Okay today there are very few photo's as we didn’t do a lot other than move from Rougemont to Colmar.

The day started with another lazy breakfast with the windows open and us enjoying the magnificent view of the Swiss pre-Alps. We packed everything up over the course of the morning before taking a short walk along the village hill road as far as it went. Our chalet was about 90% of the way up the road – and so we just walked up the rest and admired both the view and some of the magnificent chalets at the top. It seems like Rougemont is no different to many villages and suburbs where wealth buys the prime real estate at the top. The hill incidentally rises for a long way beyond the houses, however only cows and the odd goat live further up – with no road the access becomes very difficult. Some of the houses in the photos I've enclosed are worth around 5,000,000 Swiss Francs.

For lunch we had the remains of a few meals over the previous couple of days: chicken noodle soup, spaghetti bolognese, the Swiss delicacy “Raclette” (fondu melted cheese), ham, salami, bread, brioche, and an omelette that Marie just whipped up. We all dug into what was actually a very large meal, before we all said our goodbyes, took a group photo and we were off. One final random note on staying in a Swiss chalet - we didn't use the heating once the entire time we were there. Whilst it wasn't really cold overnight (maybe 10 degrees) I was still suitably impressed with the construction of the houses, keeping the house warm so easily.

We had planned to visit Bern on route to Colmar, however as we left Rougemont a little later than planned, we skipped it and made our way directly to the pretty town of Colmar.

On the way we obviously passed through the French border controls just outside of Basel (unmanned), and we welcomed the French signs again like an old friend after our zero knowledge of German. The French speed limit is 130km/hr (as opposed to the Swiss 120kms/hr), and there were some good stretches of straight road when I pushed the Audi up to about 150km/hr, barely testing the engine in seventh gear at 2,000 rpm.

We had to illegally drive through a restricted section of Colmar on entry (no cars are allowed between 11am and 6pm), so it was a bit strange driving along with everyone staring at you. However we found the apartment fairly quickly and after dumping our stuff, the owner took me around to a nearby car park where we parked in his spot.

At around 5.30pm we walked over to some a house where some church friends of ours happened to be staying, and caught up with them for dinner, at what we thought was a pizza joint. They didn’t sell pizzas but we still had a great meal, with double ice-creams for the kids and dad, for dessert. The Curnows gave us a quick run-down of the nearby attractions, and then we went for a walk in search of a giant water rat that they had seen in the canal the previous evening (“giant” as in about Oscar’s size, not including tail).

We didn’t get lucky on this occasion, but enjoyed the company with some Aussie friends, and our first look at this touristy Alsace town.