We left Moliner earlyish and headed up into the Alsace region. We had a really long day travelling and arrived at Belfort about mid afternoon. The aire here is free, but there are only 8 free powerpoints so you have to be early to get one. There were more than a dozen vans when we arrived so it was a case of hoping someone left and grabbing the power before anyone else.
We didnt hang around for that though and we took a walk into town and it was drizzling, but a lovely temperature. We went to find the tourist bureau to get some info on the Alsace region, but they were closed on the Saturday. We kept walking around and checked out the town. Belfort has a large fort on the top of the hill. The fort was used extensively in the war between the Prussians and the French in the late 1800’s. Frederic Bartoldi built a massive lion statue to comemerate the freedom of the French after the war ended. Bartoldi was also responsible for building the statue of liberty. Aparently an amazing man. The Belfort lion stands guard over the town of Belfort.
There was a bicycle thing on in the town and we had a chat to a couple of lovely people. The picture of me on the bike is a bike made for wheelchair people who can get themselves around on it. I could only just touch the ground on that one. The statue photo symbolises freedom of the people.
The next morning we were lucky to spot someone leaving and snagged the power point to charge our electronics. We then headed down town after a nespresso coffee – which we can only have when we are hooked up to power. The tourist bureau was open and we got some info on the wine trails and then headed up to the fort. On the way we strolled through an antique flea market where there were some quite cool stuff and not just junk.
The fort is a bit of a climb but the view was amazing from the top. We have to remember that these places, though tourist attractions now were once living & working environments where whole communities lived, fought and often died trying to keep together entire countries. The seige here lasted over a 150 days. I had another coffee here, a gourmand cafe they call it which is a coffee of your choice and then 3 small cakes or little desserts. I hadnt tried this before and it was a delight. We were lucky as it was the 1st sunday of the month and the fort and lion viewing were free. We then headed back to the van to pack up and leave. Colmar is next and isnt a long journey.
