To Paris Station!

Paris? As in Paris, France? No, don't worry - we did not break any corona-related restrictions by travelling to a different country. And although France is not far away (Strasbourg is only 20 km away from O.K.'s village) and we really love to walk, a walk to Paris would have taken us weeks!
We still went to Paris station... you'll see :-)

May the 4th (and yes, I know about the Starwars wordplay) was a sunny Monday with almost summery temperatures of 22 Celsius (71 F). When I was dressed, I walked down the village road to a wooden stall where strawberries and asparagus are sold directly from the farmer's fields and bought strawberries for us while O.K. got things ready at home.

We started our hike directly from the front door; those are my favourite walks, when no car is needed, but of course it limits the range of possible routes somewhat.

Through the village of Zunsweier to the woods (it is the Black Forest), up to a crossing of paths which is called "Pariser Bahnhof" - Paris train station. I have tried to find out why the place has that name, but so far, no success.

On towards this hut, which said outside that it was closed but the door was still open, so of course I had to have a look inside. We stopped outside for a drink of water and a quick snack before walking on.

We enjoyed the view across Gengenbach and the Kinzig valley before walking back.

The Kußeiche ("Kissing Oak") is another landmark on that route. It has a painted "mouth" (not very well visible in my picture) and it is meant to bring good luck to a couple who kiss three times at this spot:

On the last bit of woodland just above the village, a snake crossed our path. It was most likely a grass snake (Ringelnatter); a non-poisonous, harmless species relatively common in Germany. Because it moved very quickly and we were rather surprised by it, neither of us took a picture. All I can say is that it was very beautiful, and fully grown. We hope it finds enough water and amphibians to survive; if it was indeed a grass snake, the place where we met it is not an ideal habitat, as there are no ponds or other water bodies nearby.

As it was still afternoon and sunny, we sat on the balcony with mugs of coffee on vanilla ice cream - one of our favourite summer snacks.

For our evening meal, we took the grill out, and O.K. grilled merguez (spicy sausages). 

An easy first walk (I hesitate to call it hike) to start off the week, in perfect weather and with hardly anybody else about - just the way I like it.