Seeing Alsace on the Route du Vins
Discover the best of France and Germany on the Wine RoadBy Michael Yaeger
It was my in-laws 20th Wedding Anniversary, and they had always wanted to go to France. My wife and I had been to 
France separately several times, but always to Paris, a city whose famous allure mystified us. Paris has famous museums and grandiose architecture, but it’s dirty, gray, large, filled with snobby Parisians and very expensive…frankly we just didn’t get it. So while this trip included La Ville-lumière necessarily, I wanted to focus on seeing some of the other parts of France: the countryside.
After landing at Charles de Gaulle, we immediately made our way to Gare d’Est and caught a beautiful high speed train three hours east to the capital of the Alsatian region, Strasbourg. Alsace sits in northeastern France and shares a border with the Rhine Valley and Schwabia in Germany, making it a wonderful blend of French and German cultures, languages and gastronomy. Strasbourg is fairly small as cities go, despite it being the home of the European Union Parliament. A small canal surrounds the Old Town, made up of narrow streets and pedestrian areas, quaint hotels, restaurants, and shops.
We ate at a traditional Alsatian Winstub where I had a ham hock baked with Gouda cheese that fell off the bone, and scalloped potatoes, as well as a cheese salad which was gruyere thinly grated with vinaigrette. Some good fresh bread (without butter) and red wine rounded out the meal. We only stayed one night in Strasbourg, but it immediately struck me as a place I’d like to explore more another time.
The main reason most people come to Alsace though is for the Alsatian Route de Vins or Wine Road. This north-south route stretches through miles of woods and picturesque vineyards, dotted with tiny fairytale towns that unabashedly compete with each other for the most overflowing flower boxes of geraniums. The wines produced in this region are fruity whites like Riesling, Pinot Gris and Gewurztraminer, among others, the highest quality ones identified with the Grand Cru label. There are plenty of wine tasting opportunities (dégustations), and also a number of vineyard footpaths to explore, although these are closed during the harvest in October (when we were there of course).
We began our journey in a rental car at the small town of Obernai, zigzagging our way lazily down the route, stopping at a handful of towns separated by enchanting forests and endless vineyards. Each town is perfectly kept, with a main street lined with timbered houses, fountains, red rooves and ivied stone walls. The towns are really small and close together, most requiring little time to explore thoroughly. The weather was beautiful, the scenery stunning. At the end of the day, we found ourselves in the village of Bergheim, north of Colmar.
We had no reservation for the night, but armed with a Michelin guide, we found wonderful lodging at Chez Norbert, a small inn on the main street with twelve small rooms overlooking the private garden. We had time before dinner to explore Bergheim's picturesque courtyards and winding streets, and we found a path around the outskirts affording peaceful views of the local vineyards and homesteads. Dinner back at the inn's typical Alsatian restaurant was multiple courses accompanied by some fantastic wine, but what I remember most was breakfast the next day. Everything was local and fresh, including thick smoked bacon fried in a cast iron skillet, reused immediately for farm fresh eggs, and accompanied by cheeses, breads and fruits. It was the best breakfast we had the entire trip.
The following day, we continued south, but before turning southwest towards the Loire Valley, we 
made a quick side trip to the Black Forest town of Freiburg, an area I was familiar with from my studies in Germany years earlier. The signs changed as we crossed the border, but the scenery was similar. After finding our way to the Innenstadt, I quickly found what I had come for. A small restaurant that offered Maultaschen, a Swaebisch specialty that comes in a variety of forms, but are basically large raviolis stuffed with a spinach and meat mixture, sliced and fried with onions and eggs. Accompanied by a couple large dunkeles Weizen (dark wheat beer), it was the perfect meal to end this part of our trip. Alsace is like being in a storybook, and provides a French experience with a German twist.
Michael Yaeger is the senior editor of TravelsInParadise.com and lives in Barre, Vermont. He can be contacted at
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Resources:
Alsace Wine Route: http://www.alsace-route-des-vins.com/NewVersion/index.cfm/Language/En.cfm
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