Episode 10 · Cookie’s First Holiday Abroad

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We left before the sun had properly committed to being up. Today was the day we’d been building the whole trip around, in a way: the Alsace Wine Route. Not one stop, not two, but a whole string of them, strung along 170 kilometres of vineyard and half-timbering between the Vosges hills and the plain.

The Route des Vins d’Alsace is, rather wonderfully, the oldest wine route in France. It was created in 1953 for a car rally, of all things, with two convoys setting off at the same time from opposite ends and driving to meet in the middle. It’s stuck around ever since, winding through more than 70 wine villages, past ruined hilltop castles and a version of France that looks distinctly like itself, and slightly like Germany, and entirely like nowhere else.

We had, in true us fashion, a plan. And also, in equally true us fashion, we abandoned parts of it within the first hour.

Marlenheim, Where the Route Begins

Marlenheim is known as the northern gateway to the wine route, and it felt like exactly that: a gentle, unhurried start before things got properly scenic. We parked, wandered the village centre, then climbed the hill to the Chapelle du Marlenberg for the view. It’s a short walk with a big payoff, vineyards rolling out below and, on a clear morning, the spire of Strasbourg Cathedral visible in the distance if you squint.

Obernai, and Our First Tarte Flambée

From Marlenheim we drove on to Obernai, and this is where the day really started to sing. Obernai is one of the prettiest towns on the whole route, ringed by its old medieval ramparts, with the Kappellturm belfry (a genuinely unusual 60-metre tower, unique in Alsace) watching over the main square. We wandered the streets, admired the six-bucket well from 1579, and stopped for a proper Alsatian moment: a glass of local wine and our first ever tarte flambée.

If you’ve never had one, tarte flambée (or flammekueche, depending which side of the linguistic border you’re standing on) is a thin, crisp, almost cracker-like base topped with crème fraîche, onions and lardons, baked hot and fast. It started life centuries ago as a way to use up leftover bread dough and the last of the heat in the wood oven after the day’s baking was done. Simple, unfussy, and completely addictive. We were converted within one bite.

Barr, Quiet and Unbothered

Barr was our third stop, and easily the quietest. Everything was shut when we arrived, mid-afternoon on what must have been the wrong day, but we didn’t mind at all. Sometimes a village is at its best with nobody trying to sell you anything. Barr is actually known as the wine capital of Alsace, home to the region’s oldest wine fair, and it’s a genuinely pretty place to just wander, no agenda required. We admired the Renaissance town hall, ambled the cobbled streets, and let Cookie sniff his way down half of them.

Château du Haut-Koenigsbourg, Looming Overhead

From Barr we climbed up into the Vosges to the Château du Haut-Koenigsbourg, and it’s every bit as dramatic as it looks in photos. Perched at 757 metres, this fortress dates back to the 12th century and has an almost unbelievable backstory: besieged and left in ruins after the Thirty Years’ War, abandoned for two centuries, then dramatically rebuilt in the early 1900s under Kaiser Wilhelm II, who wanted a showpiece of medieval grandeur. On a clear day you can apparently see all the way to the Alps from up there.

We didn’t go inside, sadly. It’s not pet friendly, so we all stayed outside and wandered the surrounding forest instead, taking in the castle from the ground. Still worth the detour, even from the outside.

Ribeauvillé, and the Highlight of the Day

Ribeauvillé might have been my favourite stop of the whole day. Three ruined castles watch over the town from the hills, the streets are properly medieval, and it has a slightly more lived-in, less polished feel than some of its neighbours, in the best way. We wandered, and then we did the thing I’d been hoping to do all day: a wine tasting at a proper local producer.

We found Domaine Schneider, a small family estate on Rue des Prunes that’s been passed down through three generations, now organic-certified. The tasting itself happened entirely in French, in an old cellar you enter through what looks like a garage, surrounded by wooden barrels. The owner didn’t speak a word of English, and it didn’t matter one bit. We left with several bottles of proper local wine and a much better understanding of what “authentic” actually means when it’s not a marketing word.

Riquewihr, Rushed but Radiant

By Riquewihr, I’ll be honest, we were starting to feel the day catching up with us. We still had a few towns left on the route before pushing on to Nancy, and Riquewihr deserved more time than we gave it. Still, even a rushed visit is worth it here. It’s a walled village that’s barely expanded since the Middle Ages, which is exactly why it’s stayed so intact, and the wealth from centuries of wine trading shows in every ornately carved merchant’s house. Blue, red, mustard yellow, every colour you can imagine on timber.

Kaysersberg, the Village That Started It All

Kaysersberg is, in a way, the town that made the wine route famous, voted France’s Favourite Village back in 2017, and it’s easy to see why. The Weiss river runs straight through the middle, crossed by a fortified bridge from 1514, with houses stacked up along the water on either side, which is the shot you’ve probably seen if you’ve ever searched “Alsace” online. There’s also a ruined castle above the town, though we were told it’s a decent climb, and by this point in the day, we simply didn’t have it in us.

We had a second wine tasting here and came away with, again, more bottles than strictly necessary. We spent about 90 minutes in Kaysersberg, longer than anywhere else that day, purely because we made ourselves slow down and actually take it in.

Colmar, the End of the Road

Colmar was the city I’d wanted to see most out of the entire two weeks. And it fell a little flat. It’s a city, not a fairytale village like the internet had led me to expect, bigger, busier, with roadworks around most of the old town that made getting in harder than it should have been. The fairytale feeling was there in patches, in the Petite Venise canal district especially, but even that felt slightly overrun with restaurants crammed into a small space.

We arrived around 6.30pm, which meant almost everything except restaurants had closed for the day. So we did what you do: wandered a little, found dinner, and called it a day.

Would I Recommend the Wine Route? Absolutely

If you only have one day, take a day trip from Colmar or Strasbourg and hit the highlights (see the activities below). But if you’re driving and have the time, give yourself 2-3 days to properly enjoy the main villages, or 3-4 to slow right down, see the smaller towns, and stop rushing from one place to the next. We learned that lesson the hard way.

How to Visit Without a Car

We drove ourselves, but if you’re not renting a car, here’s how to see the route anyway.

See things to do in Strasbourg in Episode 9.

Want to take your pet to Europe? Here’s my free guide.

Next stop: Nancy, France. Wish us luck! 🐾

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