09/24-30/26 – Alsace State of Mind
Last year, while on my tour of the French canals, I swung by Colmar, a town on the Alsace Wine Route. That gave me an idea for this short (by my standards) roughly 200-kilometer route. It was short enough, and sprinkled with enough wine-tasting stops, that I managed to lure Julie into joining me. We’d already done a wine-infused trip into the Armagnac area, so this one would fit nicely into the French wine-region-themed bike trips I’ve been doing the last few years. Mid-September seemed well timed, with plenty of wine festivals happening in the area.
Mulhouse and Strasbourg — the start and finish points — aren’t strictly on the official route, but they make it much easier to get to and from the trip by TGV.
Our train was at 4am, so we had to get up at 2am — not much sleep. The train left on time, but very shortly there was a problem with signalling, and we ended up arriving in Paris half an hour late. With that, we only had twenty minutes to change stations, and even though Gare de Lyon is just across the river, two Dimpa bike bags and two Brompton bags didn’t make it easy to run — me with two bikes, Julie with two bags. The effort, though, paid off: we made it in time for the TGV to Mulhouse.
The railway troubles didn’t stop there: there were traffic control problems, and this train was delayed by about twenty minutes. Besides, it was quite slow, hardly any faster than the regular train. But at this point we had nowhere to hurry to: the cycling begins tomorrow. Once in Mulhouse, we settled in the apartment (I had to bring both bikes up four flights of stairs), pottered around town a bit, went to the Automobile Museum (very impressive collection), grabbed kebabs, and called it a day. But not before I accidentally shattered the bedside lamp in the flat we stayed in.
Today in numbers:
~450 — automobiles in the Cité de l’Automobile of Mulhouse (the largest car museum in the world)
Day 2 — Mulhouse to Guebwiller
We started relatively late, just after 9am, without a rush, there was just 50km to cover and the whole day ahead. First, we cycled to Thann, where the Alsace Wine Route begins. There we stopped at a bar à vin to taste some local wine. I had a Pinot Gris and Julie had a “vin nouveau” from Domaine Schnebelen that had been pressed just 48 hours earlier — in other words, non-alcoholic. It was just 11 in the morning. From there we followed the wine route via Cernay and a few other villages.
Just past noon we stopped in Soultz-Haut-Rhin for lunch. This time Julie had a glass of Riesling while I stuck with Pinot Gris. The surroundings had grown even prettier.
Next we cycled to Orschwihr for a proper wine tasting at the Lucien Albrecht winery, leaving with a bottle of their Crémant d’Alsace.
Around 3pm we reached our destination, Guebwiller. After settling into our Airbnb, we walked to Domaine Schlumberger. After tasting a few of their wines, I settled on a small bottle of late-harvest Gewürztraminer: we still have a few days to go. For a good measure we visited Theodore Deck Museum. He was a renowned 19th-century French ceramist.
Today in numbers:
55 km — distance cycled
25 — years for a cork oak tree to become harvestable for the first time
Day 3 — Guebwiller to Ammerschwihr
It was a busy day, by design. Not a long ride, but many villages to visit and a few vineyards to swing by.
First was Rouffach. I don’t remember why I marked it as worth seeing, but when we got there we found it pretty, I guess that was the reason.
This was followed by a stop at the Domaine Humbrecht 1619, where we picked up a bottle of Muscat wine.
From there we cycled to Eguisheim, a very pretty village and part of the list of most beautiful villages. However, also pretty busy, borderline uncomfortably. Our visit there coincided with a visit to the Domaine Gruss et Fils. We parted with our money in exchange for a bottle of Gewurztraminer Grand Cru.
Because Julie hadn’t been to Colmar, we decided to pay a visit there as well, even though it was kind of out of the way. Initially we wanted to have lunch there, but upon arrival, we quickly changed our plans: the town was overrun by tourists, which immediately turned Julie off.
Next stop was Turckheim, another one from the list of the most beautiful villages in France but less crowded than Eguisheim, and waaay less busy than Colmar.
In Ammerschwihr we visited Domaine Maurice Schoech and left with a bottle of Pinot Gris Grand Cru.
On the way to Kaysersberg we passed through Kientzheim, which although not listed, is still a pretty village without the brouhaha of the more famous ones. In Kaysersberg we stopped for wine tasting at Domaine Bernard Haas & Fils but came out empty-handed. The wine wasn’t bad, but what we liked we already had, and buying for no reason didn’t appeal to us. After that we returned to Ammerschwihr, where we were staying for the night. We changed into “civilian” clothes, ditched our Bromptons in the basement, and walked back to Kaysersberg for proper sightseeing and dinner. Flammekueche and beer — yes, beer for a change — did the trick.
Today’s ride, from start to finish, with the exception of the detour to Colmar, was lovely: it brought us along small, quiet roads winding through vineyards and pretty villages.
Today in numbers:
53 km — distance cycled
~600 mm — per year, one of the lowest rainfall totals in France, claimed by Colmar
80 — the age of most buildings in Ammerschwihr, since it was almost completely destroyed during WWII
1002 — the year Pope Leo IX was born in Eguisheim
2017 — the year Kaysersberg was voted “Village Préféré des Français” (France’s favourite village)