Paris, Strasbourg, the Alsace, and More Cities Please

Ahh, Paris. It's the perfect place for cemeteries and macarons, my favorite things. Well, actually, macarons are off the list of favorite things. I ate way too many of them. Good thing the last one I ate was the best one. LOOK NO FURTHER: Winner of the macaron tasting tour is Pierre Herme, specifically, the vanilla and olive oil flavor. I didn't go that many places, though, because I was fed up with sweets. I'm all about the cheese and bread now.

I had a macaron from McDonalds...I don't want to talk about it

Winner of the cemetery tour? Pere Lachaise, duh, although it had an unfair advantage considering it was cloudy and thundering while we were there. Also, Oscar Wilde's grave.

Pere Lachaise Cemetery

We also went to the Catacombs (abandoned limestone quarries under the city that were filled with bones when the cemeteries were moved), which was pretty great and spooky and we had to wait in line for SO LONG. But it was worth it, because it meant it wasn't crammed with 8000 people.

Early Friday morning, Steve caught a flight to England to visit his family while I took a train to Strasbourg in the Alsace region. The Alsace is a wine-producing region in eastern France near the border with Germany. I had this idea in my head that I would walk between the many adorable villages, which I did, and my feet almost fell off. My legs are sore. REAL SORE.

So, I started my day in Strasbourg. It is a nice city with a majestic cathedral and I would have liked to stay the night there if I had been with Steve, since it's pretty romantic. Instead I lit a votive candle for him, I guess? I felt like I needed to do something, since the cathedral was just so damn majestic.

Barr

After a couple hours, I took a train to Barr, one of the villages on the Alsace wine route. I found a campsite, set up my tent, and tried to pay, but the lady wouldn't let me because it wasn't reception hours. Okay....

Over the next four or five hours, I walked from Barr to Dambach-la-Ville via Andlau. I could have been taking pictures non-stop, because everything was so scenic. There were vineyards as far as the eye can see, with little villages and their church steeples popping up every couple miles. And all of those villages are full of wine tasting rooms. The entire area smelled of wine, which was a nice change from the eau d'urine of Paris. 

Eventually, the pain in my feet got so distracting I could think of nothing but getting back to my tent and putting some flip flops on. As much as I love researching travel stuff, at the end of the day I'm a follower of the "it'll probably be fine" philosophy, and any practical information I have is purely accidental. I rely greatly on the kindness of signs, and thankfully when I got to Dambach-la-Ville I happened upon one pointing toward the train station. Then, for probably five minutes, a kid (probably 13) followed me on his bike. I bought a bottle of wine earlier and was ready to bash him over the head with it, but eventually he just rode past and whistled at me. It's absurd to me that this happened. What kind of world is this? 

I was so concerned about camping by myself in a small town that I decided I had to get to a city ASAP. Anyone who knows me knows I'm a city girl, no matter what crazy ideas I get about little villages and nature and whatever. I was telling my journal all about my concerns while I was eating dinner at a beautiful restaurant in Barr (Caveau Folie Marco, the only place I could find with non-pizza vegetarian options), and now I'm like, what is wrong with me. Obviously everything turned out fine. I guess if the concentration of people per square meter isn't high enough then I start getting antsy and think I'm going to fall of the planet. Anyway, at the restaurant I tried a tarte flambee, a regional dish that looks like a super thin crust pizza but tastes Italian in no way whatsoever. 

After paying 4 euro for my campsite, I ran off to Basel, Switzerland, as fast as I could. It's not very far but it took 3 trains, and I slept on every one of them. I guess I didn't sleep so well whilst camping. Basel looks really nice so far, I'm glad I came. I also found pretzel sandwiches, what?! It's a dream come true. I had one with cheese and walnuts, which is a crazy sandwich to begin with, but on a pretzel...?  Yes. Please.

Now I'm drinking a large beer at the hostel and have spent way too long trying to update this blog no one is reading. I mean, I get it...ramblings of a crazy person and all. I can't believe I almost forgot to mention that I INSTANTLY REGRET getting such a huge backpack. Never get a backpack you can fit inside. IT IS AWFUL, I HATE IT. Because I am an adult now I try not to use caps lock, so since I'm using it now you know I mean it. On the plus side...*flexes back muscles*