The Colours of Alsace

As much as I love the azure blue of the Mediterranean Sea, the dusky green of olive trees, and the rich green of cypress trees, the one thing that was lacking it "le Sud", at least along the coast, was the feel of autumn. Late September and October are my favourite times of the year so, as much as I was going to miss the sun and warmth of southern France, I knew I would also love seeing the fall colours. I had seen a hint of them Wednesday when my plane landed in Zürich. Saturday, I left Feldmeilen with Kathrin and Sascha (a friend of hers whom I also know) and drove Kathrin's car to Alsace for an overnight mini-break with "the girls". Right from the minute we left Feldmeilen and drove over the hill toward the autobahn, the fall colours were spectacular and it didn't hurt that the sun was shining. The golden yellow, bright red, and burnt orange colours of the trees were breathtaking. Thinking back, I wish I had taken the time to stop and take some photos while we were still in CH. The countryside there always looks amazing.

It took about 2 hours to reach the first of the Alsatian villages that we planned to visit Saturday and Sunday. Eguisheim is so charming and quaint it simply does not look real - more like a movie set. It is designated "un des plus beaux villages de France" and deserves that distinction! We arrived during the fête du champignons - new for me as I usually visit these villages during their fêtes du vin. So, seeing people participating in the tradition was interesting. Another reason I like this village is that one of my favourite Alsatian winemakers, Freudenreicht, is located there. It would be very unusual for me not to visit their tasting room and buy some wine when I am in Alsace. After we'd had lunch, wandered around the village, and visited the market stalls, we went there and all of us tasted and bought wine. It is more than a little bit annoying to taste and buy these wonderful wines here knowing that, even if we could get them at home, they would cost 4 to 5 times more!

One of the little ruelles in Equisheim

The mushroom stall at the "fête".

The Freudenreicht Winery - cute with fabulous Alsatian wines!

From there we drove north along the Route du Vin (Eguisheim is one of the villages at the southern end of this approximately 180 km drive) to Kaysersburg, yet another lovely little medieval "eye candy" village. As I mentioned, the sun was shining so the foothills of the Vosges mountains, along which this road runs, looked amazing even though some clouds had rolled in during the afternoon. We kept stopping to take photo after photo. Okay, not as many as of the calanques on the Cotes d'Azur but, after all, I have been here an embarrassingly large number of times before so isn't like I don't have a huge collection already at home.

Fall colours of the vineyards along the Route du Vin d'Alsace

In Kaysersburg

For the first time, even though I have been regularly coming to Alsace since 1979, I was going to be staying in one of the villages along the Route du Vin. I was really looking forward to seeing one late at night after most of the hoards of tourists had left. We had picked Riquewihr because it is easily one of the prettiest of these very charming medieval villages and also because there is a very affordable hotel just outside its old walls. So, we continued along the wine road arriving at Riquewihr about 6 p.m. The shops were still open so we made good use of the last hour by visiting quite a few of them. The good news was that, even though the next day was Sunday, the stores would be opening at 10. Yeah! We found several restaurants that looked good but we all had our hearts (or is that stomachs?) set on filet de boeuf so we looked for a restaurant with that on the menu. Apparently, the price of that beef dish in CH would be well over $55 so no wonder that it was what Kathrin and Sascha wanted. The next morning, after doing more shopping in Riquewihr, we meandered north along the wine road but, aside from pausing to take photos, we didn't actually stop until we reached Obernai. There we had lunch and then headed east to the "bord du Rhin" to the village of Rhinau where Sue and Keith live. I said good bye to Kathrin and Sascha, they headed back to CH, and I began my last week before I head home. I know I am not yet ready for that!