This will be a long post with a lot of pictures.

We have a travel book of backroads tours in the various European countries.  We have been in Strasbourg France the past few days and decided to take one of the road trips nearby called the Alsace Wine Route.  There are 16 places to visit on this trip and the first one is Obernai France.

We arrived in Obernai shortly after 10 on Sunday morning and found the streets into the city centre blocked.  As we approached a full close-in parking lot we spotted a man walking into the lot so we followed him.  Fortunately he was leaving and six hours later so were we.  Needless to say, we made but this one of the 16 stopping places on this trip and had one of the finest travel days we’ve had the pleasure to experience as we by chance had shown up at the Fete d’ Automne in previously unheard of Obernai France on a perfect fall day.  Or should I say perfect automne day.

Obernai is about 11,000 people, it is surrounded by a medieval wall, has a gorgeous cathedral (Cathedral of Saints Peter, Paul and Mary) and is just a darn beautiful little town.  Wonderful shops, a large variety of restaurants and in true European style, flowers everywhere.  And man, do they know how to put on a festival.

Music, food, processions, children and adults in historical garb, music, lovely shops, food stands, fantastic bakeries and chocolate shops and music.  Did I mention music?  Yes, there were four bandstands spread around the town with traditional local music from local bands, American pop and American big band, also from local artists.  Music…one of America’s great contributions to the world.  Hearing our music played with French conversation from the stage in between songs reminded me of at least this one contribution we have made that seems to be well accepted.

It also made me think about what we have done to our small towns, an issue I have had for the past nearly forty years.  We have destroyed our small rural town histories by tearing down old structures that had historical meaning rather than investing to preserve them and then connecting our economies to that history.  Here, it is not uncommon to see them add on or re-do interiors and many times they do it in a style not consistent with the external appearance.  But in any case, they do not destroy the original structures and their history.  There is no way a Wal-Mart would move into the fringe of one of these towns and destroy their downtown.

If you ever get the chance, the Fete d’ Automne in Obernai France is not to be missed.  But perhaps it is true of other small towns in Europe also.  We hope to explore this more.

A lot of pictures with this post but I just couldn’t resist showing it all.