The B's have it ...... Besancon........Baden Baden...........and Bali

I Well "B" drove a massive 600 odd kms to get us to Besancon - and it took the whole day. For those who wish to know - the pronunciation is as follows:  Bess - on - son (rhymes with don)  Surprisingly the drive was quite OK as the other drivers on the road are quite polite, no tooting or driving into your back seat, no 2 fingered salute and so on.  Also the road side stops are exceptional in the range of food offered, so deep fried, dead dim sims languishing in sad bain maries are not on offer.  Neither are chiko rolls, cold chips and 3 day old egg and bacon rolls.  Instead decent baguettes, croissants and fresh salads. Mmmmm - they obviously have not had a delegation visit the roadies in Oz to see how they can do things badly.  MOST IMPORTANTLY the facilities are clean, serviced, and have toilet paper.  This is pretty much true of all the facilities in restaurants, cafes and bars, which makes travel a joy when this is not a nasty surprise.  No more on that thank you Kay.

Besancon has a World Heritage Citadel - amazing.  I still am in awe of how they built these things

and it also houses a zoo!! - yep a zoo

The animals are inside the citadel wall.

Look at that face!!

And an aquarium

I certainly hope this man is guarding the Citadel.

But not me - I'm just having a good time.

And I ran into Monsieur Vauban who designed it.

It kinda looks like I'm pushing him over.

A superb afternoon tea- just delicious

And a haircut on the last day in France

And so we said goodbye to our lovely car and hostess Guiletta (our GPS )in Strasbourg. 

We did 2996 kms in one month. Only one small dint when B backed into a rock in the car park. Not bad, not bad I say. When we handed the car back they couldn't care less. We didn't even have to do that "fill the car with petrol" bit. Good work. 

And caught the train to Baden Baden. Our lovely little Hotel Am Markt. The church bells tell us the time but not during the night. So thoughtful thank you Baden overseers. 

Yesterday walked Up and Up and Up to the Schloss

Bit of a chat on the way

Finally at the gate

Wind harp - sounds amazing.  

On the way down in the extensive park -sculpture with bird.  Bird is real but was standing so still it looked like a statue.

And today - magnificent

At the gallery a couple of installations.  Temporary exhibits

And finally - dog with flower on nose. P.S. My feet are sore today.