Belfort to Mülheim. A Cross-Border Escape

Hello everyone. I wanted to share our recent trip to a new city. We visited a place called Belfort, a small city located in the Franche-Comté region in eastern France. This was our first time here and we chose it because it's close to Germany. Our goal was to explore a bit and then head to Germany for some shopping, particularly for groceries.

We set off around 5 pm and had about a two-hour drive ahead of us. By the time we arrived at the hotel, it was already dark. We stayed at a hotel called Prive. Our room was quite spacious, with plenty of room to move around. It was clear that the room was newly renovated. It looked modern and elegant. The room had all the essentials: a wardrobe, safe, towels, a desk, a kettle and bottled water. It was very comfortable overall.

One thing that caught my attention was the large, full-length mirror in the room, which I really liked since not every hotel has this. However, I noticed that the first two windows wouldn’t open. Finally the third one did, which I think was part of a safety measure against drafts. Through the window, we had a fantastic view of the city center, directly overlooking the train station. This was perfect because the train to Germany would leave from there, meaning we didn’t need to drive. The underground parking at the hotel was also a great bonus, making everything very convenient.

There was just one small downside: I usually prefer rooms with a bathroom, but this one didn’t have one. That was a bit disappointing, but other than that, the room was perfect. I also noticed a large group of Asian guests staying at the hotel, which might explain why it was fully booked.

We only paid for one person and everything else was covered by our gift voucher. For a free weekend getaway, I think this was a great deal. After unpacking our things, we started to relax a bit. It took us about three hours to get there, with a few stops along the way.

The next morning, we planned to have breakfast, but the breakfast hours were from 6:30 to 9:00, which didn’t fit into our schedule. Despite this I liked this hotel much more than the one we stayed at in Valence, which I mentioned in previous posts. First this hotel is located in the city center. So there’s no need for long commutes. Second the design is beautiful and staying here was a pleasure. Plus the view from our room was fantastic.I could see the train station directly while lying in bed. I usually prefer lively places like this, where you can see people walking, trains passing and buildings around. I’m not a fan of quiet places, so this view really appealed to me.

To be honest, I didn’t know much about this city before. I was just looking for hotels using my gift vouchers and wanted a location close to Germany. Belfort is only about an hour away from the German border, so we left our car there and headed to Germany. Surprisingly, this city turned out to be much more popular than I expected and the hotel was full.

One unique thing I noticed in this hotel was the elevator system. When the elevator doors opened, there was another door you had to open manually before entering. It was quite an interesting system.

We decided to take the train to Germany instead of renting a car. Initially we considered renting one, but it was expensive for just one day and returning it the next day would have been difficult. So taking the train seemed faster and cheaper.

The train station was right across from our hotel, making it very convenient. We had to make one transfer before reaching a city close to Germany. The weather unfortunately, wasn’t great. Just like every time we travel to Germany, it was rainy and cold. But regardless of the weather, going to Germany is always exciting.

We bought our train tickets online for 11.90 euros each. The train was nearly empty, but we realized that we had also bought bus tickets by mistake. There was a bit of confusion about where the bus departed. But we eventually found it by following some footprints on the ground.

We arrived in Mulhouse, a city in France close to the German border. We explored for about 30 minutes, walked around a square and continued our journey. The weather got colder the farther we traveled from Lyon.

When we finally reached Germany, everything felt completely different. The houses, the people and the cleanliness. Everything was more organized and tidy. We were in Mülheim, a city in the North Rhine-Westphalia region of Germany, part of the Ruhr area.

After walking around for a bit, we entered a large supermarket. I found so many interesting things there: cocktails like rum and cola, which you don’t usually see in France and a wide variety of healthy bread, including whole-grain and black bread, as well as granola bars.

The biggest surprise for me was finding familiar snacks that I love. I was happy to see them. Of course, my main goal was to find sausages and I wasn’t disappointed. You simply can’t find this variety of sausages and meat products anywhere else.

Germany really offered a unique experience, especially when it comes to food. Compared to French cuisine, the variety and quality of food here are much higher. I found so many types of salami, healthy bread and delicious cheeses.

However, there were a few things I wasn’t used to. For example, finding public restrooms was difficult, so we had to enter a café and pay to use their facilities.

Throughout the day, we explored, shopped and enjoyed the experience. Honestly, I even started thinking about what it would be like to live in Germany. The food, especially the meat products, is of excellent quality and incredibly diverse.

Our adventure, which started in Belfort, will continue in my next post. That’s all for today. See you soon.