7/9 Riquewihr to Aubure

Our morning centered around Ciera and Ethan's departure via TGV. We had everyone up showered, fed and out the door by 08:35 for the 09:02 TGV to CDG direct. We walked across the street and in the station waited with a growing anxious crowd for the track announcement which finally happened at 5 minutes to 9 - with the predicable last minute rush to get them situated say goodbyes and get off before the train rolled out. We sent home a jumbo bag with our purged items.
We returned to the hotel, packed our slimmer backpacks and then returned to the station for a train to Selestat followed by a bus to Ribeauville. We could easily have caught the GR5 here but I had read and heard that the old wine town of Riquewihr was a must see. Untouched by the wars unlike other towns of the area, Riquewihr boasts original buildings. So we did a 35 minute walk around Ribeauville while we waited for our taxi. The town was picturesque but flooded with tourists giving it a theme park feel. I enjoyed the nesting storks atop the buildings. On reaching Riquewihr, there were still tourists but the building were obviously old and many had distinctive wood carvings on the building edges. We ate lunch there before walking up out of town into the hills. The plan was to follow a local route which intersected to GR in the hills. However a bad turn call on my part took us straight up a hill to a road and finally with gps I sorted out where to go. While the distance wasn't long the elevation was significant and took longer than anticipated. We passed by a castle ruin and a skinny ladder up a stone tower yielded fine views. We proceeded to climb steeply over a high ridge then down along a stony source where we passed blueberry pickers with telltale blue lips and tongues when we traded "bonjour". Finally down into the village of Aubere we stayed at at Gite called the Brimbelles. This was a old 2 story wood building with separate plain rooms, a common bathroom with doored toilets and showers. It was fine! Our dinner was a crockpot with wonderful baked pork and potatoes. A unforgettable fantastic hearty home style meal perfect after a walk! Stuffed, sleep came easy.