We spent a few weeks exploring the picture-book villages, towering chateaus, ancient wineries and stunning countryside in the Alsace in early August and found the multi-cultural area captivating. If the Alsace region in France were a mix-tape it would feature the tracks from the Sound of Music, accordion Volkesmusic and a few chansons française. Such is the mash-up of French, German and Austrian cultures in this mid-east region of France which runs along the Rhine river with Switzerland to the south and Germany to the east. Cafes sell pretzels, pain de d’épices and eclairs. Hansel & Gretel feature heavily as the region borders the German Black Forest where the children were abandoned in the Brothers Grimm medieval tale. We followed the route de vin d’Alsace from Obernai down to Colmar and further south to Basel driving through happening hamlets 10kms apart – each one stuffed with colourful medieval style houses built in the German ‘pan de bois’ (half-timber) style with many local symbols and decorations.
The area is famous for its wineries, picturesque villages and canal towns and chateaus, so I will section this post into these and share what we discovered.
Delightful vines and villages along the Routes de Vins Alsace
The predominant wines in the Alsace are Chablis, Riesling and Gerwertztrammir and there are some seriously old Chateaus (wine houses) that are probably best explored by bicycle especially if you plan to do some wine tasting. Many of the chateaus require appointments so we decided to do a slow drive through the area and stop in to taste wines in the little wine tasting stands in the towns.
We drove our own version of la Route des Vins d’Alsace from Obernai through Mittelbergheim, Ribeauville, Riquewihr then Keysersberg and ended at Thann.
Established in 1953, the Alsace Wine Route winds through tiny towns and ancient vineyards for more than 170 km, passing through 119 wine-growing communes where there are more than 720 wine producers.
We started at Obernai (where we hoped to catch the huge Saturday market, but it was closing up as we arrived at 11.30). Still, we really enjoyed walking through the old fortified walls and discovering the treasures inside this well preserved medieval town.
It was an important town as it sat at the crossroads of trade routes for thousands of years, growing rich on the taxes it levied on merchants in transit. There are many magnificent half-timbered houses (see the Ruelles des Jiffes) , interesting statues and monuments ( the three bucket well is a beauty), and a big belfry in the centre of the town. The stone in this area is light chocolate with a touch of pink and there are colourful red and pink flowerpots everywhere to add to the hues.
Mittelbergheim, is a village perched on a rocky promontory and the epitome of a 17th and 18th century wine village. It was hot when we visited and the townfolk were all off on their ‘conges l’ete’ (summer holidays) so it felt rather abandoned.
Still, we walked up the rue de principal and found the long established Domaine Gilg wine house and were delighted to see we could do a self-tour of their (nice and cool) wine cave which deposited us back out at a tasting room where we tried their grand cru Sylvaner and Riesling wine. It was so delicious we bought one of each! We then walked the Sentier Viticole a cute little gravel and dirt track that goes down side streets and through the vineyards with a back drop of the forested Vosges.
Ribeauville was going to be our big wine-tasting stopbut somehow, we found ourselves hiking up a 7km trail to the three castles built in the 14th century that now lie like crumbling watchdogs high up over the town. I thought it was only 1km up to the castles (which as it turned out it was – but from the other end of town!) but somehow, we joined the walking track at the far end and enjoyed a 7km zig zag walk through leafy forests then up a steep rocky goats track to the first castle!
We reached the Château du Girsberg first which is smaller than the grander more intact Saint-Ulrich.There’s a little track that takes you around to a viewing deck and you can see down to the town and across to the next Chateau Saint-Ulrich where you can climb the ramparts for an even higher view! We didn’t take the path leading steeply upwards to the top Château du Haut-Ribeaupierre, but admired its turrets from below before descending down the 1km steep path back to town where our first stop was the little bar by the fountain for an icy cold beer! We walked back to our car via the main paved pedestrian street of Ribeauville which was packed with lovely little shops, restaurants and bars.
The medieval city of Riquewihr was our next stop and this pretty town also had colourful flowerpots, pink-chocolate stone and very colourful timber houses along its busy main street.
Many of the houses dated back to the Middle Ages and others from the Renaissance. We had a coffee gelato and found a little cave du vin off the main drag and bought a bottle of local Riesling to have with dinner.
The village of Kaysersberg was next and we had a quick stroll through more pretty half-timbered houses, past the 13th century church, its Renaissance Town Hall and across the fortified bridge but it was too hot to linger much longer and many of the shops and restaurants were closed whether due to the heat or holidays it was hard to tell.
Our last stop was Thann – a town that is dominated by the ruins of the Château de l’Engelbourg known as the “Witch’s Eye”. The chateau must have been grand once as the ruins are even impressive and the ‘Witches’ Tower’, a former rampart tower, now has a museum space that resents the different terroirs of Alsatian vineyards and the work of the winemaker.
We called in on an oh so hot day and everyone had shut up shop so we grabbed some cool drinks from the CarreFour supermarket and put our feet in the river in the shade and tried to cool down! Thann is either the start or end of the famous Alsace Wine Route depending on which way you go – for us it was the end. The Rangen vineyard, is probably the most famous vineyard here and is classified as a grand cru in its entirety and produces a wine of great renown.
Dungeons and dragons at Château du Haut-Koenigsbourg
We took a day trip to the Château du Haut-Koenigsbourg one morning (45 min drive from Colmar) as we’d seen it in the distance perched high on its hill. This is a serious castle that really stands out on its 800m high hilltop – you can see it from miles away. Built in 1147, it was the site of endless conflicts and rivalries between lords, kings and emperors, destroyed in 1633, then finally restored in 1908 by the German Emperor William II with careful attempts to restore the castle to how it was at the end of the 15th century. It’s a real museum of the world of the Middle Ages: with the machinery, furniture of that time with a real emphasis on dungeons and dragons with lots of drawbridges, weapons, dungeons, fighting rooms, swords and cannons. The décor is quite dramatic with swathes of pink stone and black metal and dark, ominous dungeons sprouting forth fire breathing dragons embedded with swords. It was super busy when we were there and loads of families so a bit chaotic – so best to visit outside of the July-August school hols!
The best of the Alsace villages and canal towns
In addition to the villages on the wine route, we also explored the major towns of the Alsace – Strasbourg, Colmar and Mullhouse.
Cosy and colourful Colmar:
We had three nights in the charming canal town of Colmar and stayed in a tiny rooftop apartment on the Quai de la Poissonnerie (yep the fisherman’s street across from the covered market in a section of Colmar called ‘little Venice’ for its canals! It was a wonderful location as the canal was outside our door for walks (and navigating) and right in the old town. Colmar is famous for many things including being the birthplace of the sculptor, Bertholdi who was the architect of the Statue of Liberty – the gift France gave to US to mark the liberation of the US from England (there’s a replica on the roundabout outside Colmar airport). But it’s really the old town with its’ cobblestone streets lined with colourful half-timbered medieval and early Renaissance buildings that people come to see. And the huge, Gothic 13th-century, Saint-Martin church. You can take little boats around the canals (too hot for us) and there are many squares that are heaving at night with tourists eating the local tartes flambees (crispy thin pizza with cheese, lardons and onions) and drinking the Riesling from the Alsace vines. We got a tip off that there was dancing in the local Champ de Mars Park on Wednesday night so we ventured up and (tried) to join in but they were a class above us with their smooth moves! So we enjoyed watching as we sipped wine and ate the obligatory tarte flambeés in the kiosk overlooking the park.
Stunning Strasbourg
We took the train 35 mins from Colmar up to Strasbourg – the capital city of the Grand Est region (which is what the Alsace region has been renamed). I can’t ever think of this town without remembering the Stras and sauce sandwiches Mum made us for our school lunch box back in the 1980’s!. Funnily enough, we never saw Strasbourg the lunch-meat being sold in the delicatessens so I wonder if that was an Aussie construct? As Strasbourg sits near the German border, the culture and architecture of this town is a blend of German and French influences which you can see in the Gothic Cathédrale Notre-Dame features (this church is seriously big and gorgeous) and the half-timbered houses that tumble down to the Rhine River. Like in Colmar, there are many flower-adorned covered bridges over the canals which you can walk along or ride on a boat around the network of canals around the town. Curiously, there are a lot of Hansel and Gretel motifs and gingerbread so perhaps this is where that tale came from? There are a lot more big shopping streets and arcades and squares in Strasbourg and whilst it was very pretty I preferred the smaller scale Colmar to stay in.
Mulhouse markets and motor museums
About 15 minutes south of Thann lies the second largest city in the south of Alsace – Mulhouse. We visited on a Saturday, keen to do some shopping at the large outdoor market we’d read about but were a little disappointed to find it was very crowded with the clothing focused on the Muslim market and the produce more African than French.
We were really in Mullhouse to visit the National Automobile Museum so we headed there instead and whilst we found it incredibly difficult to actually find the entrance (we almost gave up) once we were inside we were truly blown away. There’s a funny story about how this museum came to be. The Schlumpf brothers opened a wool mill in Mulhouse in the late 1950s and began collecting cars (many Bugatti and classic cars) from the profits they made at the mill. In 1979 they file for bankruptcy and fled to Basel, Switzerland where they hid from the financers and irate wool mill workers, who are left with nothing – until they discovered the elaborate collection of cars the brothers amassed that sent the mill bankrupt! This city of Mullhouse bought the collection, helped pay off the workers’ wages and opened the museum in 1982 then began adding to it. Today it houses the most important automobile collection in the world with more than 500 vehicles. The museum is arranged to show the evolution of the car industry from the very first carriage-looking cars through to the big Rolls Royce limousines and the sleek racing cars. It was interesting to see how the vehicles, from different car manufacturers revolutionised the way of life and made getting from A to B faster and more economical over time. I loved the 1950’s to 1970’s cars the most – Jamie loved the race cars!
The three countries bridge walk: France, Germany and Switzerland
We were intrigued by the little triangle where France, Switzerland and Germany meet so decided to do the Three bridges walk and visit all three countries. We parked our car in the little village of Saint Louis, in France and walked across the ‘3 countries bridge’ which spans the Rhine river iand takes you from France in to Germany and if you stop in the middle of the bridge you are looking down to Switzerland!
We grabbed a salad from the food court in Germany, walked back over the bridge into France and along the Rhine in to Basel, Switzerland, for a coffee (big mistake – nearly AUD$15 for a cold brew) then back along the Rhine to our car in France! It was a bit of fun but a little hot and we were intrigued by the signs forbidding swimming on the French and German sides but freely allowing it up-river in Switzerland!
Back in France, we also called in to the Parc des Eux Vives a 350 m long grade 2 Whitewater Park in Huningue and watched kids learning how to do eskimo rolls, turn around obstacles and navigate whirlpools and eddies. It was right when Jess Fox won the gold medal for Australia in the women’s single kayak race so it was super fun to watch and if I was younger might have thought about taking the sport up myself!
