My kingdom for a croissant. Monday 3rd October Lutzelbourg

Did you know that it’s still dark at seven these days?  One of us didn’t, so despite our best intentions to leave quite early in an effort to beat the long weekend water holiday traffic, actual movement didn’t occur until almost an hour after that.    By then, Barry and Margaret who had set out from Saverne an hour earlier with the same intent, but having actually properly executed their plan, had already caught up with us.  This made for a pleasant couple of hours as we worked our way up the locks to Lutzelbourg, where we peeled off to wait for the bakery to open.

Since the bakery doesn’t open at all on Mondays, we knew we would be here for a while, which in Lutzelbourg is never a problem, even if the French toast for lunch was made from bread left over from yesterday.

We wondered as we climbed to the castle, if the logging scar across the back of the town would detract from the “model railway” quality of the view and were pleasantly surprised to discover that if anything it enhances the effect.  Some may be a little squeamish at the thought of wholesale forest destruction, but it should be remembered that with timber still a principal source of heating, forest husbandry has been the norm in France for several thousand years, and with the weather about to turn quite markedly chilly, who would begrudge anyone a little fire?