The Route Du Vin Alsace is a 120km route through the wine growing area at the foot of the Vosges mountains. There are many villages on this route so we are driving through most of them and stopping for a more detailed exploration at a few. There are remains of ancient walls and half-timbered houses everywhere, often painted in a terracotta or green colour, but really in every colour you can think of. Lots of wine caves and restaurants, as this is a very busy area in the tourist season. Which is not now, which is good. Many of the villages really are gorgeous, with lovely housing and colourful gardens. The towns seem very well cared for.
Only 21 km from Strasbourg, Wangen is the first town on the Alsace wine route. A vineyard flourished her already in 1250.
Wangen
Wangen
Obernai, the next town we saw, was the legendary birthplace of St Odile, the patron saint of Alsace.
The lovely square at Obernai
Church of Sts Peter and Paul, Obernai
Alsace vines
Monday here was nearly as quiet as Sunday, very little was open in the afternoon. It was even hard to find a place for a coffee or soup. The specialties in the area in the food line are foie gras and tarte flambee. This is really like pizza topping on bread. It is said the once they only baked bread once a week as the bread got older they reheated it with a topping. We had a version with leek and ham which was very good. And we did need it today. It was cold and drizzly, and as we climbed in our camper up the slopes of Mont Ste Odile, we saw the obligatory snow for this trip (we seem to have some every time we go somewhere).
Ste Odile monastery
Mont Ste Odile
There were more half-timbered houses in Dambach-la-ville.
Dambach-la-ville
Elections coming
Dambach-la-ville
Next day was a beautiful sunny day. Cold in the shade, but the sun was lovely. We continued on the wine route, firstly visiting Riquewihr, near where we had spent the night. This village was super touristy. The Easter decorations were still out, there were gift shops galore, restaurants a-plenty, and quite a few tourists - we haven’t seen too many since Heidelberg. Riquewihr is classified amongst the most beautiful villages in France and we could see why. It was gorgeous..The village is famous not only for its historical architecture, but also for its Riesling wines. One after another we see houses that look like they come straight from picturebooks. There seemed to be a focus on food and cooking in the shops. Tableware in a terracotta red and white- we had noticed the red check design in the restaurant where we had lunch yesterday. Terrine dishes from tiny to huge, all towered on each other. Wine glasses of the local design - with a long stem in green coloured green. Delis have foie gras and sausages, and the ‘biscuitiaires?? have Kugelhopf and macaroons. We were tempted into buying warm coconut macaroons just out of the oven . Delicious.
Riquewihr Town hall
Riquewihr ramparts
Warm macaroons fresh from the bakery. Delicious..
The area around Kaysersberg is another one of the fine-wine-growing areas in Alsace. The Pinot Gris variety is grown here. The town was very attractive. Still the usual half timbered houses, this time some with wood carvings at the corners. Decaying ramparts and a ruined schloss. And this time a strong running stream cutting through the town. I liked this one, but there were more villages to see, and there are only so many one can see over a few days, so we headed towards Besancon. On the way we changed direction slightly and aimed for Ornans. I was reading one of the newspaper articles I cut and keep and this town got a good mention. It was a beautiful drive over small roads through the greenest farming country with flowering trees everywhere.
Street in Kayserberg
Kayserberg with Schloss
We had been wowed by the the beauty of this area, but we had to move on to Ornans and our stop for the night.
On the way to Ornans
This featured blog entry was written by jannettek from the blog Time to travel.
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