Further east we go

Sunday 23^rd March

Today was another day of driving and we tried to keep off the beaten track. Today it is cold and wet – about 7 C. And during the drive today we had small hailstones and sleet. Still signs of winter in the gardens (hyacinth) and spring just beginning (daffodils). Not a good day to be in the open.

We first headed to Joinville to see a magnificent house and gardens – unfortunately we are at the end of winter and a lot of the attractions still have limited opening hours. This was one of them and we were not about to wait till 2pm for it to open. This place was somewhere that Louis IV admired and he used it for inspiration for Versailles – of course his had to be bigger and better.

Next stop Grand where there was a roman amphitheatre – again closed.  We took a photo through the gates. This place held 2500 people and there were also other roman ruins in the town.

We then found a reference on the map to the house of Joan of Arc. This was not far away from where we were so we headed there. This was the birthplace of Joan of Arc and they had a museum talking of her life and some history of the middle ages. They showed 2 videos in English. We thought the place was really popular from the number of cars then we realised they were all at the church next door.

Along the drive today we also passed through an area with a lot of thermal springs. A dip would have been nice, but not on the agenda. One village along this route was Plombieres de la Bain – just tried translating this and it is tuttu frutti bath??? This was a magnificent looking village where you came in along one side of the valley and out along the other and Rob was spewing that he couldn’t really look as he needs all his concentration for driving.

Now tonight we are in Belfort which appears to be quite a big city but we are not sure of its main purpose yet – there seems to be a large university here and a lot of Uni accommodation. We went out to look for dinner and got totally bamboozled in the old part of town so gave up and had chinese at the restaurant next to the hotel. Maybe tomorrow in daylight we will get it sorted.

As you can see from today's photos, yes I am on this holiday too. I am starting to get a little braver with using my high school French. If they talk slowly I am able to understand a lot but I struggle to get the sentences together so have to try just the key words. It is amazing how many words have been filed up there for a rainy day.