Colmar, and a fruitless search
Monday morning, and our bathroom tap sprung a leak. So, what do we do now? Madame Gueth kindly provided the name and address of a motorhome dealer about 15km to the south, so we headed off there first thing. Oh no, closed Monday morning, open at 2pm. We decided to continue with our planned visit to Colmar, and go back to the dealership in the afternoon. So off we went, back to Colmar, about 20km to the north. We wanted to park somewhere near the town for the day, so we found an aire in the book which was apparently suitable for overnight stays. This was in fact a lay by, alongside a busy street, and we were glad we were not having to stay there all night. There were no facilities (water, electric, etc) and the traffic was quite loud.
Colmar is very pretty, with coloured half-timbered houses, cobbled streets, tanners houses, fishmongers cottages and so on. Having wandered around for some time, we visited the toy museum, which had plenty of butttons to press which brought the displays to life. Some really rare toys were on display. There were tin automata, clockwork everything, moving horses and carriages, a steam powered working model of a carpenter/ engineer workshop, and a collection of Barbie dolls dressed in costumes of famous historical figures through the ages, including Boadicea, and Princess Diana on her wedding day. Best of all was an automata orchestra of 21 musicians, about 3' high, "playing" Mozart. Every face was different, and the whole effect was highly entertaining.
Our visit over, as it was now past 3pm, we made our way back to the motorhome dealership at Feldkirch. They had a quick look, but we had to strip the entire sink unit back to see which hose and fittings we needed. After at least half an hour, we were ready to look for a replacement among the dealer's fairly extensive stock, but after several minutes fruitless search, we were starting to get anxious. However, at length we managed to find some parts which would do the job: new hose, new tap, new drain, new plug. Just replacing the sink unit, and we were parked inside the gated compound of the dealership: we had borrowed a silicon gun from the workshop section, so we were slightly worried as the time was getting on, and were envisaging being locked inside all night! However, we managed with a few minutes to spare, and headed off to find the aire we had chosen for the night, at Pfaffenheim, about 10km away.
When we got there, about 6.30pm, the small aire (4 spaces) was already full. Not to worry, there's another one just up the road, at Voegtshishoffen. When we got there, this also was fully occupied. We were starting to get concerned now. Aire no 3, Westhalten Soulzmatt: the aire was there, but the facilities advertised in the book were permanently out of order, and we needed electricity for the night. It was really getting a bit late now, and pretty dark, so plan B, find a campsite, they are never full. We hadn't bargained for the popularity of the Alsace wine trail, which seemed to be awash with motorhomes going in all directions. Therefore, when we got to a nearby campsite, it also was full. Pretty desperate by now, as it was nearly 8pm, and campsites usually close their gates at dusk... However, the kindly lady at the reception either took pity on these muggins English idiots, or wanted to get rid of us because of our terrible French, so recommended another site nearby, at Sainte Croix en Plaine. We got there at 8.10pm, and were horrified to see the sign which said reception was open until 8pm. But wait, what's this, there's a light on, and the door is open..there's someone still in reception. We were delighted to be offered a little pitch not far inside the gate, and even managed to order a baguette for breakfast. However, feeling decidedly hungry and tired by then, supper came out of a tin.