20261002 Thionville, France. A bunker. A power plant. A haircut!

It seemed to take forever to get through and out of the sprawl area of South Luxembourg, crossing and paralleling freeways and rail lines. Finally we were treated to gently rolling farm lands with grazing cattle. Luxembourg is extremely neat and tidy. The roads and bike trails through the forests are impeccable. At some point we crossed into France – no sign – the only clue was that car license plates had a small ‘F’ instead of an ‘L’.

We passed a power plant and could see its chimneys’ steam plumes for miles and miles on the horizon.

A little ways into France we encountered a huge medieval wall. Curious, we turned into the small town of Rodemack. Drop-dead gorgeous, it consisted of perhaps three or four narrow streets, lined with old houses sporting blue shutters, and that substantial citadelle.

The gate leaving town was dismantled in 1944 in order to allow General Patton’s tanks through. It took forty years to repair it!

A little further on, a concrete war bunker caught Patti’s eye (and ire).

We later found out it was one of many defensive bunkers of the Maginot Line, built by the French after WWI to keep out the offending Germans. The Germans, however, simply attacked through Belgium and went around the Maginot.

Ironically, when Patton came along in September 1944 to liberate this area, the Germans used a lot of the Maginot fortifications to slow Patton’s advance. This gave the Germans time to put together their forces for the Battle of the Bulge in December, just north of here in the Ardennes.

We joined the Moselle River for a riverside trail into Thionville, our overnight stop. We don’t have much to say about Thionville. It has two shopping streets with many empty storefronts.

(And here is a picture of the hunting store. In addition to guns and whatnot, there are always lots and lots of beautiful hunting knives to look at, in France. Not a good souvenir, though, for folks like us who only travel with carry-on luggage…)

A big highlight was John’s haircut. A young man missing a front tooth worked with blazing speed, swapping cutter heads and trimmers like Edward Scissorhands. No talking, just a lot of “c’a va?” and a great haircut. A healthy tip prompted a huge toothless smile from him.

A visit to the local Tourism Info office didn’t yield much, but we did learn that they’re proud of Mirabelles plums which are in season right now. (So John has been loading up on plum jam at various breakfast buffets…) And I’m on the hunt for Quiche Lorraine, since we’re in the Lorraine region.

We finished the day with a spectacular Lebanese meal.