A week-end to the Vosges (France)

Having talked about it for a while, enough was enough. It was time to stop making plans and just effin go on a trip there. Like, in the week-end that was just coming up as the weather promised some good (topless) times.

The Vosges are actually not far from Belgium, even for us living at the exact opposite from the french border. Gérardmer is only 380km from Liège, just a 4 hours trip.

The morning was fresh but pleasant, we reached and went through Luxemburg with the motorway, then switched to "routes nationales" rather than using the french motorways. The trip was un-eventful, really smooth cruising under the sun all along. Not forgetting to apply sunscreen was really the only concern.

We reached Gérardmer around 2 PM and went for some lunch groceries, at that point temperature did reach 32°C. The "long nose shower cap" (from SoftBitsForSevens) was used as a sunshield with the shiny side out.

With our baguette and a choice of charcuterie, we went to a calm place near the lake, using the boot cover of the Caterham as a makeshift table. Our only cutlery was the spring-loaded pocket knife bought in Corsica over 15 years ago.

From there, we went to the famous "route des crêtes". The views and road profile are superb, clearly worth our week-end escape. Some spritited driving with a biker trying to follow me like a madman was a whole lot of fun too.

At some point I left the usual path in order to remain in the Vosges mountains rather than going down to Alsace (or at least that's how I did feel and still understand it). Temperature was 35°C when I stopped for gas and some welcome very cold Red-Bull.

The lady at the counter was aware that some serious rainstom was coming, and that some significant hail could damage the cars from their garage. Rain started slowly a few miles down the road. And something I've never seen before happened, I didn't even fully understand it at that time. The rain was drying right away on the windscreen, the raindrops were vanishing instantly as the weather and the car were really warm from the day. The crazy think is that I thought the sandy patches were just the dust from the day somewhat precipitating with the humidity.

So there we were, not too far from our guest-house but a bit early still. Really hot in the open car, under the evaporating rain. And sand I couldn't really tell the origin.

As the situation didn't improve, we decided to wait around the area of the fishing pond, there are benches and some infrastructure to cover us without having to resort to putting the roof back on the car. Only the shower cap was installed, with the usual black side out.

When the rain stopped, the timing seemed good to finally go to the guest house. The car was full of sand, the shower cap as well. In fact, the incoming strom was loaded with Sahara sand, warm air, and a lot of energy on top of it's fair share of rain.

So we went, it was just a few kilometers, the car covered with the shower cap again.

Our hosts remembered I already spent a night there with a friend and his Lotus Elise a few years prior, as we took part to a Lotus event driving around the Vosges. We were offered a short drink, we shared our snacks then went up to drop our backpacks.

As the swimming pool had been made available just a few days before, we went for a quick swim, not caring for the slight drizzle. The water was just around 25°C, just the lower limit to get in there really. But we had some fun nonetheless. Until the strom really got on us that is.

In a matter of seconds, we were in the storm. Pouring rain and some continuous wind. The garden furniture was sent flying away just at the moment my girlfriend was picking our towels and clothes from under the table, where we kept them dry. In a few seconds, we were rushed in the house through the boiler room backside door. And had a good laugh with our hosts. A quick shower, and time for dinner.

As we were really sold on the idea of having some really decent burger "downtown" (really a small plaza in the village), we got some. It was really good, we would have it again in the future.

After that, time for some mountain driving action. Very careful and in the mist and fog actually. With the rain gaining in itensity at Saint-Dié, we stopped under a bridge and quicly put the roof back on.

Back to the guest house for some late talk and local liquor, good times with the friendly couple that manage the place.

A good night of sleep, not caring for the pouring rain, a good english-style breakfast, and off we went the next morning.

It quickly became apparent that we wouldn't enjoy driving around under the rain or visiting anything in those conditions, so we came straight back home. -The rear tyres were long overdue for replacement, that didn't help either-
We might have stopped at the supermarket for some local wine. I drove carefully, and the weather cleared up just after we crossed the belgian border.

It was so hot that I kept the lower part of the side screen unlatched and flying open for some air. So the roof went down again. It was rolled in its case, and for the first time attached over the boot cover rather than messing with the backpacks and trying to tidy everything up.

We were back home at 2PM and waited for the evening to go and bring the kids back, we drove around 1000 km over the week-end. And we will do it again.