Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Route des Vins, France

The semi-famous Alsatian wine route winds through several semi-famous rustic villages and vineyards in an area semi-famous for its white wines.  The first I'd heard of it was thumbing through the Rick Steves' France guidebook my in-laws left behind for us.  But between the six of us on this trip, only my mom and my husband even like wine.  My dad and and I don't drink alcohol at all, and neither do my kids, of course.  So we weren't up for a wine tasting tour this time, but we thought we'd at least drive through and check it out on our way back to Strasbourg from Colmar.

Here are the towns we drove through (or by):
B) Kaysersberg C) Bennwihr D) Riquewihr E) Zellenberg F) Hunawihr G) Ribeauville
Having spent most of the day in Colmar already, we were pretty toured-out and didn't stop in many of the towns.  In those we did, we just jumped out of the car for a couple of quick photo ops.

But I think we're starting to get a handle on the the whole Rick Steves thing.  If he barely mentions a place, or doesn't mention it at all, it's usually right up our alley.

His book had one sentence on Zellenberg.  We caught sight of this tiny hillside village out our windows and decided to find our way to the top and get out for a walk.  No one around, and spectacular views.



We said they could touch the grapes but not pick them
We found out later that Pete ate one!  Naughty!
Our two wine drinkers
These folks must have  quite a view
Mr. Steves also had a short paragraph on Hunawihr and its fortified church.
*sigh*
It wasn't until we got home that we realized this was on the front cover of our Lonely Planet guide:

This means we win, right?  Touring France = conquered.
Most of the other towns sounded or looked lovely, but very busy with tourists.  But I'm sure they're worth visiting, and we wouldn't mind leading a more in-depth wine tour... 

Come, all ye wine-tasting friends!

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