Thursday, May 21: Route des Vins
Anne finally got to sleep in this AM, so we were in no real rush to get up and about and that was just fine with me. Today was the day us two fine ladies headed North to travel the Route des Vins: a 10 mile or so stretch of Alsace tucked away in between the Vosges mountains. Overlooking the "wine road" is Haut-Koenigsbourg Castle: a much photographed beast at the very top of one of the higher peaks (none of the "peaks" are that high).
We mentally prepared ourselves with some Chinese food... 5/21 is l'Ascension and a holiday for almost every business in France. So, much like holidays in the U.S., when all else is closed... find Chinese food! It wasn't exactly what I think of as Chinese and I'm sure that people in China would balk, but my “spicy” shrimp was good anyway. We got as cute as comfortably possible – me in a new dress from the Mango store in Paris – and headed off.
After a 5 day fantastic weather streak, Alsace finally saw not only a cloudy day, but at times positively gloomy skies, with an inconsistent drizzle throughout the day (and a downpour that thankfully waited until dinner time when we were inside). It made for a really cool view of the Vosges mountains, which are known as the “blue mountains” because they always seem blue at dusk or in the rain. The photos are terrible quality (we’re moving at 100 km/hr) but you get the idea.
We drove all the way up to the Northern-most city on the Route to work our way back down throughout the day. Each town has its own character, but most are a sort of medieval slice of Alsace with cobblestone everything and a flair for color (my goodness, the colors). In looking through the pics, keep an eye out for storks: they’re the mascot of the region.
Our first stop was the smallest village, a quaint spot that doesn’t make it to many postcards: St Hippolyte. It’s the closest spot to the Castle-topped mountain and so our best shot at pics (I tried!). It was also the quietest and most rustic of our stops for the day. Many things were closed here because of the holiday and it being too small a town to stay open for tourists.
Next came Bergheim, which was a tad bigger and even more colorful (check out the primary-color-neighbors pic), but still fairly small/quiet. We also saw a church of a pretty decent size for a smaller town like Bergheim. As we were driving up the countryside, I could tell that there were a lot more towns than I thought because each town gets a temple or Parish (they’re more Protestant than Catholic here) and you can see distinctly each town by its church’s clock tower. I believe this is where we found a shop that makes literally every flavor of jam imaginable. From strawberry to muscato (meaning flavored with the sparkling wine) to violette, to the equivalent of pine tree-flavored jam. She had it all and we tasted something that was a specialty of the region (of course I can’t remember the berry/plant name). Anne wound up getting the Muscat.
We put some vineyards between us and Bergheim (pic: there are no yards here, only vineyard) on our way to the largest city on the Route besides the grand finale in Colmar: Ribeauville. This is where the tour buses full of retired people were hiding. It was a bit less rickety and way larger than the two previous villages and there was a shop of Alsacian goodies every few steps on the main drag. There was also a shop that Anne’s Routard book mentioned of jewelry made of precious and semi-precious stones. This is where I got snagged. I tried on a couple (pics) and after hovering over one in particular and trying it on 3 times consecutively, I finally had to treat myself to a ring (pic). It isn’t a stone I’m familiar with. Something that, at a certain angle, holds almost no color and simply looks like a cracked old bit of glass, but from a hundred different angles illuminates seemingly from within and shines a brilliant oceanic array of colors in blues and greens. Trust me, it’s worth that description… even more than the other rings in this variety of stone, this was a special *rock*.
Taking advantage of the many souvenir shops in Ribeauville, we also treated ourselves to Alsacian favorites like creamy hazelnut-tinged chocolate eggs (pic) and a soft pretzel from the home land o’ soft pretzels. The region is known for their whites, but Ribeauville is a tribute to Cremant d’Alsace, the sparkling (champagne-like) beverage that was born here.
After Ribeauville, we headed through Riquewihr, again smaller and quieter, this time because it looked ominously dark in the skies and less so because of small village size. As if we needed it, we had to get another Alsacian tradition: a kougelhopf (a sort of liqueur-soaked bundt cake; pic) and we tried mini macaroons of a variety of flavors. Anne also got a spice cake, but we – thankfully – didn’t add that to our immediate indulgences!
We moved along, hoping to catch some of the shops in our final stop of Kaysersberg before they closed at 7. K-berg is much more tucked into the mountains with a notable presence of a Florida-looking knobbly type of tree. It’s also a bit more medieval and in our case: wetter. We were invited into a shop of a local producer to taste, and believe it or not… it was our first taste of wine all day. We had a sip of a non-sweet and a sip of a sweet before scooting off to dinner at another Routard suggestion: Du Chateau. About halfway through dinner, the skies split open of their own accord and dumped buckets on Alsace. It rained through the night, even back in Mulhouse, but during dinner, we could see the rain even through the heavily tinted windows! (pic)
Dinner was well worth the suggestion. I ended up having l’Entrecote de l’Hotel – the “special of the house part just mean a slab of herbed butter on top but YUM – with white asparagus (yet another regional staple; pic) and of course a mound of chocolate ice cream with Chantilly (pic). Of course, being in Alsace, I had to have the Cremant to compliment the meal. Funny side note: my uber colorful dress matched the tablecloth. Seriously. (pic)
After a lot of walking and a really fantastic day, Anne and I treated ourselves to the climate controlled goodness of the Cineplex and Confessions of a Shopaholic (all in French of course, but I kept up ok).
Check out the pics of the entire day (beware: it’s quite the stash for one day) on Flickr.
We mentally prepared ourselves with some Chinese food... 5/21 is l'Ascension and a holiday for almost every business in France. So, much like holidays in the U.S., when all else is closed... find Chinese food! It wasn't exactly what I think of as Chinese and I'm sure that people in China would balk, but my “spicy” shrimp was good anyway. We got as cute as comfortably possible – me in a new dress from the Mango store in Paris – and headed off.
After a 5 day fantastic weather streak, Alsace finally saw not only a cloudy day, but at times positively gloomy skies, with an inconsistent drizzle throughout the day (and a downpour that thankfully waited until dinner time when we were inside). It made for a really cool view of the Vosges mountains, which are known as the “blue mountains” because they always seem blue at dusk or in the rain. The photos are terrible quality (we’re moving at 100 km/hr) but you get the idea.
We drove all the way up to the Northern-most city on the Route to work our way back down throughout the day. Each town has its own character, but most are a sort of medieval slice of Alsace with cobblestone everything and a flair for color (my goodness, the colors). In looking through the pics, keep an eye out for storks: they’re the mascot of the region.
Our first stop was the smallest village, a quaint spot that doesn’t make it to many postcards: St Hippolyte. It’s the closest spot to the Castle-topped mountain and so our best shot at pics (I tried!). It was also the quietest and most rustic of our stops for the day. Many things were closed here because of the holiday and it being too small a town to stay open for tourists.
Next came Bergheim, which was a tad bigger and even more colorful (check out the primary-color-neighbors pic), but still fairly small/quiet. We also saw a church of a pretty decent size for a smaller town like Bergheim. As we were driving up the countryside, I could tell that there were a lot more towns than I thought because each town gets a temple or Parish (they’re more Protestant than Catholic here) and you can see distinctly each town by its church’s clock tower. I believe this is where we found a shop that makes literally every flavor of jam imaginable. From strawberry to muscato (meaning flavored with the sparkling wine) to violette, to the equivalent of pine tree-flavored jam. She had it all and we tasted something that was a specialty of the region (of course I can’t remember the berry/plant name). Anne wound up getting the Muscat.
We put some vineyards between us and Bergheim (pic: there are no yards here, only vineyard) on our way to the largest city on the Route besides the grand finale in Colmar: Ribeauville. This is where the tour buses full of retired people were hiding. It was a bit less rickety and way larger than the two previous villages and there was a shop of Alsacian goodies every few steps on the main drag. There was also a shop that Anne’s Routard book mentioned of jewelry made of precious and semi-precious stones. This is where I got snagged. I tried on a couple (pics) and after hovering over one in particular and trying it on 3 times consecutively, I finally had to treat myself to a ring (pic). It isn’t a stone I’m familiar with. Something that, at a certain angle, holds almost no color and simply looks like a cracked old bit of glass, but from a hundred different angles illuminates seemingly from within and shines a brilliant oceanic array of colors in blues and greens. Trust me, it’s worth that description… even more than the other rings in this variety of stone, this was a special *rock*.
Taking advantage of the many souvenir shops in Ribeauville, we also treated ourselves to Alsacian favorites like creamy hazelnut-tinged chocolate eggs (pic) and a soft pretzel from the home land o’ soft pretzels. The region is known for their whites, but Ribeauville is a tribute to Cremant d’Alsace, the sparkling (champagne-like) beverage that was born here.
After Ribeauville, we headed through Riquewihr, again smaller and quieter, this time because it looked ominously dark in the skies and less so because of small village size. As if we needed it, we had to get another Alsacian tradition: a kougelhopf (a sort of liqueur-soaked bundt cake; pic) and we tried mini macaroons of a variety of flavors. Anne also got a spice cake, but we – thankfully – didn’t add that to our immediate indulgences!
We moved along, hoping to catch some of the shops in our final stop of Kaysersberg before they closed at 7. K-berg is much more tucked into the mountains with a notable presence of a Florida-looking knobbly type of tree. It’s also a bit more medieval and in our case: wetter. We were invited into a shop of a local producer to taste, and believe it or not… it was our first taste of wine all day. We had a sip of a non-sweet and a sip of a sweet before scooting off to dinner at another Routard suggestion: Du Chateau. About halfway through dinner, the skies split open of their own accord and dumped buckets on Alsace. It rained through the night, even back in Mulhouse, but during dinner, we could see the rain even through the heavily tinted windows! (pic)
Dinner was well worth the suggestion. I ended up having l’Entrecote de l’Hotel – the “special of the house part just mean a slab of herbed butter on top but YUM – with white asparagus (yet another regional staple; pic) and of course a mound of chocolate ice cream with Chantilly (pic). Of course, being in Alsace, I had to have the Cremant to compliment the meal. Funny side note: my uber colorful dress matched the tablecloth. Seriously. (pic)
After a lot of walking and a really fantastic day, Anne and I treated ourselves to the climate controlled goodness of the Cineplex and Confessions of a Shopaholic (all in French of course, but I kept up ok).
Check out the pics of the entire day (beware: it’s quite the stash for one day) on Flickr.
Labels: France, Route des Vins
posted by Jess at 7:45 AM
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