Travel Day & Colmar France: We Go Where the Peugeot Goes.

Amy asked if I (Jeff) would write the blog for today because she was so worn out after a day of travel. So, I apologize up front that I am not so clever or witty with my writing as that cute little red head, but here goes nothing.

We left SLC at 5pm on Monday night with a 9 hour flight in front of us. We have done a bit of traveling with our five kids over the last few years, so it was really strange for me to be at the airport and flying on the plane without them. A little bittersweet, I guess. They are getting easier and a lot more fun to travel with. On the other side of it, I had Amy all to myself, which was awesome. We have so much fun together and it's been a little over 2 years since our last couples trip, so I was really looking forward to this. The honest truth is, it is so easy to travel without kids. So to the old man in the row in front of me that kept turning around and giving the stink eye to the lady a few rows back with the crying kid, suck it up sailor. You've got it easy. 

The flight was easy although we didn't sleep much because as it turns out on transatlantic flights, they let you watch any movie you want, FOR FREE! So all of my good intentions of sleeping on the "overnight" flight went out the window with Jack Ryan-Shadow Recruit, Godzilla and The Butler. Amy and I did sleep for maybe a couple of hours. Maybe. 

We arrived at little before 11am Paris time and seeing the sunshine outside and the beautiful scenery, I got a little shot of adrenaline. I did realize something important right away that will seem obvious to all of you, but didn’t really hit me until we landed. I don't speak French. I don't understand French. With my Spanish language background, I can read some French and make a good guess at what it means, but that’s about it. I am used to traveling either to Spanish or English speaking countries and for the first time in a long time, I couldn't just strike up a conversation with the person next to me. Some people speak English, but not many and not very well.

We got our bags and went to the Avis rental car counter, which was right by the airport. Charles de Gaulle airport is clean and easy to get around in by the way. Unfortunately, they didn’t have the mobile WiFi unit that we reserved and paid for when we rented the car. A big problem, because we don’t get good WiFi service on our phones and we aren’t in our hotel rooms very much. We tried to rent from other companies nearby, but nobody had cars available so back to Avis we went. Amy had a positive attitude about the whole thing, and I was of course the Angry American. They ended up giving us free GPS for the car and some other freebies to make it better. So I am cranky when we get into the car and it turns out that the GPS in the car is only in French. So I am trying to drive a stick shift in Paris with a lady giving me directions in French and Amy laughing so hard about it she is crying in the seat the next to me. It took us three tries just to get out of the airport and one near miss with a tour bus. But we made it to the freeway and left Paris for the France/Germany border. The Peugeot is really fun to drive and once we got the French GPS lady to talk to me in English, I was much happier.

The next 6 hours were spent driving, talking Spanish to a French speaking gas station attendant, enjoying the beautiful French countryside and measuring distance in kilometers and not miles. 130 Kmh sounds really fast but is only around 80 miles an hour.  But when I drive the Peugeot I feel like Jason Bourne, so that is awesome.

We arrived in Colmar around 6pm, France time. It has a cute little old town area with pedestrian streets, restaurants, shopping, and very old buildings. I guess this area has been traded between Germany and France for centuries so there is a lot of influence from both cultures here. After checking in at our hotel called “The Grotesque House of Heads” (seriously lots of ugly head sculptures on the outside of the building), we went for a walk to enjoy the beautiful old town. Cobblestone streets, open air restaurants, beautiful 73 degree temperature and the church bells chiming in the background. We couldn’t have asked for anything better. We ate a “Dohner” (Shishkabob meat in a big pita bun) that was tasty and then split an entrée at a sit down outdoor restaurant.

Fortunately, I was able to satisfy my need to talk to anybody and everybody around me, because we sat next to a very nice couple from England. We ended up talking to them the whole meal, even though they were already done. He even ordered another pint of beer, I’m sure because the conversation was so riveting. ;) After that we watched some traditional dancing in the plaza, got lost wandering the narrow streets of the old town and then came home to sleep after being awake for nearly 48 hours straight.

All in, not a bad travel day. Tomorrow it is off to more medieval local towns. We will go wherever the Peugeot takes us.

The view from our hotel window to the courtyard below.

Our cozy little hotel room at at the Grotesque House of Heads.

Our windows of our room.

The front facade of the Grotesque House of Heads hotel.