Wednesday July 27th- Chris takes to the road. French drivers on high alert!

This was the long awaited day that Chris got behind the wheel and drove the rental car for the first time!  More on this later.

After spending about 4 hours riding rented bicycles throughout the countryside, it was time to head to the French supermarket.

Stopping for a picnic lunch in a shady spot:

View of a nearby castle ruin from a rest stop on today's ride:

We came upon a camp ground, and a friendly stork being fed by a brave German girl:

 Trying to find certain items in a foreign language can be quite a challenge- although the streetside, wall mounted condom dispenser was evident in any language.  This machine was attached to the wall of a building, for anyone to walk up to purchase their needs:

Back to the driving- Chris did quite well as she navigated the crazy traffic circles in the villages on our way back to the apartment, and then.... there was this innocent looking metal pole on the shoulder of the road, which she managed to clip with the side mirror of the car. Please don't tell Hertz!

This brush with disaster, caused me to nearly jump out of my seat. Fortunately we made it back without further incident.

All right-now for my side (Chris) of the story. I never heard anything that resembled a car hitting a pole. Swear I didn't hit anything. However, because of Alan's sudden behavior, (thrashing about the car and hiding his face in his hands),  I actually thought that I had hit a pedestrian and they were lying in the street behind us. Had me scared to death. Of course, then, I had to listen to him complain about my driving and give me directions the rest of the way back to Riquewihr.  Honestly, you'd think I had never driven a car before!