12 June 2015: I hiked today from Gorze to Vandières (25 km). It was another hike through forests – providing welcome shade during another hot, muggy day – but it was not flat. Some steep slopes gave me a little work-out.
The most noteworthy part of the trail today was a section that followed what was the French-German border following Germany's annexation of Alsace and part of Lorraine, as provided by the Treaty of Frankfurt (1871). There were several old stones (bornes) marking the border beside the trail. On one side of each stone, the letter F was carved; on the other side, the letter D used to be carved – but no longer. Each D had been chiseled out, sometimes precisely; sometimes roughly.
We saw similar border stones along the Crête des Vosges when we hiked the GR5 in 1989. The D's on most of those stones had been chiseled out, too, but we did see one stone tucked away in some bushes which still had its D. We'll look for that one when we reach the Vosges in a couple of weeks.
The other highlight today was Mary's return to the GR5! Assiduous readers of this blog – assuming for present purposes that such readers exist – will recall that Mary returned to Saint-Germain-en-Laye last week to supervise the long-delayed renovation of our kitchen. Well, it was a useful and pleasant visit back home for Mary, but the renovation did not, after all, take place. With no advance notice, the supplier imposed another delay for logistical reasons. The renovation is now scheduled for the end of this month.
So Mary took a TGV to Metz and then a local train to Vandières, arriving here shortly before I hiked into the town. It's great to be together on this hike again. Mary will return to Saint-Germain in a couple of weeks for the kitchen again, but meanwhile we have some hiking to do!
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This morning's forest:
The French side of a border stone:
The German side, with the D roughly effaced:
The French side of another border stone:
The German side, with the D carefully chiseled out:
It wasn't all forest today...
There were lacunae in the trail marking, but at least someone had the good idea to indicate where the route of the GR5 had been changed:
The trail passed through the ruins of a medieval castle at Prény.
Mary and the friendly owner of the Auberge des Voyageurs, where we had dinner and spent the night:
The sun slowly sets over Vandières, as seen from the balcony of our room...
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