Vosges Information Please
 

We will be staying in a Gite near Epinal next July/August. Has anyone got any information about the area. How would you describe it? Are there any sights or events I should go to. Festivals e.t.c.?<BR><BR>Does anytone know if Lac De Bouzay near Epinal is a lake with a beach suitable for swimming?<BR><BR>Thanks Carol

I don´t know &Eacute;pinal, but it is a good base to visit Nancy and Lun&eacute;ville, Ronchamp and Alsace.

Okay, I give up. What's a Gite?

A gite is a self-catered cabin, or small house, I'll let someone else finish the definition. i like the area, it has many fewer tourists than many french places; you should see the museum of Images D'Epinal, where highly coloured prints or lithographs of games, caricatures, historical images, etc have been printed for nearly 300 years! It's not far from Colmar and other numerous ancient half-timbered ans wine making smaller villages which can be reached over some very pretty forested mountains (holiday destinations for the locals).

There is a beautiful American WWII cemetary 4 miles southeast of Epinal on road D-157. It contains the graves of 5,255 of our military dead, most of whom gave their lives in the campaigns across northeastern France to the Rhine and beyond into Germany.<BR>Fierce fighting took place in the Vosges mountains in late 1944 and early 1945. The French people of that area are most grateful for their liberation.<BR>Audie Murphy, most decorated American of WWII, won his Medal of Honor in combat just north of Colmar.<BR><BR>Have a good trip,<BR><BR>Jinx Hoover