A new way to play around, literally, with social media: Empire Avenue

© LKL

Fortunately, our next stop was Niederbronn-les-Bains, where we’d rented an apartment in an old paper mill for two weeks. The price was amazing* and everything exceeded our expectations: a large and light-filled apartment, nice pool, and lovely grounds. We also lucked out on the weather – it was almost always hot and sunny. We spent the first several days relaxing by the pool and cooking for the first time since we’d left Hyères, then we started exploring the town of Niederbronn and beyond.

*We paid 200 euros a week, plus electricity. While chatting with the owners, we found out that we were among their first renters, and now that they had a better idea of what running a gîte was like, they were planning to increase the price to 250/week. Still a bargain, in my opinion: Chambre d’hôtes "Le Moulin"

This article is part of my travelog about my summer 2010 trip along the French borders, including the six corners of the Hexagon – see map.

From a distance © LKL

Originally named Staufenberg, this fortified castle was built by the Hohenstaufen, a German noble family, in the 12th century. The name changed to Königsburg (king’s castle) and eventually, in reference to its altitude of around 3,000 feet, Hohkönigsburg (king’s high castle), which was adapted in French to Haut-Kœnigsbourg.

After being destroyed in 1462, the castle was rebuilt and enlarged, only to be burned and abandoned less than 200 years later. In 1862, the ruins were declared a historical monument, and the town of Séléstat began a restoration project, which was abandoned due to lack of funds.

Model of the ruins © LKL

The monumental task of restoring the château finally got underway in 1900 and continued for eight years, before the château was opened up to the public. The workmanship is fantastic, and different tours are available based on your interests; we visited the château as part of our Route des vins d’Alsace tour. Apparently it’s particularly nice to visit at Christmas, but whatever time of year you might be in Alsace, be sure to include a visit to this beautiful castle on your itinerary.

Official site: Château du Haut-Kœnigsbourg

This article is part of my travelog about my summer 2010 trip along the French borders, including the six corners of the Hexagon – see map.

© LKL		© LKL

Now I’m changing my approach once again.

As much as I love writing about France, bilingual articles are simply too labor intensive. Between researching each place, writing about it in French, and then translating into English, those features required an inordinate amount of time. One of the reasons we moved to Menton was in the hopes that living in a beautiful, tranquil town would inspire me to work on a book that I’ve had in mind for years. Now that we’re settled, the inspiration is there, but the time isn’t, so I’ve decided to compromise. I’ll keep writing in-depth articles about France, but only in English. I’m going to continue from where I left off on the other site, and I’ll update the same map – you can see what I’ve done so far here: Six corners of the Hexagon.

(P.S. I’m not ready to talk about the book yet, but you’ll be the first to know when I am.)

Here’s our map between the third and fourth corners. As always, pink indicates our route as well as towns we actually walked around and/or ate in, while blue highlights where we stayed. You can click the map to see a much bigger version (MB).

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About 6 corners of the Hexagon

St.-Jean-de-Luz © LKL

Guéthary is tiny and cute, but Saint-Jean-de-Luz and neighboring Ciboure are truly lovely. We’d thought that it would be quick and easy to get there from Guéthary, but traffic was horrendous, even in September: there’s a toll road, but most people choose the free and therefore far more crowded Route Nationale. So we only spent one afternoon in St-Jean-de-Luz; it’s definitely on our list of places to revisit.

Petit train de La Rhune © LKL

One of the best parts of the week was our trip on le petit train de La Rhune, a cog railway that ascends 905 meters to the top of the La Rhune massif and offers a spectacular view over Basque country.

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About 6 corners of the Hexagon

• Halloween in France
• Pumpkin recipes

Quiberon © LKL

We spent two nights on the presqu’île of Quiberon, in southern Bretagne. The beaches are lovely, and the town of Quiberon is kind of cute, but the others on the peninsula are nothing special.

La Flotte, Ile de Ré © LKL

In contrast, Île de Ré, in Poitou-Charentes, is home to numerous cute towns (including two Most Beautiful Villages). We spent three nights in Sainte-Marie-de-Ré, and enjoyed talking to our hosts about the boom in housing and tourism that has occurred there since the car ferry was replaced by a toll bridge in 1988. Fortunately, there aren’t as nearly as many houses as there could be, as a lot of the land is covered in grapevines; as for the wine, however, c’est pas terrible.

Arcachon © LKL

In Aquitaine, the small town of Soulac-sur-mer is filled with lovely, unique villas, as are a few streets in the much larger Arcachon. They both also have beautiful beaches and I can easily imagine living in either town for a year or two. A short drive from Arcachon is the Dune du Pilat – at 107 meters, it’s the largest sand dune in Europe. The climb up can be a bit difficult, but the view from the top is extraordinary.

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About 6 corners of the Hexagon