N 48.79384°, E 07.37598°
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=loc:48.79384%2C07.37598
The place I was hoping to swim had been taken over by a massive classic car rally and the swimming facility had been removed. I don't know if it was permanent but it scuppered me today. There were some good cars at the rally though, some cool old army vehicles too.
Saw some good birds at the lake including what I think were black kite (haven't got a European bird guide with me) and a bizarre raft of coots. There were about 25 birds all huddled together and moving as one. I've never seen coots do this, they're normally really territorial.
Making my way east I headed for a place on the map that looked interesting called Le Petit Pierre. It's an area within Alsace that has all sorts of natural and Germanic cultural attractions. I found some really cool troglodyte houses carved into a cliff face and saw some excellent birds including black redstart, yellow wagtail, a falcon and some eagles of an indeterminate species.
Not wanting to rush to leave the area I parked up and did a bit of a trek up a heavily wooded hillside to some nebulous attraction (couldn't understand the French). It turned out it was a recently discovered hill fort that had been excavated only 20 years ago. It was perched right on top of a massive slab of rock and could easily have been missed, in spite of its size, had I not persisted and scaled the rock once at the top of the heavily wooded hill. (Name of fortress etc in self-indulgent reflection selfie).
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