7/10 Aubure to Col du Calvaire

A big walking day to begin a sequence of hard walks to cross the Vosges. Beautiful sunshine greeted us to start the day provisioned with the ham, cheese, butter on baguette now very much our staple of walking. We followed the path along the main road back up and out of town then turning down a side road where we paused at a war memorial with a sweeping view of towns in the valley. My little camera never quite doing justice to these scenes. The short lived level road then turned to trail steadily gaining elevation for a few hours - past a protected tile mosaic commemorating a German military unit- finally reaching the ridge line then more climbing to a prominence with panoramic scenery- the Grand Brezouard. Down to a club Vosigen shelter we paused to eat our dark chocolate eclairs then pressed on. All the elevation is lost to descent to the village of Le Bonhomme but you break out of the trees and descend open pastures and hillsides  so there are beautiful views and cow bells in the distance. In fact we came upon several cows sitting on the trail in the shade and they weren't budging! We saw they were on a switchback and were able to cut straight downhill to trail. In the picturesque village it was hot and of course everything was closed. Everything closed as usual mid day- No refreshments here so we started uphill in found a bench in the shade overlooking the town where we had our sandwiches. Consulting the map - the GR climbs sharply to the top of the mountain the Tete de Faux then basically runs the spine to the Col du Calvaire. However the is a option to follow a more direct gradual route which branches off and is signed Col du Calvaire Direct with a red/white/red rectangle (rwr for short). We followed it and it got the job done - a bit rough and brushy but some abundant blueberries too - we reached the GR at a WW1 French military cemetery Duschene. Interesting info here and only then realized there was a battleground with thing to see - if I had to do it over I would have stayed on the GR5 and seen these things around the Tete du Faux. We pushed on and finally reachetd Col du Calvaire above Lac Blanc which was somewhere unseen in the trees below with a huge carved basin as the setting. We walked the road to Blancrupt and the lodge. We passed a upscale place but we weren't dissatisfied. Basically a room with 2 bunk-beds to ourself and a sink - showers / toilet down the hall. Many walkers here and they seemed oriented to this. Had I known the upcoming weather I would have bought a warm hat here.