Golf anyone? Fore!!

Saturday 24th May

Moving day today. Not going very far - only 160k. Dora would have taken the easy option and had us go straight down the motorways, but I decided we'd do a bit of a loopy trip, mostly staying off the motorways, and travelling via a few smaller villages. As we moved westwards, away from Mulhouse, skirting the south end of the Vosges mountains, we lost all those German sounding village names, and the style of houses returned to more of the French style. The villages were still fairly close together for the first 50k but as we left the hilly country and moved in to more cropping country, the villages became further spaced. We were pretty excited to come into one village and there were 3 storks nests on the high spots. 

Amazing birds - anywhere high for nests.
Clack clacking away.

First stop was morning tea in a small village along the way, and where there was a local market underway. We wandered the market checking out the usual produce. We resisted the urge to buy anything as we are hotelling it for the next 3 nights with no cooking facilities. What has really surprised us everywhere is the cost of roast chickens. Much more expensive than home. Pork is cheap, beef sort of similar prices to home, and lamb similar (though we don't see much lamb here).

We stopped further along the way for fuel and to buy a sandwich for lunch. It was too early to eat so we were looking for a picnic spot along the way.

Not long after our picnic stop we spotted some turrets in amongst the trees in the distance. Have gps, will explore! We followed our noses and Dora into the wild and eventually came across the magnificent Chateau attached to the turrets. We think we'd snuck in the back service road - we did pass a sign which I think said private access, but we continued driving looking for a place to turn around, and eventually found ourselves on the main road in. It is now a hotel, restaurant and golf course. Pretty spectacular. When we followed this main entrance road down to the main road, there were huge signs advertising the hotel/restaurant. 

How's this for a Chateau?
The golf course driving up to it looked very pleasant.

One of the gatehouses.

The main entrance to the property (from the inside).

Not a lot else to see along the way, just more lovely French villages, though fewer and further between than those in the Alsace area. 

This was just a cute advertising picture.

Spotted this church up on a hill above a village.
Found our way up there but they wanted 9€ to have a look. Pass!

We are now in Pontarlier which is close to the Swiss border. The Tour de France is coming through this area at the end of July. We will check out some of the route in the next 2 days.