Stopped off at Epinal to spend some time around this ancient town. Being the chief town of the Vosges Department it was worth the visit.
A town that was heavily bombed during WWII, Epinal had made great attempts to reconstruct the city that reflected its past well. The Moselle River runs through this part of France offering a centre piece for the area.
We visited the city museum which outlined much of its history from Roman times, through the Middle Ages and up to present times. Although this was totally in French it was nevertheless interesting to see the displays showing this historical continuum.
We wandered around the old fortifications noting that the town in the Middle Ages had two fortifications - one on the island in the Moselle and the other on the east bank.
The town Cathedral and the main square reflected more of this history.
We also visited a quite unique art gallery at the famous Musee d'Images, part of the Festival des Imaginales with some very different art - some we found difficult to comprehend - not knowing of the artist, Nazanin Pouyandeh, but nevertheless, thought provoking.
Later in the afternoon we drove south through part of the Visges National Park to Luxeuil-les-Bain where we had planned to spend the night. The heavily wooded first of the Vosges area is in stark contrast to much of the flat cropping area of the Pay-du-Calais.
And our over night in Luxeuil-les-Bain, the old Roman town, Luxovium.
