Alsace:

We left the Vanhulst family very early and made some more stops on our way to Alsace. We first saw Bastogne with an old WWII tank from the battle of the bulge and we did some grocery shopping. Not very exciting, I know- but I love it because it reminds me of my mission. Dad bought another new cheese to try. I don't think I talked about the first one in Paris, but we tried Mimouette, a very orange hard cheese. Daddy gave it 5 stars. This new cheese we bought is slightly softer. It is called St. Paulin and it has a good flavor, but we give it 3 stars. We also bought fromage de l'abbaye which gets 2 stars.
We decided that our ratings would be 5: definitely eat again, 4: it's good, don't turn it down, 3: maybe, 2: eh- only to be polite, 1: never again
Anyways- for any french missionaries who might appreciate this: I found that you can buy Samurai sauce! I had no clue. That was what I always put on my kebab.
So, after groceries for breakfast and lunch snacks in the car we drove out of town to go see war monuments.  In all we saw the Bastogne war monuments, the American monuments, the Meuse-Argonne WWI cemetery which is the largest American cemetery outside of the United States. In Verdun we saw the French Tranchée, where after the war they found bodies of men that had been buried by bombing dirt debris. They only found them because they found bayonets sticking out of the ground.
We saw a bunker of the Maginot line and drove by other monuments and cemeteries on our way into the Alsace area of France.
We had a quick trip to Neuf-brisac, for the Vauban museum.  The city is laid out in something like an eight pointed (maybe more) star. It is still completely surrounded by its wall. Because of this, the streets are all perfectly square and organized. So? You may say? Well, that is NOT like the rest of Europe. Every other city has winding, confusing streets that get you lost easily.
We also spent some time in Colmar, a very beautiful city. Mom and dad visited a museum about the artist Bartholdi, the man who created our very own Statue of Liberty. Dad has pictures of some of his mock-up statues and I think I actually like some of them better. Tant pis- too bad.  We walked for a long way through all the pretty streets of Colmar.  It is known as the Venice of France because it has beautiful water ways.  We weren't just wandering, we were also looking for a place to have dinner. We needed something that looked good with decent prices. Nothing we passed by seemed to fit but I remembered the cafe next to where we started, by the museum. So we ended up walking in one big circle, and the cafe WAS just what we hoped. I ordered a delicious quiche, mom a pasta, and dad a regional specialty: the tarte flambée, which is like a thin crust pizza without red sauce. It was cheese, onion and ham. But the funniest part was that they took a whole egg and cracked it right in the middle. So it was cooked a little, but it was basically a runny egg in the middle of a pizza. Dad wasn't sure what to think, and then he tried it. And he loved it.  So we learned something new. Make a pizza and then just crack an egg on it- you might like it. I also ordered a classic cheap European drink- Grenaldine sirop. If you've lived here you'll know what I'm talking about. It's nothing special, but it is good, and my parents had never had it.  We were very satisfied with our meal- it was delicious!
Time to get to our new home for the night!
We booked a place outside of Strasbourg, in the mountains. It was comical how far into the woods we drove, with absolutely no buildings in sight until finally a small village appeared and we found our little resort lodge apartment. It is skinny and small but very cozy. Our hosts were very kind and they laughed with me at how quickly we move through our trip. I told them that we did Paris in 2 days and they were stunned!  They left us with a special Alsatian dessert called Kougelopf which is a large bread cake that looks like an upside down cup cake with almonds and powdered sugar on top. I read later that it comes from a Christmas tradition because it represents the hats of the wise men bringing their gifts.
We had a relaxing, early night up in the cold mountain.