Just under 2 hours drive from where we live is the Alsace region of France - an absolutely beautiful area! We visited the town of Colmar the last weekend of July, along with the nearby "Monkey Mountain" attraction.
Monkey Mountain is a monkey sanctuary where visitors walk through and the monkeys are free to move about as they please. We were all given a handful of popcorn when we entered, and the monkeys ate from our hands! It was really amazing to see all the monkeys up close, and just a very nice experience.
We then went to the town of Colmar, one of the major towns of the Alsace region and one of Europe's most beautiful cities. This area went back and forth between France and Germany throughout history, as they fought for control of more land. Because the language kept changing, they even painted the houses certain colors based on who lived there (the baker, tanner, butcher, priest, etc.) since it didn't make sense to write the name - they just knew that blue meant priest, etc. A highlight at lunch was trying escargot ...snails (some of us liked it more than others)!
Colmar is also the birthplace of Frederic Auguste Bartholdi, the sculptor who designed the Statue of Liberty. We visited the Bartholdi museum and saw some of the designs and drawings, as well as some of the artist's other works. The actual name of the statue is "Liberty Enlightening the World", but it has become known as simply the Statue of Liberty.
We took a boat ride through the canals of the town (a bit like Venice) and finished the evening with dinner at a crepe restaurant! We're are always amazed at how many beautiful and interesting places are so close by! Once again, we consider ourselves very lucky to have the opportunity to live in Switzerland.
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