Finally decided to use again the car for a trip to the family.
The plan was made thanks to googlemaps, which allowed to see the route, travelling times and other interesting information (like hotels along the route).
After our two previous experiences, one travelling as a couple and one with a 1.5 year old, we decided to have maximum 4-5 hours car, split practically in a couple of hours in the morning (getting up at normal time, taking the time needed to prepare, to avoid the traffic of who goes to work), a lunch long enough for the kids to enjoy a bit, run around and get tired, and then another couple of hours of car.
Result: it worked excellently, not a single complaint of boredom or annoyance, all well enough rested to enjoy every single day.
To note: between Grenoble and Metz we stopped in Arlay for lunch time, but it is missing in the map as at the time of the planning was not sure yet
Days were organized as follows:
saturday 9 morning leave home ->
lunch -> afternoon at friend -> evening at family
monday 11 morning leave family -> lunch -> afternoon arrive hotel
thursday 14 morning leave hotel -> family
sunday 17 morning leave -> lunch at family -> evening at family
thursday 21 morning
leave family -> lunch at family -> evening arrive hotel
http://www.novotel.com/gb/hotel-0446-novotel-metz-hauconcourt/index.shtml
friday 22 morning leave -> lunch at Quick with playground -> afternoon home
Now some info about the places were we lunched or slept
For the lunch we had on the way down, we stopped in a random village because the TomTom had indicated a McDonalds which however we could not find. The town was however very cute and we found a very good restaurant, I need to do some research to try to find it back.
The Hostellerie Am Schwarzsee was perfect on paper, while in reality there has been some issues
1) the indoor swimming pool is minimum 1.40m deep, which meant our kids could not be left playing at all.
2) the playroom they mentioned was full of toys but: was in the basement (no windows), shared with hotel staff wardrobe (they were coming continuously to hang or pick up uniforms), dirty (the first two days was really horribly dirty and messy, then it was better but toys still looked quite aged)
3) there is a fantastic veranda where you could eat/drink and enjoy the view, however was very cold, was not being prepared (we did not ask to go there, but looked like it would not be allowed) and mostly: it tremendously smelled of dog, as apparently one is staying there even though we have never met him, while we saw his bowls for water and food
4) one waiter entered the room without knocking or anything. As she had to bring us some toiletry that had run out, she came back again entering without knocking...
5) as in other restaurants in the same country, food was unbelievably expensive compared to the quality. A dish with a small amount of meat and some frozen veggies for almost 40eur. We ate twice in a row pizza as they were cooked in a wooden oven and quite ok (for only 20eur each pizza)
6) contrary to what they claim in their hotel book (the one you find in the bedroom), they do not provide currency exchange at the reception. And they do not care of disappointing you by making an ugly face.
I believe I would not be going back to the place, even though the location was easily accessible and convenient for us, was way too expensive for the actual service.
The only positive note about the hotel, which however had not much to do with the hotel itself, was the ski-rental place located in the basement. Run by a very nice woman (and a man fixing skies in hte background, but he never talked to us), extremely available for our requests. As example we had rented equipment for three days and discovered that our son would not ski: she agreed in taking back the equipment and reimbursed the money.... which anyway we spent with her again to rent a sleigh ;)
About the surroundings of the Schwarzsee: the frozen lake was covered with snow, and the skating ring in contrast with what advertised was not maintained, therefore no skating, which had been quite a big disappointment.
We have not tried much of the ski slopes for various reasons, also we wanted our son to follow a course in the ski-school but they were fully booked the whole week.
The Novotel close to Metz was another big disappointment. Rated 4 stars had a quadruple bedroom that was like a double, the toilet supersmall (could hardly close the door when entering, unless by climbing on the wc), bath-tub also tiny (only enough to bath a kid), smelling of smoke quite badly, and when we entered the room the ventilation was off, which is probably why the smell of smoke was so strong, and the temperature was very very low (had to keep the jacket, then luckily we had to leave the room for dinner and could leave the heating on, which actually made the smell of smoke even worse). They had locked the minibar so could not use the content of the fridge (nor store the milk for our little one). I need to verify how stars are assigned to understand how this one could have 4.
The last lunch on the way back was perfect, at Quick in the town of Jambes in Belgium (not far from Namur). It has a fantastic new, clean, big play structure for the kids, so was really nice cooling there during the last 4 hours trips. If we will do again such a log trip in Europe, we will come back here for the last (or first if on the way down) lunch!
