The Good Life France Magazine




The Good Life France Magazine brings you the best of France - inspirational and exclusive features, fabulous photos, mouth-watering recipes, tips, guides, ideas and much more...


Published by the award winning team at The Good Life France

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8 months ago

Summer 2024

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Full of fabulous features, fantastic photos - inspiring, entertaining and informative. Culture and history, destination guides including Paris, Brittany, Toulouse, Troyes, Alsace-Lorraine, Champagne and more. Discover brilliant city, country, seaside and gourmet breaks. Truly scrumptious recipes to make at home. And much, much more. Bringing France to you - wherever you are.

Our first stop was the

Our first stop was the town of Saarburg in Moselle, and I couldn’t help thinking that the names of the places in this part of France sound distinctly like something out of Lord of the Rings and many of the villages are certainly fairy tale looking. Saarburg isn’t one of them, it’s a former industrial town but it has something very special that is well worth stopping off for – a stunning and huge Marc Chagall-stained glass window in a former Franciscan chapel. It depicts the tree of life, an explosion of vibrant colour, deep rich blues, ruby reds and gold, emerald green and ripe plum. Sections of it are like a jigsaw puzzle but then you see more and more as figures and shapes come into focus, it is a dazzling work of art, unforgettable. There was also time to visit the fascinating museum and take a wander in the town. You’d think a candlelight lunch gliding through the famous 2,307m long Arzviller canal tunnel, an other-worldly experience – pitch black outside the windows and utterly silent – couldn’t be topped, until you arrive at the boat lift at Saint-Louis Arzviller, a unique elevator which gently transports boats a mind-boggling 44.5m – up and down – in a few minutes, replacing 17 locks and an entire day of sailing. At the bottom of the lift, we docked and took a short walk to the famous Cristal Lehrer Glass workshops where you can watch master craftsmen create gorgeous glass objects before your eyes, heating and rolling glass amid brightly burning furnaces. Whatever you do, don’t miss a visit to the enormous shop to buy a souvenir. Sailing on we reached Saverne, the gateway to the Plaine d’Alsace, at the base of the Vosges mountains. The scenery is magnificent, I’m hard pressed to think of a more beautiful countryside location, and sitting on the deck, with an aperitif before lunch is one of those relaxing moments you want to hold onto, it’s impossible to be stressed, it’s a cocooning cruise. Wildflowers line the banks of the canal, pale pink bells, fluffy white blossoms, bright yellow buttercups, and wild plum trees, Boat lift © Michael Yung, Cruise Director, CroisiEurope Cristal Lehrer Glassworks Saverne, statue pays homage to Louise Weiss, French journalist, European politician and champion of women's rights View from the Chateau de Hohbarr AKA “Eye of Alsace” the beloved fruit of the region. The captain stopped the boat to let us pick and feast on the soft sweet fruit. We visited the lofty ruins of the medieval chateau de Hohbarr, also known as the “Eye of Alsace” thanks to its jaw-dropping views over the mountains of Vosges and the Black Forest, and on a clear day you can spot the spires of Strasbourg Cathedral. Built on three rocks connected by a bridge, local legend has it that it was built by the devil. A short walk on a mossy forest path brought us to another historic monument – the Claude Chappell Telegraph. In this hidden spot, the forerunner of modern communications was developed when signals were transmitted to Paris via a series of 47 towers using a system of shapes. Messages that once took 4 days to deliver by horse, took just 3 hours. It’s a fascinating monument manned by volunteers who are passionate about the history of the area. And on we sailed, stopping at villages full of half-timbered houses painted pastel blue, light lemon, burned orange, cherry blossom pink, sunset orange, and pea green. Window boxes were festooned with bright flowers, hearts cut into shutters, and there was an expectation of bumping into Hansel and Gretel at any moment. Spotting storks’ nests from the 48 | The Good Life France The Good Life France | 49