Annual week with the Club of the Third Age, Lespignan

As in previous years, we are joining the Club of the Third Age of Lespignan for a week's bus tour. This year, we are to visit Bavaria.

All the members of the club are retired, of course, which means that holidays are hard work with early starts, two large meals each day and lots of French.

We left home just before 4am in order to catch the bus at its depot in Béziers which left at 4.30 then picked up several people at various stops in Béziers before the majority boarded at Lespignan, small town south of Béziers, close to the coast.

We then drove up France in warm sunshine, stopping at 7.30 for breakfast, following the Rhone through Lyon and on to Beaune where we stopped for 2 hours for lunch. We ate a seafood pastry with salad followed by a chicken casserole and then chocolate tart and drank a chilled Beaujolais.

We continued east towards Alsace passing through Dôle, Besançon, Belfort and on to Mulhouse, arriving at about 5pm. The bus could not reach our hotel in the old centre of Mulhouse until 7pm when the barriers opened, so we parked outside and wandered around the old town.

Mulhouse was an industrial town and still has a strong industrial bias. It was once known as 'French Manchester' because of its textile industry. It is now notable for its engineering and its enormous Peugeot factory.

The old town itself is small and busy on a Saturday afternoon





The Place de la Republique has some lovely buildings







William Tell is represented in several places including this cafe and street.





This is the Church of St .




Most of the old town is now shopping and cafes so we moved away from the centre in search of other sights.

This is the theatre








On the map, we saw a round building that looked like an arena but when we got there, it was a block of flats.



We were now close to the river and the railway station









After a beer in the square, we were ready to find our hotel, unpack for the night and take a quick shower before going out with the group to a restaurant close by for another 3 course meal. This time we had a salad to start, a large plate of beef with potatoes dauphinois followed by chocolate mousse.

We were the free to wander agin around the square and wait for the sky to darkened the moon to rise for our final photos.




Pat and John on tour