Ancestral Village #1

 The maternal grandfather of my maternal grandmother, Hippolyte, came from a small village in the Alsace region called Saint Hippolyte. (It seems there were a lot of boys from the town with that name.)

Yesterday we arrived in the town of about 1000 inhabitants. It lies in the foothills of the Vosges Mountains and it primarily produces wine and supports tourists who come to drink wine. The country is France, but most of the names sound German, although I imagine the people would insist that they are from Alsace.

We hiked up a mountain to a restored medieval castle and had a lovely view of the countryside.

We wandered around the village in the evening, ate some very good Alsatian cheesy potatoes, and went to bed. On the schedule for today is a visit to the cemetery and to sneak inside the church during a baptism, the only time it is open this weekend!