Whirlwind Visit to Paris

Eiffel Tower

Awesome little tapas bar

Paris has never been on our list of places to visit, but seeing as we were going to be in France, we thought we should include a couple of nights in the itinerary. And we both ended up being super glad we did! We said goodbye to the awesome car in Strasbourg and got a very relaxing train to Paris, then a cab to Hotel du Petit Moulin, our cute little hotel in the Marais district. It was pretty small, but our room was really nice, and it was in a great location for exploring.

The first night we went for a wander to a couple bars we found recommended in the timeout guide, then went to a little local for dinner. Greg had some tripe (ugh!), and I had the most amazing duck confit (yum!). It was a lovely relaxing afternoon and evening.

The next day we were up early and straight to the Louvre. We didn't have a plan at all for what to do in there, so just followed our noses and ended up in the old Egyptian area. Saw some pretty incredible stuff, and had it almost to ourselves. We then decided to go find some big paintings, and finally, seeing as we were there, thought we should see the Mona Lisa. So glad we left that until last. There were just so many people there, that had it been our first stop we wouldn't have bothered exploring much else as it was just too hard and unpleasant. It was amusing watching the thousands trying to get a photo though, and of course we pushed our way through and got ours too.

From the Louvre we walked through the park then up Champs Elysees to the Arc de Triomphe, meeting up with Nick again on the way. We climbed the 284 steps to the top for the view, and I'm glad we did. It was crazy watching all the cars go around the roundabout. So happy I wasn't down there driving!

View from the top of the Arc de Triomphe

We then walked to the Eiffel Tower, and looking at the queue decided not to go up as there were so many people waiting. It was cool just looking at it from below, and seeing how big it is.

Having had enough walking (we decided 6kms, plus up and down 184 steps was more than enough for one day, especially after all the bike riding in Alsace), we hopped on one of the ferries and cruised down the river, with travellers from lunch of course! We stopped at Musee d'Orsay to see some amazing statues, and marvel at the incredible old train station it's in, then on to Notre Dame.

We had dinner at another local, then I took myself off to bed while the boys proceeded to a couple of bars for drinks. The last morning we were up early again, and set off to wander through the Marais and then into the Latin Quarter. It was good to have done all the touristy stuff the day before as it meant we had a relaxing morning exploring and didn't need to rush before saying goodbye to Nick and hopping on our plane to Crete.

All in all we really enjoyed Paris, and would love to go back one day with a bit more time.

In front of the louvre

Everyone trying to get a photo of the Mona Lisa

Arc de Triomphe

Looking down Champs-Élysées from the Arc de Triomphe

Musée d'Orsay

Selfie in front of the Mona Lisa

Selfie in front of Venus de Milo

Selfies in front of the Eiffel Tower

Nick in the Honesty Bar

Nick holding forth

Notre Dame

Streets around the Notre Dame

Cheese!

Crepe - yum!!

Travellers on the boat

Streets in the Latin Querter

Poor little bunny! For some reason I really like this!

Biking through the Vines in Alsace

Riding on the back roads among the vines and the locals

Vines and pretty little towns everywhere

The last hill of the day

We had so much fun biking through the Alsace vineyards. The wines were amazing, the views incredible, and it was so good to really be in the vines, and not worry about how much we could drink!

If only the bikes were as good as everything else! We picked them up from Ribeauville (5 mins drive from Riquewihr), in our massive car. Was a bit of a mission getting three bikes in the back, and we had to drive back to Riquewihr with the boot open! And then we had to get the front wheels back on the bikes. Thanks to my amazing mum and dad, I knew how to do this, but we just couldn't get the front brakes back on for Nicks bike. After ages of getting really frustrated (and super black dirty greasy hands) we gave up, and Nick spent most of the first day with no front brakes! The bikes were absolute crap. Clunky gears, so old and heavy, and my chain kept coming off, until I learnt not to change into the easiest gear. We even got a comment from one guy we came across who runs bike tours: "where did you get those old things from?". Next time I think we definitely get better bikes somehow, and possibly even some hybrid electric ones. There were a few who came past us quite happily on them while we were pushing our bikes up some huge hills!

Our first stop was Hunawihr where we had quite possibly the best tasting of the entire trip at Sipp Mack. The lady welcomed us in, sat us at a table and proceeded to give us the full run through of most of their wines. A lovely older American couple joined us, and we spent a good hour there chatting to them and enjoying the wine, the best of which was the Grand Cru Rosacker Riesling. So good!

We then made it back to Ribeauville and got the guy to fix Nicks brakes, then stopped for a few more wines before making our way back to Riquewihr.

It's rather different to vineyards (domains) in Australia or NZ. The majority of places have their facilities in the town, and their grapes are spread over the whole area, right next to other peoples grapes. They have Grand Cru areas which are where the best grapes come from, and then have other rows in other areas. This means the grapes for wine from different domains can come from the exact same area, and the differences are down to how they make the wine.

The following day we set out in the other direction, and accidentally went to Kientzheim. Best accident ever, as we got to taste some more fabulous wines, and we came across that bike tour I mentioned before who suggested we go to Kayserberg, which we did, even though it was in the other direction. Best idea ever, as above the gorgeous little town was an old castle. We bought ourselves a bottle of wine, some cheese and more foie gras and climbed up there for a picnic lunch. So relaxing and such beautiful views, again of vines in every direction!

Castle above Kayserberg

We continued on our way, visiting Bennwihr, Mittelwihr and Beblenheim, tasting some amazing wines in every town and wishing we had unlimited baggage so we could bring more home. Lastly we rode up through Zellenberg before following our noses back to Riquewihr through the vines on some narrow farm type tracks.

The majority of the way we were riding through the middle of the vines on either very small country roads, or actual vineyard / farm tracks. There was virtually no traffic around, and not a lot of people either. Most places started harvest the second day we were there, so as you can imagine the grapes were ripe, and delicious! There's something pretty special about riding through the vines, and stopping whenever you feel like it to try some different grapes. On our way back at the end of the day, there were queues of tractors towing trailers full of bins of grapes from the harvest.

Ribeauville

Riding up a steep back road in Ribeauville

Eating the fresh raspberries

Wine cave in Ribeauville

Riding through the vines

Spot the castle in the background

In front of Kayserberg

Walking up to the castle for our picnic lunch

Looking down on to Kayserberg

Vines as far as the eye can see

Picnic

Kayserberg

The boys pushing their bikes up a "hill"

Adding their bit to the Grand Cru - can you see the boys legs?

Hello France! Cute Little Riquewhir

There was an obvious change the instant we drove over the Rhine and into France. In Germany the roads were so well maintained. They were super smooth, and all the verges were neat, tidy and free of rubbish. And you can drive really fast on the autobahn. Coming into France, the roads were the opposite. It was still beautiful countryside, but the roads were rough, there was a fair amount of rubbish (not a lot, just in comparison to Germany) and the max speed was 130 which felt super slow to us by now.

Beautiful Riquewihr. Pretty much all that green is vines.

Our Street

Riquewihr is such a beautiful town, and you can easily see why it makes all the lists of the prettiest towns in the world. Such a gorgeous walled old town, surrounded by vines. It gets pretty busy during the day with a massive influx of people coming in on big tour buses, but once the sun starts going down and they all leave it is very peaceful.

We stayed at a cute little hotel called Le Sarment d'Or right in the old town, with a view out on to one of the pretty little back streets.

Another thing we noticed as soon as we hit France was that the number of locals speaking English was a lot less than in Germany, however the number of English speaking tourists was a much higher, with lots of Americans around. We hadn't noticed many English speaking tourists at all in Germany.

We met up with Nick in Riquewihr, and spent the our first afternoon in among the Grand Cru vines above the town. We took a picnic up there with pretzels (still super close to Germany), amazing meats and cheeses, and of course foie gras. Delicious! All topped off with an incredible view. The town was laid out before us, with vines as far as the eye could see in every direction.

Riquewihr rooftops

Picnic above Riquewihr

Cheers! (with the smallest glass in the world!)

Picnic in front of the Grand Cru grapes

The makings of a picnic

Foie gras anyone??

Riquewihr streets with the Grand Cru vines in the background

First taste of frogs legs - delicious

Foie gras

Making the beef tartare at our table

The completed tartare

Nicks burger - yup that's a layer of foie gras on there

The majority of our time in Riquewhir was spent biking through the vineyards (which will get it's own post). We did have some time to explore the town, but not as much as I would have liked. There were lots of wine caves on the outskirts we didn't visit, and some really cute little shops too. Our saying for this trip has become "I wish we had one more day!"

The best place we ate was our hotel restaurant on the last night. The food was divine, and it was pretty special having frogs legs for the first time (yum!) and also having tartare prepared at our table. After dinner we took a bottle of wine back up into the vineyards again, and relaxed in among the grapes overlooking the town. A great way to end our few days in Riquewihr. The boys felt pretty good too, contributing to the 2014 harvest by taking a leak in among the Grand Cru vines!

It was good fun having Nick with us. The boys had a couple of big drinking nights, while I quite happily took myself off to bed and relaxed.

Looking down Riquewhir main street

Looking up Riquewhir main street

Which wine to taste... how about... all of them!

Rosy cheeked wine tasting

The boys at dinner in Riquewihr

Riquewihr at night

Riquewihr at night