Vezelay was our stop last night where we enjoyed a quiet night of relaxation on a hillside village in the middle of France. We stopped in at the Cathedral and had a decent meal in a nearby restaurant for dinner. 
It's not a good idea to build a House more opulent than the King as the owner was imprisioned for the rest of his life after the King came for dinner one night.
The closest thing we've seen are the mansions near Newport, Rhode Island. At the end of the tour we are walking through the gift shop and saw a display of famous people who have visited the Mansion. Turns out this is where Tony Parker and Eva Longoria were married. Lora said, "If I had known this during the tour I would have paid MUCH more attention!"
After finishing the tasting you can sit down and talk with a salesman and taste other wines that are representative of the wines you enjoyed along the tasting. So, Mom and I, sat down and started talking with the salesman. We learned that if you ship wine to the US you can remove the French taxes of 19%...which almost covers the shipping cost. The salesman pulled out some more wines that "Shockingly" were more expensive than the ones tasting down in the cave. WE found wines that we really liked and were wililng to buy and ship. He then told us that the minimum amount to ship was a case. So we discussed it and decided we'd split a case. We started tasting more...and discussing more and then the salesman disclosed that we could only have at most 3 different wines in the shipment.
George had already decided he was done tasting and had paid 10 Euros and was going to get his value!
After our adventure in Switzerland we made it to Colmar without issue. The Alsace region of France has some of the most spectacular little villages in all of France. The region is covered with vineyards and the wines have been similar to the German wines around the Rhine. We are looking forward to our trip to Burgundy tomorrow as Lora and I prefer the Burgundian wines of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. You would think we be tired of wine by now but really we are yet to discover a great French/German Wine....maybe that has something to do with our budget. 
Lora and I have felt that George and Marty would be good candidates for the Amazing Race. That was until this morning when we were trying to leave Switzerland. Bruno led us to a gas station and George was filing up the tank. He had just finished filling the tank when he realized he had filled the tank with Regualr Unleaded Gas....we have a Diesel car! Luckily Bruno was still around and was able to call his local garage and we were towed over. We are back at Bruno's place waiting for the mechanic to drain the tank. We never started the car or else we really would have had problems.
They also have a History of Christmas Musuem as many of our Christmas customs originiated in Germany. We had another awesome dinner and followed that with a night tour of Rothenburg.
Lora feels that Jeff missed his calling and should probably start a night watchman tour in Saratoga or Los Gatos. The night watchman gets 6 Euro (~$9) per person for the tour and last night there were at least 70 people on the tour....not a bad night's pay.
Bruno met us on the highway as we entered the Swiss border and escorted us through the scenic Mountainous area known as Appenzell. It's like a cross between New Hampshire and Glacier National Park in Montana. It's beautiful but also cold up on the mountain tops.
Huge mountains and a green landscape seem to be everywhere you look and would make remarkable postcards.
Today we arrived in Rothenburg after a very nice stay with Gaby in Bensheim. Gaby hosted us and was an awesome hostess for the two nights we were there. She cooked us a few homemade German meals. Sauerbraten and red cabbage were our favorites...different than anything in the states. Lora wants to get the recipes so she can try to tackle making these for us sometime. We also did lots of hiking with Gaby through the surrounding area with one hike having the greatest destination of all...a beer and wine shack overlooking the Benshiem area. 
All hikes should lead to a place that serves beer and wine! It is walnut season so while we hiked we scoured the ground for walnut shells that we could take back to Gaby's and crack open. 
some of the Great Wall of China this summer, but we walked the entire city wall of Rothenburg! Tonight when it gets dark, we will take a tour of the city with the "Night Watchman" who will stop at many places throughout the town and tell us stories of their significance. Should be a different sort of experience than anything we have done thus far or ever will get to do again. These small towns try to think of clever ways to entertain the tourists and we do feel they have mostly been successful with keeping us busy and entertained. 
Our last day in Paris was a very busy but still relaxing day. We started the day by going to a local street market to grab supplies for lunch. We found some great cheese and bread and purchased a couple of half bottles of wine.
After the market it was off to Napoleon's Tomb.
Lunch was a picnic in a park with the Eiffel tower in the background as we sipped our wine, ate our cheese and enjoyed the perfect late summer weather.
Found a wonderful dinner where Lora was surpised by the presentation of her fish. You can see by the pictures she was nervous to eat it but must have liked it in the end. She might be getting used to having her food stare her down while she eats it.
