Exploring the Alsace Wine Road

Part of the reason we wanted to rent a car was to be able to explore some of the countryside surrounding the Alsace Wine Road which runs south of Strasbourg past Colmar. Even by as early as the middle ages, the wines of Alsace were among the most prized in Europe. The area of Alsace has the lowest rainfall in France and is sunny, hot, and dry making it ideal for growing grapes.

The Wine Road meanders through more than 20 quaint, medieval towns - the scenery was spectacular. Along the way, we stopped to take photos and taste some wine before ending up at a cheese factory where we sample more than 10 varieties of Munster cheese, a specialty of the region. We brought back a couple bottles wine and several kinds of cheese to enjoy!

Chateau du Haut-Koenigsbourg

We picked up our rental car on Tuesday morning and headed north to see Chateau du Haut-Koenigsbourg Castle, a medieval castle built starting 1147. The castle has a really interesting history - it was built originally as a fortress high up on a rock overlooking the Alsace plains. In 1633, siege, pillage and fire destroyed the castle during the Thirty Years War. The ruins were abandoned for two hundred years and then classified as a historical monument in 1862. In 1900, Kaiser Wilheim II hired a crew to undertake the complete restoration of the castle - many of the items now in the castle were found in the ruins as the restoration began.






The structure of the castle gives an accurate idea of how a mountain fortress looked in the Middle Ages. It contained a series of apartments, a kitchen, a chapel, a dining hall, and a garden in addition to all the defensive areas like a moat, towers for canons, etc. Its interior walls are decorated in a rich medieval style, and it houses an extensive collection of weapons and furniture, mainly from the 16th and 17th centuries. While it wasn't as excessive as Versailles, I was still surprised by the amount of art, stained glass, and fine furniture in the interior.





We all really enjoyed the castle and learned a lot!

Different Day Trips

After doing lots of research about car possibilities, Greg and Steven walked to the car rental place. Once again, Steve's French was invaluable - while they were originally told there was no car, Steve was able to tell them we could take one that had a broken back hatch because we didn't need to put luggage in the back. They made arrangements for us to rent the car on Tuesday and Wednesday.

When they arrived back, we decided to split forces for the day. Greg and I went took the train to Mulhouse to go to the Cite de l' Automobile (Musee du Automobile) that houses a large collection of classic and racing cars.

We had our first test negotiating without our translator!:-). We took the train from Colmar to Mulhouse.. When we arrived in Mulhouse, we had to figure out how to get to the museum. It turns out we needed to buy a tram ticket - we successfully figured out how to buy the tram ticket, where to get the tram and where to get off.






Once we arrived at the museum, we spent about 4 hours there. It was very interesting and of course, Greg was in "engineering heaven."









Meanwhile, the rest of the crew took the train to Basel, Switzerland for the day. We're still waiting for their return and can't wait to hear about their adventures!

First Night in Colmar

We decided to eat dinner out in the plaza right outside our apartments. However, we first had some wine and cheese on the terrace outside the second floor of our apartments. There is a beautiful view of two different church steeples.





We bought some Munster cheese to try - Munster is a small town very close to Colmar. Diana discovered she LOVED Munster cheese!


After our appetizers, we went down for dinner and sat outside. We sampled Tarte Flambés, or Flammkuchen in German, which are the Alsatian equivalent of pizza.










After our dinner, we went up to our apartments to strategize about where to go during our time in Colmar. Everyone had different ideas about what they were interested in and we were trying to figure out if we could find a rental car for a few days to expand our options.

We had a couple people in our group get on IPads to do the heavy duty research about day trips to Switzerland and Germany - while they were working hard, several others of us played the dice game Farkel. We all enjoyed some German beer, too!

Colmar, France

We left Paris relatively early (for our crew) this morning and took the train to Colmar which is in the Alsace region in north-eastern France. It is an area that has gone back and forth between France and Germany, so there is a "German feel" to the town as well.

The town is situated along the Alsatian Wine Route and considers itself to be the "Capital of Alsatian Wine." The city is renowned for its well preserved old town, its numerous architectural landmarks and its museums.

We are staying a building where we have two apartments that give us the ability to spread out a little. Not only are the apartments wonderful, but there is a outdoor patio we can sit out on for meals or coffee.

We are all tired today after our hustle and bustle time in Paris, so everyone is enjoying some relaxation time right now before we go out for the evening. Dave has already found the outdoor patio is a great place for sketching.

Our Last Night in Paris

We left Versailles at about 5:45 arriving back in Paris at about 6:30. We decided to eat out again due to the late hour and our desire to take one last walk around Paris. We found a restaurant close to our place and had a very good dinner. The vegetarians in our group were especially happy because there were several good options :-).

After dinner, we went our somewhat separate ways before meeting up at 9:30 for some "famous ice cream" we had heard about over on St. Louis en-l'lle, a small island in the Seine River near Notre Dame.

We've had a wonderful time in Paris, although we all have a list of things we didn't get to see that we will have to save for the next time we're in Paris!

A Trip to Versailles

On Saturday morning, everyone did what they felt like and then we met at St. Michael's fountain before getting on the train to take the 35-minute train trip to Versailles. Before going, we tried to review a little bit of French history - even though the beginnings of Versailles were around for some previous French kings, the real expansion and height of glory for Versailles occurred under Louis XIV, the "Sun King." It was certainly clear that Louis XIV had a huge ego!

In addition to the massive living quarters, church, opera house, etc., there were acres of incredible gardens. At one point, after Louis XIV moved the seat of the French government from Paris to Versailles, there were over 10.000 people who lived and worked at Versailles.

Certainly after seeing it, we had greater appreciation for why the French Revolution occurred, (the disparity between the people who lived at court and the French masses was so extreme), and how the "1%" lived in the late 1700's! None of my photos taken on my "point and shoot" camera do it justice, but suffice it to say that the grandeur and excess was amazing!