordered our choice of dinners. The Sauerkraut is is in fact sour – it's made with white wine, but it tastes more like vinegar. I hadn't know this, until I tried it. The meats are slabs of fatty bacon, ham, and one very white sausage. The potatoes are simply boiled newish potatoes. I can now confidently report that the potatoes were the highlight. Make no mistake, this isn't something that is put on for the tourists – everybody eats it, and now I have too. But that's it, never again. Given the quality of food in the rest of France, this really is bland fare. I'm not sure what we are in for in the next week, when we head into the Rhine and Moselle, but just right now, I'm not feeling confident. Anne's meal consisted of a meat pie and many different grated vegetables – swede being among them. This is called a Tourte and once again – once is enough. The highlight of the meal was dessert!

We returned to the campground and were met with the familiar site of the people that had been sitting outside their caravans when we left at 10 O'clock in the morning, who had been there, outside there caravans, when we returned at 4, were still sitting outside their caravans when we returned to the campground at 10pm. This seems to be a feature of campground life, where some people just rock up to a campground and then revolve their entire life around and caravan and an awning for the week or so that they are there.