We left the champagne region with a few bottles on board and headed to Alsace, but rather than revisit the Colmar area we headed up into the mountains and stayed in a very rustic auberge high above the village of St Amarin, just north of Mulhouse. The drive across beautiful rural France was a delight. We decided to personify our sat nav, and Fiona, on probation, took us off piste through charming villages with the most elaborate and elegant lamp posts, past acres of rape fields, tree lined roads and stunning scenery, possibly looking for a branch of Harvey Nicks (as she does sound very posh). We had to take control after a couple of hours and seek a motorway to eat a few miles, but she did well again later on to find our destination, which was a blessing, as we had no detailed map! The scenery was breathtaking and all we heard was birdsong and cow bells – the cow shed adjoined the hotel! No English spoken here, so we practiced our best French. It seemed to work very well.
Deja Vu 