In an effort to get out of Geneva, Travers and I decided to check out the Alsace wine region in France for a weekend. It is a short 3 hour drive from Geneva, so on the first Friday of May, after work, we rented a car and drove to Colmar, a small town on the southern end of the Alsace region. A day before we hit the road, I went to the local Interdiscount store and bought a TomTom gps system. And I will say, it was the BEST purchase I have ever made! Travers and I are known to get a bit lost while driving in Europe, particularly when leaving and returning to Geneva, and this of course leads to some arguments. So, in an effort not to argue, and to guide us in the right direction, especially when we planned to drive all throughout the Alsace region, I bought the TomTom, as recommended by a colleague of mine. So we arrived at the car rental agency and picked up our car, and lo and behold, it had a built in gps system! (Typically you have to pay 50 francs extra per day to rent one, but this one came with the car!) So now we had two gps guides and we set both of them up to test which one we liked better. And off we went!Throughout the trip, we received updates from the TomTom and built in gps on the traffic, and we were pleasantly surprised that both systems re-routed us in order to avoid a lot of traffic. All in all, we decided we liked the TomTom better as it gave us a bit more warning of upcoming turns and exits, and we could programme it with any type of voice we wanted (Somehow we chose a Scottish man named Sean to be our guide).
Arriving in Colmar at the Best Western Grand Hotel Bristol, we parked the car, dropped our bags, and immediately headed out the door to explore the town as we had limited time. We strolled through the cobblestone streets, and admired the buildings' architecture of timber framing and tiled roofing that we would notice was all throughout the entire region. We found our way to the number one rated restaurant on trip advisor in Colmar, L'un des Sens. We walked in without a reservation and luckily were able to sit at a table in the bar area. The bartender/waiter came over and we ordered two glasses of Cremant, which is the region's sparkling wine, and a platter of dried/cured meats and local cheese. I had read that the two bartenders who owned and managed the restaurant are very good at selecting wines for you if you describe roughly what you want, so in part french, part english, we ordered a few more glasses of local red wine that the bartender would describe each glass. I was amazed that I understood roughly most of what he said in French, with a few words missing here and there. And of course, everything we had was absolutely delicious.
We woke up early the next morning, packed our things, then grabbed some breakfast in town at a quaint little cafe where the owner and sole waitress was an older woman who seemed to know most of her customers personally, showing that this was a locals spot to grab a pastry and coffee in the mornings. We had some homemade croissants, and coffee, then decided to hit the road to find the next quaint little town.
Following our TomTom, we took the Route des Vins (wine route) from Colmar through Ingersheim, Kayserberg, and Riquewihr, stopping at Ribeauville for a lunch and wine break. We explored the town which was lined with buildings built in the traditional architecture of wood framing and tile roofs, and wandered down narrow cobblestone alleyways, catching glimpses of the vineyards on the hills that surrounded the town. We found a wine cave that was offering tastings, so we headed in and stepped up to the bar. We ordered one tasting for the two of us to share, which consisted of 4 white wines, a riesling, a muscat, a pinot gris, and a gewurztraminer. These wines are typically known for being really sweet, but in this region, these wines are known to be drier, which I prefer in a white wine. So after tasting all four, we decided to buy a bottle of the Muscat, which Travers liked best, and a bottle of the Riesling, which I liked best!
We then found a great restaurant in town called Chez Martine for lunch where I had a local specialty called Choucroute Garnie, which is a famous recipe for cooking sauerkraut with sausages, other salted meats, charcuterie and potatoes. It was a hearty meal where the meats and potatoes balanced the sauerkraut just perfectly and I nearly ate the entire thing! And we topped it off with another delicious regional pinot gris!
We hit the road again after lunch and headed along the Route des Vins through more wine filled towns called Rorschwihr, Saint-Hippolyte, Orschwiller and finally Dambach-La-Ville. Each town we drove through was unique and quaint in its own way, and when we arrived at Dambach-La-Ville, we just had a feeling and decided to stop and explore! So we drove through an archway and walked the cobblestone streets, eventually finding one of the skinniest buildings I've ever seen to do some more wine tasting! This time we tried some more Gewuztraminer, doing our own blind taste test, which led us to walk away with a bottle of the Grand Cru Gewurztraminer, which we both liked!
The rest of the afternoon, we continued our drive, listening to Sean our TomTom guide, take us through the region, passing by many different towns and vineyards. We ended our drive in Obernai, one of the larger cities of the Alsace region.
We stayed at a cute boutique hotel called Le Colombier, right in the heart of town. We walked around town a bit and found a few restaurants that we had read about for dinner. We made reservations at a few of them and would decide later which one we felt like dining at. The town was similar to the others we had seen that day, but a bit larger and busier. But the architecture was still the same, and we found narrow passageways and cobblestone streets everywhere we went. We eventually made our way to a bar around the corner from one of the restaurants we were eyeing and decided to sit, enjoy some people-watching, and wait for the sun to start setting.
That evening, we ended up choosing to have dinner at Winstub Le Freiberg, a great local restaurant that had large wooden beams and stone walls and was deceptively large on the inside. We were seated at a corner table in a room filled with a few other large parties, so we felt the liveliness of the place but still had some privacy from most of the other guests. We had more delicious food, starting with the local Tarte Flambee, which is a thin pizza essentially, but topped with creme fraiche, bacon and onions. Yumm. We followed that by having a Vol-au-Vent, and a Filet of Beef. And topped it all off with some delicious profiteroles.The next morning we were blessed with spectacular weather, so we walked the town, stopping into a patisserie to buy some yummy pastries and coffees to go. We sat on a bench in the main square, enjoying watching the sun rise and wake the town up.
We said goodbye to Obernai, and set our TomTom on a course to Ottrott to Le Mont Sainte Odile, a 760m peak of the Vosges mountains. At the top, there is a monestary that provides breathtaking views of the Alsace valleys below. Travers and I wandered the grounds, taking in as much of the views as possible. It was a little hazy out so we weren't able to see too far, but it was still amazing as we were able to make out part of the drive that we had done the day before from Colmar to Obernai.
From there, we drove to a castle called Haut Koenigsbourg, a medieval fortress at the top of mountain near Orschwiller. We drove up the mountain, parked the car, and headed up to the castle. Travers loves castles and always takes the opportunity to explore them when he can. We walked through the castle, up and down stairs, through narrow passageways, up to the top to see some beautiful views of the valley below, and paused to take a few photos along the way.
After Travers got his fill of the castle and fortress, we headed back down the mountain to find ourselves a late lunch in Kayserberg, one of the prettier little towns in the Alsace region. Unfortunately, being Sunday, a lot of restaurants were closing for lunch at 2pm and we had arrived right about then. So after searching and searching, we finally found a small restaurant on one end of town where we could sit outside and enjoy the sun. As our last meal in the region, we had a few local dishes again, splitting a meat and cheese plate and another tarte flambee. And Travers had a refreshing beer and I had a glass of Cremant!
After lunch, we wanted to do one more wine tasting before heading back to Geneva, so we found a cute yellow building where the woman doing the tastings was extremely friendly and spoke excellent English. We wanted to buy a bottle of Cremant, so we did a Cremant-only tasting. She brought out 4 different types, two sweeter ones and two drier ones. We grabbed a table outside and enjoyed sipping our sparkling wines trying to determine which we liked best. We eventually chose a Brut to take home with us. And ended our tasting on one of the more unique wines, called a Vendange Tardive, meaning Late Harvest. It is a dessert wine that my colleague who's parents are from this region, said it was a must to try. It was extremely sweet, but very delicious, and a great dessert to end the day on.
We drove back to Geneva after that, using the TomTom to get us safely back into Geneva to drop the car off. For once, I actually drove as the car we had wasn't a stick shift (I know, I really need to learn how to drive a manual sometime). And we didn't get lost or get into any arguments along the way. Thank you TomTom! The Alsace region is a definite must if you love wine and good food. Its somewhere I would absolutely go back to someday so if anyone wants to come and visit us, we would happily take you there!
