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Alsace between fairytale villages, vineyards and forests

2023-03-06T08:54:56.887Z


The names of its villas recall the German past of this French region: Eguisheim, Kaysersberg, Riquewihr... Also its dishes, such as the 'baeckeoffe' stew or the 'kugelhopf' cake. A trip to soak up history, traditions and nature


Alsace is a land of lush forests that cover the Vosges mountain range, extensive vineyards that dye its plains and hills green, and fairytale medieval villages at the foot of old castles.

The best way to explore this region of north-eastern France is by combining the car with the bike and hiking.

Along the way, between cornfields and vineyards with vines standing upright in the sun, small towns of such beauty will appear that, like Eguisheim, they inspired Disney for

Beauty and the Beast

.

The best thing is to let yourself be carried away by its steep and labyrinthine streets where time seems to have stopped.

We will discover Romanesque churches;

carved stone fountains and wells;

walls and towers;

medieval houses with brightly colored half-timbered facades with irregular carved wooden beams, Renaissance bay windows, flowery windowsills and colorful shutters;

courtyards of family cellars covered with vines that house centuries-old barrels and wooden presses, and gates with coats of arms and stone lintels chiseled with the symbol of the trade of its former inhabitants.

The names of its towns recall the German past of this region with its own language of Germanic origin: Guebwiller, Dambach, Zellenberg, Hunawihr, Haguenau, Marlenheim, Niedermorschwihr... They all share to a greater or lesser extent the attractions outlined, each with its own peculiarities.

Young people dancing in traditional dress during the Fête du Vin Nouveau, the new wine festival in the town of Eguisheim.

Alamy Stock Photo

Eguisheim, surrounded by mountains with vineyards and at the foot of three castles, has Le Pigeonnier as its icon, a small medieval house, perhaps the most photographed in Alsace, on the corner between two narrow streets.

The narrow streets of Ribeauvillé, from which two imposing towers protrude, are filled every year with comedians at the Pfifferdaj, the oldest festival in this region that recalls the minstrels who attended it and who still have their 14th-century brotherhood in the attractive Pfifferhüss house.

In Riquewihr is the tallest medieval house in Alsace, at 25 meters high, the so-called Gratte-Ciel (skyscraper).

Turckheim is taught at night by a bailiff dressed in the old style whose function was to prevent fires: the houses are made of wood and the fire was their source of light and heat.

The coquettish Kaysersberg,

At the foot of the ruins of the Schlossberg castle, it is crossed by the River Weiss, whose banks are linked by a fortified bridge.

Bergheim, an ancient Roman villa, is the only one that preserves its walls and towers almost completely, and the oldest lime tree in the region, from 1313. It was a place of asylum for fugitives from justice, as the Lakmi sculpted on one of the her entrances that makes fun of the outside showing her buttocks and tongue.

The noble Obernai is at the foot of Mount Sainte-Odile, patroness of Alsace, who, blind from birth, obtained her vision when she was baptized.

At its top, with magnificent views of the Alsatian plain, there is a convent founded by the saint in 680, one of whose springs is said to have healing properties.

Religion was always present in this area, as witnessed by the cruises at the entrances to the towns.

Here Catholics and Protestants lived together, and also fought at war, for centuries;

without forgetting that Alsace also had an important Jewish community, as can be seen in Obernai, Turckheim or Bergheim.

Haut-Koenigsbourg castle, on top of the wooded Mount Stophanberch.Alamy Stock Photo

The castles that protected these towns, many in ruins, bear witness to wars, but also to not a few legends, such as the castle of Hohenbourg, the scene of a local Romeo and Juliet where the ghost of Hedwige wanders, grieved at the death of her boyfriend, from a rival family, at the hands of his father.

In Hohlandsbourg, another soul awaits a gentleman's kiss that will turn her into a woman again.

The most spectacular castle is Haut-Koenigsbourg, at the top of the wooded Mount Stophanberch, from whose walls you can see Sélestat, with its Humanist Library from 1452 that houses 154 medieval manuscripts, 1,611 incunabula from the 15th and 16th centuries and a 7th century manuscript.

No less interesting is the never conquered star-shaped fortified city of Neuf-Brisach, from the 17th century,

View of the city of Colmar, in Alsace.

Pheng Vang/EyeEm (Getty Images/EyeEm)

Colmar and Strasbourg, capital of Alsace and seat of the European Council and Parliament, are obligatory stops.

You have to enjoy the first city walking through the streets, seeing its striking Renaissance mansions and its medieval houses overlooking the Lauch river;

and its museums, such as that of the Colmarian Auguste Bartholdi, sculptor of the Statue of Liberty, and the Unterlinden, in a former Dominican convent, in which the peerless Isenheim Altarpiece, by Matthias Grünewald, stands

out

.

Bronze sculpture by Frederic Auguste Bartholdi next to the homonymous museum in Colmar.Alamy Stock Photo

In Strasbourg, its reddish cathedral is impressive, emerging from the narrow streets that surround it, as is the emblematic Kammerzell House, from the 15th century, covered in delicate wood carvings, or the medieval frescoes of the lesser-known church of Saint-Pierre. -le-Jeune.

The old town is full of restaurants and breweries such as Au Brasseur, frequented by the students of this university town that had Goethe as a student and Gutenberg among its neighbors.

No less lively are the twisting streets of the Petite France neighborhood, full of 16th-century houses and pretty restaurants, such as Au Pont Saint-Martin, where you can dine overlooking the river.

The city has a wide cultural offer, of which the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art stands out —with works by Klee, Klimt, Duchamp and Monet— and the Museum of Fine Arts —Rafael,

Through the Vosges forests

To the north of Strasbourg there is a region of ancestral forests and its own language different from Alsatian, with towns like Wissembourg, Hunspach and Seebach.

In the latter, the Streisselhochzeit is celebrated, a traditional wedding with regional costume and the characteristic Alsatian black bow on the women's heads.

It is a region where the bunkers of the Schoenenbourg and Lembach Maginot Line recall Alsace's eventful recent history: between 1870 and 1945 it changed hands five times between France and Germany.

The bearded Hans Trapp prowls through these woods, who has been carrying “bad children” in his sack since the 15th century.

Especially at Christmas, festivities that are lived intensely in Alsace, decking out its villas with lights and decorations and markets where you can taste

pain d'épices

and

glühwein

, mulled wine.

To the point that in Riquewihr there is a Christmas decorations shop, Féerie de Noël, open all year round.

The Féerie de Noël Christmas decorations shop in Riquewihr is open all year.

Alamy Stock Photo

Running through western Alsace, the Vosges are a paradise for walkers and cyclists.

Its paths cross forests, peaks like the Grand Ballon, lakes like Gérardmer, trenches and artillery craters from World War I on the Hartmannswillerkopf and Le Linge mountains, and towns like Munster, where you can try their cheese.

The Alsatians boast of knowing how to live, and one cannot leave without tasting

their Gewurztraminer, Riesling, Pinot, Muscat or Sylvaner grape wines in their

winstubs ;

not a

crémant

, the local champagne;

or an Elsassbier in their

bierstub

(French beers are mainly Alsatian).

Nor are its consistent dishes:

baeckeoffe

, meats and vegetables baked in Soufflenheim ceramics;

flammekueche

Ribeaupierre cheese, similar to pizza;

foie gras

, whose origin is here, and, for dessert,

kugelhopf

sponge cake .

A good farewell to Alsace to which we will say

bis bàll

, see you soon.

Manuel Florentín

is the author of the essay

La unidad europea.

Story of a dream

(Anaya).

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Source: elparis

All news articles on 2023-03-06

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