Day 63: Pont d'Ain to Baldersheim

Disclaimer: All voyages in this blog are being taken safely in the comfort of our imaginations - based on our plans and intentions for travel in 2020. What is reality after all? 

One more stop in France coming up, before we cross the border into Germany. Today was again a reasonably long drive from our squirrel's nest in Pont d'Ain, to the small town of Baldersheim - really a suburb of Mulhouse North.

The drive took us past Besançon, which seemed to be an interesting place to pause, set in a curve of a river - Le Doubs. Though it has many interests, and can also be a lively university town, it is not strongly touristed, so might be an interesting future destination to explore more.

As we drove in, we could see the terrace of old buildings along the bank of the river:

The old central area is, as usual, very congested, with small streets, so a quick drive through was the only thing possible with a car packed with luggage. We drove under a carved Roman gate - the Porte Noire:

through which we could see the Cathedral Saint-Jean, which seemed to be perpetually under (re)construction:

That took us up and round to the imposing Citadel of Besançon, straddling the ridge that closes off the land-side of the town:

Again, it was a quick visit, just time to glimpse the river from the battlements:

In driving down from here, we saw a convenient parking area nearby, on the narrow flats between the citadel and the river:

with a string of shops and buildings:

One of these was a restaurant:

and, since it was coming on lunch, we parked and took a table on its terrace, where we could watch the car:

It was Pat's joy to order a vast bucket of moules:



with a side of frites:





while Roger (sharing in these) was then satisfied with what might almost have been a banana split:

We'd spent enough time poking around here to delay our accommodation arrival to the required time. Onwards. We passed through Mulhouse just before arriving at our destination, noting that this was a fairly industrial city, though with the requisite cathedral:

We'll come back here tomorrow, as there are some interesting museums here and nearby.

Our booked accommodation breaks the pattern of stand-alone apartments, with a stay in a hotel: Le Moulin d'Oscar. Still, it is a studio apartment within this building. This Mill is in Baldersheim, in and to the north of the Mulhouse conurbation, and only another 15-20 minutes' drive away.

The building is an old reconditioned water mill, set over  a stream: Le Quartelbach:

There's an outdoors patio area:

and a series of studios on various levels. Ours was on the ground floor (which we'd specified to save hauling luggage up flights of stairs):

Near the bed is a little window looking over the water chute:

This meant it was a little noisy, despite the thick walls - but we knew that, and got used to it.  The studio had its own small kitchenette too:

Settled in, we headed back towards Mulhouse, but only a short way (it would have been 7 minutes by car, but 45 minutes' walk - which we did), to a suburban Vietnamese restaurant for dinner:

The food was familiar, and typically delicious:



It's a season now of long evenings, but by the time we walked back to the mill, it was getting dark:

We'll head into Mulhouse tomorrow and see what the museums have to offer.