Day: May 10, 2026

Sundays are a festive day here in France! Shops and even many grocery stores are closed, families are out, and today, marathon runners were completing their race to the finish line. To keep with the French traditions, we planned a day at the park. Larry found the perfect place for us to explore and navigated the way. We took the tram most of the way and walked about 15 minutes to the park.

People were in rowboats,

teenagers were playing card games sitting on blankets, families were strolling, some set out tables for a picnic, and everyone was having a relaxed day. The park is known for the number of storks that nest there…we saw many!

And flowers everywhere!

And a border of flowers I’d love to recreate.

Today is our last full day in France and an afternoon in the park was a great way to spend it. One thing we missed was seeing the spectacular Cathédrale Notre-Dame-de-Strasbourg. Each time we walked by the lines for entry were very long. Late this afternoon a few minutes before it closed, we were able to take a quick look inside.

Tomorrow we take a 2.5 hour bus trip to Frankfurt where we will spend the night before our flight to Atlanta on Tuesday. It’s been a trip with lots of variety covering parts of Spain, Portugal, France and Germany. We tried to mix in relaxed days with plenty of time to see the main sights. If you’ve been following along…thank you for your interest! We’ve had a great time!

Friday May, 8 is Victory In Europe Day which celebrates the formal surrender of Nazi Germany to the Allied Forces in 1945.  Our apartment host in Strasbourg sent us a message the day before to let us know that everything would be closed for the holiday. Larry learned that there is a special group pass for unlimited train travel on holidays and weekends so we decided to buy a train pass and hit the rails heading towards Colmar, France.

Colmar is about 26 kilometers from Strasbourg. It’s a city that we visited many years ago and we liked very much but, it was winter, frosty and very cold! For this trip, we enjoyed a blue sky day.  We walked from the rail station to the city center and didn’t recognize the city as the parks are green and flowers in bloom. It still has the half-timbered houses and the famous canals that give the city the name Petite Venise. It’s a beautiful small city.

Next to one of the canals is Marche Couvert or Covered Market. It was open, even on this holiday and everything was perfectly displayed.

And a sign that it’s spring…

And lovely flower bouquets…one of the things we love most about a French market. This one with peony blossoms…just ready to open.

We enjoyed a traditional Alsatian lunch and made our way back to the rail station for our next stop…Sélestat…also in the Alsace region of France. The city has a well-preserved old town with features of its German and French cultural heritage.

The old town had many shops…this one selling watches and clocks.

We enjoyed the day but back in Strasbourg in the evening we realized that we were weary because we walked more than 17,000 steps!

Train travel is an easy way to get around – we were happy that we had a chance to see a little more of France!