A quiet night next to the River Rhin/Rhine, overlooking Germany. This was a hair-washing (Sophie) and clothes-washing morning, and after that excitement we thought we’d find some more by backtracking Northwards to the pottery towns of Soufflenheim and Betschdorf. The local couple we’d chatted to the previous evening had said we should as it was only about 8km away.

We did have a couple of things to contend with though. Firstly, we’d be arriving at about noon, so nothing would be open for 2 hours. Also, it was ridiculously hot again. Anyway, we filled in this time with a quick dash to Aldi, because Sophie wanted another saucepan and I wanted some of their surprisingly good non-alcoholic white wine.

We then headed to Betschdorf for lunch. With only 2 options on Tripadvisor, we chose number 1, which had great promise. Unfortunately, arriving after 1:15pm, the “plat du jour” was the only option, which to be fair is what we’d happily opt for anyway, but let’s leave it that we’ve had better 😉. Did I mention that the house wine tasted off – that’s never happened to us before.

So time to hit the potteries – what joy. The first one was closed, and I was all for getting back on the road, but I didn’t get away with it that easily as Sophie saw some onroad parking along a stretch of pottery shops. To be fair, she was more interested in the workshops and to see potters at work than the shops themselves. This was good news for me, because only one fitted this bill, and to be fair he was a classic ancient potter, with a workshop/atelier to match. So Sophie indulged in photographing it and him, as well as communicating in French as best she could.

At last we were on our way, and my plan was a drive-through of Strasbourg, to at least get a feel for the city, even if we didn’t stop. I thought I’d got away with my brush with the “Centre Ville”, but then on my push for freedom and the breeze of the open road, Sophie saw another Centre Ville sign and my fate was sealed. I’m told that it was a very attractive city, but I was too busy dealing with the traffic and the one way system to confirm this.

As a special treat, I thought I’d take Sophie for a short trip into Germany, as it was so close, and more or less en route. Unfortunately, the heat was really getting to her by this stage, and it was a particularly busy time of day. Even my surprise visit to a German Lidl wasn’t fully appreciated and I had to leave that €4.99 litre bottle of Amaretto on the shelf as we didn’t have the patience to join the large queues. At least I tried.

Back on the French side, we soon arrived at my first overnight stop, which I thought was rather nice given it was close to the Rhine, with dozens of swans graciously floating on it. Unfortunately, the screaming baby in the motorhome opposite, fortunately a rare occurrence, was not a risk we wanted to have so close and so it was decided we’d check out my next choice.

A quiet spot next to a small lake in the countryside looked promising, and we even stayed there quite a while, enjoying the cooling evening. It wasn’t to be though, as some of the people in the small parking area were a little noisier than we’d expected, and the risk of the peace not returning was not worth taking.

So, last chance saloon was a secluded parking area high above Obernai. At last, we had found an ideal location, and soon settled down to a lovely night’s sleep.

*** Just to mention that our blogs can be up to a few weeks behind reality, as we’re always in catch-up mode ***