The weather has finally broken, with rain first thing this morning and a heavy shower during the late afternoon. And on the positive side, for the first time since this 'tour' began temperatures have not breached 30 degrees.
Yesterday the boys passed a war cemetery at Cutting, testimony to the Lorraine Offensive by the French Army in the August of 1914 and in which even the commanding officer was killed. And this morning heading south from Saverne, a roadside memorial with both French and British flags flying honoured the deaths of two French soldiers and two Royal Air Force crew members - all of whom had died during the Second World War.
Cemetery at Cutting of those French Soldiers who fought in the Lorraine
Offensive, August,1918
Memorial to 2 French Soldiers and 2 Royal Air Force Crew Members who died in
1944 during the Second World War
After such sadness, the start of the Alsace 'Routes des Vins' came as a welcome redress. Highly picturesque territory between the Vosges mountains in the west and the Rhine to the east, the hillsides are emblazoned with vineyards specialising in wines like Pinot Noir, Riesling, Pinot Gris and Gawurtztraminer. Plenty of 'degustation' tasting houses too, but as Bob and Mark are in no position to buy and carry bottles of wine, they were given a wide berth.
Sign for the 'Route des Vins' in Alsace
Finally, that most beautiful of 'Routes des Vins' villages, Eguisheim, came into view as the boys cycled the back route through the vinyards. Seen at its best in the mid-evening sunlight, it was the perfect journey's end to an unexpectedly hard day's cycling.
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