After Luxembourg we set off towards the Alsace region in France. We wowed at what a difference it makes driving on the smooth roads of Europe after the potholed mess we have in the UK. The road network in France has so many nice aires (rest stops) where you can pull over for a break from driving, again so much nicer than the crowded service areas we have in the UK which are so often miles apart.
We headed to the northern end of the Alsace wine route. The wine route stretches for 170km winding its way through lush rolling countryside largely covered in vineyards and passing through beautiful, picturesque towns and villages, most offering tastings of the local wines. We didn’t have a set plan for where we were to visit and stay other than we wanted to cover the whole route over three days.
Highlights of our 3 days in this area were:
Visiting some of the picture-perfect towns including Molsheim, Obernai, Ribeauville, Colmar, Eguisheim, Riquewihr and Munster
Overnighting at the family-owned Robert Blanck vineyard in Obernai – visiting their cellars, tasting their wines and drinking more of their wine at a traditional dance festival in Obernai
Learning about the history of the region by deviating off the main wine trail to visit a museum and memorial commemorating when this region was annexed by Germany. We headed up into the hills to a place called Schirmeck (seemingly in the middle of nowhere) where there is a fabulous little museum that takes you through the history of this region of Alsace from the 1870’s when Alsace was annexed into Germany through to post WW2. During the 2 world wars the region went back to French control only to be retaken by Germany in 1940 and returned to France in 1945. The museum was really well put together, with some moving displays and films showing the movement of refugees to camps around Europe. From here we drove back down the valley and back up to Natzweiler Struthof concentration camp. This was the only such camp on French soil, opened in 1941, and where some 52,000 prisoners were forced to work in the quarry nearby, with some 22,000 dying of hunger and exhaustion, and some in the experimental gas chambers on the site. Again, it was a really well put together museum and made for a haunting walk around the preserved buildings imagining the human atrocities that went on here.
Trying some of the local food specialties such as Flammekueche (Alsace thin pizza) and Munster cheese
Enjoying a bike ride from Enguisheim to Riquewihr on the waymarked cycle routes taking us on an undulating route though the countryside covered by vineyards
Visiting a significant WW1 battlefield site with a very informative museum attached which is high up in the Vosges hills near Munster. It was a terrific route to reach it, zigzagging up to 1000m with stunning views back down the valley. At the site there is a small museum, memorial and a path leading around the rocky knoll criss-crossed with trenches. Much like the concentration camp, it gave us a powerful impression of the appalling conditions the Franch and German soldiers had to endure during their deadly confrontation in 2015 – one of the deadliest battlefields of WW1. The Germans organised their defences along the crestline of Le Ligne ridge to stop the French troops from advancing towards Colmar. Between July and October 2015, an army of largely young French soldiers launched an impossible offensive against the Germans using shells and flamethrowers at close range. 10,000 French and 7,000 Germans died during this period and there was eventually a standoff where the troops literally faced each other metres apart until the end of the war in 2018. The original rusting barbed wire has been left in-situ and models of the soldiers show just how ridiculously close they were. There are also lots of crosses for the unknown soldiers whose bodies remained here.
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