... to Colmar

castles everywhere. All ruined. Border country, eh!



This shot from Huhnawihr
Ruined castles above Hunawihr

Our jaunt ended in Colmar - a working town, not a tourist-magnet, but well worth a visit, especially to the area styled “La Petite Venise”



and here, at the end of the Route des Vins, were the vins....

Presentation des Vins, Colmar


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...onward down the Route des Vins...

a stork’s nest overlooks the entry to the village of Ribeauvillé



Stork's nest at Ribeauvillé

and just a little further along, at the “Centre de Réintroduction des Cigognes et des Loutres” (Centre for the Reintroduction of Storks and Otters) at Hunawihr, storks patrol the car park (we didn’t go in)

Stork landing

We didn’t spend much time at Riquewihr, either. It may be one of the “Plus Beau Villages de France”, but it’s milking its status to the point of being nigh-unvisitable. Here’s a quite corner...

Riquewihr
If only it had all been so calm!

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morning in Obernai, then out on the Route des Vins

wake up & it’s an Obernai morning & the first thing that we see, over breakfast, is the geraniums in the Place du Marché



They’re almost everywhere else you look too.

Obernai, Place du Marché

This place is barely French, architecturally...

Obernai, Place du Marché

...but perhaps the more intriguing for that Tuetonic touch...

Obernai, Place de l'Étoile

... it feels like the buildings here look eastwards, directly towards Prague, perhaps.

Years ago, driving back up France towards the Channel, a young friend remarked to Jim that northern France is more “French”, while the south is less French, more Mediterranean. In this trip to eastern France we were to find our attention drawn to a less French, more mittel-Europan architecture and ambiance.

Ideas for future trips rush in... but for today, it’s off to explore Alsace, and after a wrong turn up the forest-engulfed Mont Ste. Odile, we’re away on the Route des Vins, to Itterswiller...

Itterswiller, Alsace

(there’s Ruth checking the menu at the Weinstub - it wasn’t the food, or the prices, but the bus-load of tourists that deterred us from eating here)

and Bergheim...

Street Scene, Bergheim, Alsace

...altogether a lieu plus sympa, and a good place for lunch...

lunch in Bergheim, Alsace





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passage to Obernai

the second night finds us in Alsace



in the town of Obernai, where we stay for a couple of nights in the Hostellerie de la Diligence. Our room overlooks the Place du Marché

Obernai, Place du Marché

which is worth a couple more shots. I think:

Obernai, Place du Marché




La Halle aux Blés, Place du Marché, Obernai

La Diligence is certainly one of the nicest Logis we’ve encountered so far on our “tent and logis” travels
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