To reach the start of the Moselle river your nearest access point is a station called Fellering. I had already established getting to Fellering on a weekend was not a good idea as there appeared to be no direct trains. So here we were on a Saturday trying to get to Fellering. Journey 1 from Chur to Basel went without a hitch and in Basel once we realised  that we needed to go to the french part of the station it was easy.The french part was shabby and only a ticket machine, and trains equally shabby but half the price! We got our tickets to Mulhouse 4 of them for 2 of us, someone offered to punch details into the machine for us as there was one ticket machine and already a queue building up.The ‘someone’ ended up putting in 4 adults instead of 2, I validated the tickets as didn’t realise till later that each was for 2 adults. Still I’m sure the french railways need a bit of extra cash.

It was once we reached Mulhouse that the problems began; no direct train to Fellering. I was told we could change at Thann St Jacques so we got our tickets and went to look for the platform, just a bus picture came up on the departure board. Panic we couldnt get our bikes on a bus.Back to the ticket office she said it was a train in front of the station that was blue/grey.” It was in fact a tram/train which started off as a tram and then turned into a train.So the tram set off, it was  quite good as we had a scenic tour through Mulhouse and once it had left Mulhouse it sped up and became a train.The only hitch was when I tried to hang my bike up on hooks designed for thin tyres and my tyre became impaled. Hubby semi yelling get it off you’re going to shred your tyre, if I could have got it off I would have done so. At last we arrived at  Thann St Jacques  and we had 3 minutes to find the train to Fellering and get our bikes on it which we just managed.

We’d left Chur on the 9am train, 4 trains later it was now 3pm.We decided if we saw a bed and breakfast we would stay in Fellering. On the train we’d just read that to get to the start of the Moselle we needed to cycle 10kms uphill to the pass , hence our reluctance to start.We found a beautiful looking bed and breakfast in Fellering, great we thought , I knocked it was full . No choice but to cycle 10kms up hill, ascending 300metres.Motorbikes were also having fun on the hairpins so at times we were being passed by posses of up to 8 motorbikes revving past. Good job we’d just been in the alps for hill training but this time I did hear some choice language from hubby as we faced yet another hair pin bend going up. 7 hair pin bends later we reached the hotel at the top of the pass. It looked great full of motorbike paraphenalia. In we went, no the hotel was full, due to the Public Holiday last Thurday in Germany etc the area was full with german,austrian and swiss motorcyclists. At least the manager kindly phoned around and got us a hotel room 3 kms away.The first one he rang was full and we got the last room at the next hotel.Helpful dutch guy would have been a interesting place to stay  especially if you were on a motorbike,the col du Bussang hotel.

We cycled down to Bussang via the source of the Moselle a tiny little drip!Room was suprisingly good at the hotel and lovely 3 course meal.Finally had my favourite dessert ile flotant, the meringue floating on custard yum,yum.Friendly owners wife was from Portugal and very nice food , its good to be back in France. Although the hotel was full the motorcyclists didnt party on , all those hairbends must have worn them out!The only glitsch no alcohol free beer in France for hubby!

Hotel Auberge Alsace

Bussang

Double room-45 euros

Large fan in room (didnt need it), solid wooden shutters so minimal light comes in

Comfortable mattresses