Weekend in Alsace - November, 2005

We were in Alsace last weekend. Alsace is in Eastern France right next to Germany and Switzerland. It was a beautiful weekend. The sun shone all 3 days (Yes, another 3-day weekend) and it was much cooler then it has been so far this year. Typical Bellingham fall weather...including the morning fog.

(I'll promptly publish another blog right after this one with some photos -- I can't get any photos to add to this -- must be very limited space allowed for each publication.)

Alsace is a white wine growing region. Between the Rhine River and the foot of the Vosges mountains, Alsace is dotted with one after another tiny charming Germanic hamlet. The villages are old, with timbered homes and LOADS of charm. That area has a superabundance of the Charming Villages listed in our favorite guidebook.

Check out this website (you can select an English version) for some more information about the Alsace Region – its towns, wine, food, etc:

http://www.tourisme-alsace.com/

We spent the first night in a maison d'hotel called Biblenhof located in Soultz les Bains. In our typical fashion we didn't have reservations we just found a sign and drove up to the front door. It was a great find. A french family owns this huge stone hotel/b&b with ancient wooden beams and charming creaky staircases. We had dinner with the only other couple in the hotel; Helene and Patrick from Dijon. Gillian did a great job of keeping the conversation going and I piped in when I could string together enough french to make a complete a full thought. They were very nice and spoke slowly so that we could understand them.

The next day we visited a Chateau and a still active Monastery up in the Vosges mountains. The castel was called Konigsburg. It was the best example of a fully restored 16th century chateau that we have ever seen. The Monastery is Ste. Odile – which has a restaurant and a hotel – definitely worth looking into staying there – panoramic views of the Alsace, castles, little villages, forests. Beautiful.

We then found our way to a beautiful medieval village called Kesyersberg where we stayed in a cute yet modest hotel.

We almost ended up at another hotel called Hotel Chambard. We went in and had them show us the rooms that were still available. They were both very nice suites and even they were more than we would want to pay (129Euro) we thought "what the hell". So we went to get our luggage. Just as we were passing the front desk the second time it occurred to me to confirm the price. Sometimes I don't interpret numbers correctly and I wanted to be sure. Well it is a good thing that we did. It turns out that the room was 195 (in French: Cent Quatre-Vingt-Cinq) Euro per night. That's about $240...yikes. So Gillian and I exchanged quick glances and politely returned the key and departed.

On Sunday we had a lovely drive through the Vosges mountains and then headed back to Paris. We anticipated a late arrival home but the freeways are very good here and the speed limit is around 90 MPH, so we were home lickity split. It took us about 4 hours to drive from the Vosges to Paris.

We will definitely return to the Alsace region. Many more wines to taste, villages to wander around, and winter and summer hiking to be sampled.