Day 6 in Paris…and Beaune…and Alsace…

12/30/12

Day 6 couldn’t have come at a better time. I am loving Paris SO MUCH, but as a country girl at heart, sometimes I start to wish for a little green.  So we set off for parts unknown, aka the Alsace region.  But before we did, we had to head across town to pick up our rental car.  As we donned our backpacks and popped up out of the metro, we were greeted with THIS:

Bonjour, indeed.

And then it was on the road, heading east and north.  I like roadtrips, so being in the car felt normal, despite the fact that I was (and still am) fighting a cold.  The paysage (countryside) was green and rolling and pretty.  We stopped off in a little town called Beaune (pronounced “bone”) that is apparently the capital of Burgundy wines.  It’s a walled city, tiny and old, and it was mostly closed for the New Year’s Eve holiday.  We wandered about a little in search of a building with cool roof tiles that we’d seen from the road – I think the quest to find it was more interesting than actually finding it.

Sarah after finally getting a photo of the mystery building. Walls are not an obstacle for this intrepid picture taker.

Then it was back on the road, bound for Parc du Wesserling, an “ecomusée textile” or textile museum, which has repurposed a defunct textile mill and turned it into a museum and learning center.  The reason for going to this was to enjoy their huge gardens, which had been decorated for the telling of the story of the Snow Queen (La Reine de la neige) – that was lovely and cute, but the bonus of that visit was an installation in an old factory done by lighting, sound and textile students.  This was cool.  A big, scary metal building with all kinds of fabrics draped in interesting ways over the old, rusty equipment, with lights and music.  Definitely one of the neatest things we’ve seen so far.

And this was the place where I finally got to taste vin chaud/mulled wine, which was actually quite lovely and tasty.  The wines in Alsace are light and fruity, which suits me just fine.   We finished up with a meal of beef at our crazy cute little cottage/hotel that I’m sure was inhabited by elves…but that’s a story for tomorrow.