The cheerful informality had its appeal but at the back of my mind was another borderland

The cheerful informality had its appeal, but at the back of my mind was another borderland, one filled with wild flowers and cuckoo song. TRAVELLER’S GUIDE Getting ThereSlovenia’s capital, Ljubljana, is served by easyJet (0905 821 0905; www.easyJet ) from Stansted and Adria Airways (020-7734 4630; www.adria-airways ) from Gatwick and Manchester. Venice is served by many airlines including easyJet, Jet2 (0870 737 8282; www.jet2 ), Ryanair (0906 270 5656; www.ryanair ), British Airways (0870 850 9850; www.ba ) and BMI (0870 60 70 555; www.flybmi.co.uk).Inntravel (01653 617935; www.inntravel.co.uk) arranges independent walking holidays in the area in September and October. The six-night ‘Hidden Italy and Slovenia’ trip starts in Cividale del Friuli and ends in Bovec.

The holiday costs from £718 including flights to Venice, rail transfers, accommodation, most meals, route instructions and maps.Staying ThereLocanda Al Castello, Via del Castello, Cividale del Friuli, Italy (00 39 04 32 733 242; www.alcastello ). B&B from €110 (£73).Hotel Hvala, Trg svodoge 1, Kobarid, Slovenia (00 386 538 99 300; www.topli-val-sp.si). B&B from €68 (£49).Hotel Alp, Trg Golobarskih zrtev 48, Bovec (00 386 5 388 4000; www.alp-chandler.si). Doubles from €54 (£39), including breakfast.Visiting ThereLeaflets on the historical walk are available from the Kobarid Tourist Office, Gregorieva 10, (00 386 5 380 0490; www.kobarid.si).Kobarid Museum opens Monday-Friday 9am-6pm, weekends 10am-5pm; SIT800 (£2.20).Further InformatioNBovec Tourist Office, Trg gologarskih zrtev 8 (00 385 5 384 1919; www.bovec.si).. In some places they toss flowers, but in revelling Krautergersheim they bombard us with cabbages. Mercifully, they’re shredded – for these are not your pipsqueak common or garden veg.

Statuesque, majestic, weighing up to seven kilos, the cabbages the crowds are cheering are the Bonapartes of brassica, great chieftains of the cabbage race

We are at the planet’s biggest cabbage party The parade seems never-ending Roars of applause greet each cabbage-themed float A dozen brass bands fuel the jubilation. La choucroute nouvelle est arriv? Of France’s ever-multiplying thematic roads, few sound as improbable as the Fermented Cabbage Road. In fact, La Route de la Choucroute is more a cabbage-shaped cluster than anything linear. A few kilometres from Strasbourg, fairy-tale villages like Meistratzheim and Blaesheim snuggle picturesquely among fields of giant cabbages in view of the Vosges mountains.
The most illustrious is Krautergersheim. Until the Middle Ages, it was just plain Ergersheim, but its cabbages were so famous it won the prefix “kraut” This German word for cabbage or herb is similar in Alsatian.