After an action-packed week in the Alps, we continue up France’s eastern border with the more subdued beauty of Alsace. With territory that has changed hands between France and Germany many times, it has its own blend of culture, dialect, architecture and food. Oh, and wine.
Part 1: July 26-August 10 - Neuve Église
Our first stop was actually one of the first families to propose a home exchange last summer, but some circumstance caused them to postpone their trip to the US. I’m so glad we stayed in touch and ended up in their spacious, modern home tucked amongst quaint old villages.
One of the main attractions in Alsace is the Wine Route, a 170-km series of back roads and bike trails through vineyards, fairytale villages and castle ruins. We could walk to a few neighboring towns from our house, but most days, we drove out to different segments of this route.
I don’t want to write, and you don’t want to read, every little town and castle, but here are a collection of our favorites:
Bergheim, with its Gewurtzraminer festival complete with Medieval parade
Eguisheim, built in concentric circles, with 3 castles above it
Colmar, with its ‘Little Venice’ and covered market full of tasty treats
Impossibly picturesque Kayserberg and its castle keep
Riquewihr, overrun with tourists and overflowing with cuteness
Medieval Ribeuvillé
Sélestat, with its lively market and impressive parade of dahlia-covered floats
And for the top (literally) castle, Haut-Koenigsbourg, visible from almost anywhere.
For more of a city break, we only had to go 45 minutes to Strasbourg. Its cathedral was the world’s tallest building for more than 200 years, so of course we climbed its single tower for a view.
We walked the whole of the ‘Petit France’ neighborhood and plenty of outskirts to burn off the heavy German-influenced lunch. City or not, Strasbourg was still overflowing with that same half-timbered cuteness.
As a break from that, we made it into the Vosges mountains for a couple of real climbs. The Grand Ballon is the highest peak in the range, and should have views to the Austrian Alps on a clear day. When we went up, we were able to see far into France but nothing to the east.
The weather finally warmed up at the end of our stay and we had much better views from our hike to the Temple of Donon. Some Gallo-Roman ruins remain, but the ‘temple’ on this peak was really a museum built in the 1800s. Still, a memorable picnic spot.
Part 2: August 10-13 - Ingolsheim
When we got a request for another exchange only about an hour away, we couldn’t pass up the chance to stop by the far north Alsatian town of Ingolsheim. This time we just had a cozy little apartment attached to the large family home.
From here we hit one more town-to-town hike that took us over the border into Germany,
And one more castle hike covering Loewenstein, Hohenbourg and Flecklenstein castles, along with some more recent history, forts of the Maginot Line.
The symbol of Alsace is the stork, and there are platforms for their nests on many churches and city structures. The other symbol is the pretzel, which features prominently in the cuisine along with all kinds of sausage, sauerkraut (“choucroute”), tarte flambé (cracker-thin wood fired take on pizza), munster cheese, and cream sauces made with white wine (usually Riesling).
I must admit I prefer other regional French fare, like the crepes, baguettes and indulgent café gourmand. This was training though for our last week in Europe, to be spent in Frankfurt.