Alsace changed nationality four times in seventy-five years, and it shows in the architecture, the dialect and the food. It is the most Germanic region of France and, perhaps for that reason, one of the most visited by the French themselves.
The wine road
It runs a hundred and seventy kilometres from Marlenheim to Thann through around a hundred wine villages. The finest cluster between Ribeauvillé and Eguisheim: Riquewihr, Hunawihr, Kaysersberg and Turckheim fit into forty kilometres. Cellars offer tastings that are free or cost a few euros, with no obligation to buy.
Colmar and Strasbourg
Colmar is the most practical base for the wine road, with its Petite Venise quarter and the Unterlinden museum holding the Isenheim altarpiece. Strasbourg plays in another league: a Gothic cathedral in pink sandstone, the Petite France district and the European institutions. Allow two days for Strasbourg and two for Colmar and its surroundings.
The wines worth knowing
Alsace makes mostly white wine, and almost always dry, contrary to a stubborn misconception. Riesling is the most mineral, pinot gris the fullest, gewurztraminer the most aromatic with its lychee and rose notes. Crémant d Alsace is the best value sparkling wine in France. There are fifty-one grands crus, always named on the label.
At the table
Choucroute garnie is a substantial winter dish, usually too much for lunch. Flammekueche, thin and crisp, is made for sharing. Baeckeoffe, three meats slow-cooked together, is ordered a day ahead in the better places. Winstubs, the traditional taverns, serve all of this in wood-panelled rooms with wine by the jug.
The Haut-Koenigsbourg and the Vosges
Above the plain, the Haut-Koenigsbourg castle looks down on the wine road from seven hundred and fifty metres. Rebuilt in the early twentieth century, it divides specialists but offers a panorama reaching from the Vosges to the Black Forest and, on clear days, the Alps. Further west, the Route des Crêtes crosses the Vosges summits over seventy kilometres of bends, with farm inns serving a full ferme-auberge menu for around twenty euros.
December
From late November to 24 December, Strasbourg, Colmar, Kaysersberg and Riquewihr host the oldest Christmas markets in France, the Strasbourg one dating to 1570. Weekends are extremely busy and hotels double their rates. Coming midweek and staying twenty kilometres out changes the experience entirely.
Alsace is covered slowly, village by village. A hundred kilometres will fill five days.