Cité de l’Automobile

The team is in a hotel in Colmar, awaiting the arrival of today’s host in 30 minutes. Yesterday, before departing Mulhouse, we visited the Cité de l’Automobile, which holds one of the world’s largest car collections. It was acquired by the Schlumpf brothers, who were in the textile business, but according to the Rotarians with whom we spoke, they used some government subsidies to purchase some of the collection, which they shouldn’t have done, so now it’s owned by the government. It’s located in an old factory, and we had just 45 minutes to try to see all 439 automobiles. Here’s the team outside the museum:

And here are some of my favorites…a 1936 Alfa Romeo Coach 8C, which a man named Brivio used to win a race called the Mille Miglia in 1936. He had a 14 minute lead when his lights failed, but he still managed to win the race.

And here’s a 1955 Mercedes 300 SL:

And a 1938 Arzens Cabriolet, which I’d never heard of. It’s made in France:

Then our day’s hosts from Colmar, Bernard and Monica, met us and took us to a lovely church in the countryside between Mulhouse and Colmar:

It’s a Baroque-style church, and had the most ornate gold decorations that we’ve seen so far:

Then we had a lovely lunch and extended our track record of “meals with asparagus (asperge).” We toured a little town called Guebwiller and learned all about the industrial history (no time to describe it now…maybe later), and then we had our first wine tasting at a nearby town (it was wonderful, and included an amusing group of young men who were celebrating a bachelor party). Then we came to a hotel in Colmar, and the team enjoyed wine and tarte flambee before heading to bed. Sorry for the brevity, but our ride is here. We have no idea what today holds, but I’m sure it will be another exciting day in Alsace. Au revoir!

Amanda here: Because I am sure all of you are curious about what was so amusing about the group of men at our wine tasting. Finally, after days of begging to go wine tasting, we were granted our wish. Not ten minutes into tasting some delicious wines, a group of young men dressed as farmers with straw hats came into the winery. While that was weird, we didn’t pay it much attention until we saw this incredibly short man dressed as a bee stumbling around kissing the women in the winery. We soon learned that in France, a traditional bachelor’s party consists of the groom’s friends dressing him up (and it’s usually a certain theme) and dragging I’m out for a night on the town. Hence the bee outfit. While Samantha, Margeaux and I all were kissed by the bee-man, he really seemed to like Samantha. I’m sure someone from our group can provide a picture. I didn’t want to take one in case I caught his attention and he tried to kiss me again…