Today was our second to last train day for this trip. What we had expected to take a few hours on a high speed train, turned into an all day trek. (Again due to limited rail pass users allowed on the TGV.) When we play the board game "Ticket to Ride" you get points whether you make the shortest route or not. Today, following that basic strategy, we connected Carcassonne to Colmar via Bazel, Switzerland. This is the route Bryan concocted with the help of his app. The one the ticket lady suggested would have gotten us to Colmar at least three hours later. (Go Bryan!)

So what have we done today worth mentioning? We very valiantly went in search of a super market in Montpellier (I had seen a shopping cart symbol on a map in the train station) . We came at it the wrong way round and accidentally almost took the employee only entrance. But we managed it eventually when we got away from the parking garage (apparently "most people, they have a car" here too).

We picnicked in the shade in Lyon. We had purchased a baguette and some ham in Montpellier, so we made some simple sandwiches.

We rode through beautiful parts of Switzerland and I got to see more of the mountains. Bryan got himself a brezel (pretzel) at Brezel König in Bern.

We checked in to our room in Colmar and went out for dinner. We found a cute little place (it is actually a butcher as well as restaurant) and ate on their terrace. While we were there another table broke up all the bread from their bread basket and threw it into the water for the ducks. The waitress didn't even try to stop them. It must happen fairly frequently.

After dinner we went to a sorbetterie (who even knew there was such a thing?) for dessert . Bryan stuck with a waffle cone of chocolate and strawberry, and I tried apricot and strawberry/mint/basil. The latter of the two was surprisingly refreshing, if a little odd.

Now we are back in our room. We have AC again. Yay! Bryan has it cranked up so high that I am wearing my fleece to keep warm. :) We also have a shower, TV, kitchenette and table to eat at. Only for the toilette do we go down the hall.

I really do love train travel. It is one of things that I enjoy the most about traveling in Europe. This day was long, but not nearly as tiring as our other two days of travel in France. We were able to stretch our legs a bit and explore some of Lyon. The side trek that we took through Switzerland was just a bonus, as that is some of the prettiest train travel that you could hope for. As we were nearing the end of our trip passing back through a station we had already been to made things feel as if we had come full circle. The house we stayed in was probably my second favorite of the trip. It was quirky, but amazingly located and just very comfortable.