This is one of my favorite beginner hikes anywhere in the world, at least on par with the Ancient Nakasendo Highway of Central Japan. It's an easy walk from one spectacular medieval village to the next, passing through lush vineyards under the shadow of enchanting ancient castles, and fueled by exceptional French food and wine at every stop.
The Alsatian Wine Route, or Route d'Vins d'Alsace, is a 170 km long road through some of the most beautiful landscape of vineyards, rolling plains and hilltop castles on the French side of the Upper Rhine. Most visitors arrive by car or bicycle, but as we discovered it's perfectly doable as day-hikes by public transportation. The section we chose combined three of the route's most famous and most picturesque villages -- Riquewihr, Hunawihr and Ribeauville.
We started with Riquewihr in the morning, taking Bus 106 from Colmar Station and arriving at Riquewihr Poste after a 30 minutes bus ride through timeless vineyards and hamlets of the Alsatian countryside. The bus dropped us off at the imposing fortified walls of the medieval village, and once we passed through the 13th Century tower gate, unfolding before our eyes was a townscape of fables.
Colorful half-timber houses sporting signage in an undecipherable dialect. Gothic towers and church spires that survived from the Middle Ages. An age-old village complete with medieval fortifications and walls, in turn surrounded by miles upon miles of Riesling vineyards. I was starting to regret not spending a couple nights here.
If you've heard of the world-famous scenery of Strasbourg's Petite France, I must propose that the underrated Colmar beats Strasbourg in aesthetic quality hands down. And if you're impressed with Colmar, I must say that Riquewihr and Ribeauville are ranked even higher in my mind. The towns on this short little hike, rather than Strasbourg or Colmar, would be my ultimate destination in Alsace.
This main attraction in Riquewihr is of course its well-preserved medieval core, a sizeable 400m across and filled with Gîtes, restaurants and local vintner's shops. Even with the onslaught of weekend tourists the village remained absurdly quaint and charming on a Saturday morning, with the character of a bustling market fair from several centuries back.
In Alsace we came across three absolutely recommendable restaurants: L'un des Sens in Colmar, La Table du Gayot in Strasbourg, and then this amazing place. Tucked inside this 16th Century timberframe house is the enigmatic Au Trotthus, half of it operating as a contemporary French restaurant and the other half as a modern Sushi-ya. In charge are two chefs from opposite corners of the world, settling in this tiny village in rural France and influencing each other's work.
We're not talking fusion cuisine -- featured here is a 5-course meal consisting of the most traditional Alsatian dishes, only presented in the concept of a Japanese bento box, served for lunch at an incredible price of 18 Euros. Yes -- a 5-course traditional Alsatian meal, in the ambiance of a 16th Century winemaking mansion of dark wooden beams and masonry -- for 18 Euros.
Now you start to see why this was among my favorite restaurants on our 24-day journey. The quality of food was simply top notch, starting with a small but flavorsome mushroom velouté and moving onto this perfectly caramelized Quiche Lorraine. I'm normally not a fan of quiches, but this one was so exceptionally rich and fluffy that I savored every little scrap of it.
It wouldn't be an Alsatian meal without the most famous regional dish of all, a carnivore's dream known as Choucroute en Cocotte. As per the namesake this dish wasn't about the succulent cut of ham hock or the selection of sausages, but the sauerkraut underneath that soaked up all the dripping goodness from the meat. The mild acidity provided the dish with just the perfect balance -- I don't think I've ever had sauerkraut this good.
Winding down the 5-course meal was a generous wedge of the famously supple cheese from the nearby town of Munster, and a croquant topped with a chocolate mousse that was simply heavenly soft. Everything was fresh, locally sourced and prepared at a level of excellence way beyond the prices.
The next level up in prices was a 3-course menu, available for lunch or dinner, at a nominal 26 Euros. The ingredients were even more mouthwatering, and it was actually 4-courses starting with this unadvertised but equally outstanding crème of celery.
The real entrée was a silky smooth Mousseline of haddock and herbs, in a bath of red pepper juice and served with these paper-thin croustillant laced with a black olive tapenade. The Mousseline was already excellent by itself, but what elevated this dish even more was the addition of the Brazilian Peppercorns (see the little red dots floating on the side) for some subtle complexity. This was my favorite item.
The main dish of pork cheek confit was just absolutely succulent to the point of melt-in-the-mouth soft. Balancing out any residual oiliness in the pork cheeks would be the one ubiquitous local ingredient ... even more Alsatian choucroutte! This was easily my wife's favorite item between the two set lunches.
Dessert consisted of a scrumptious raspberry cake and a refreshing sorbet of mixed berries. 26 Euros for 4 courses of this caliber was quite a bargain in my mind, and 18 Euros for the 5-course lunch was simply ridiculous. Out of dozens of restaurants we visited on our 24-day journey across 6 European nations, this little restaurant in rural Alsace stood head and shoulders above all the rest in terms of price-to-quality.
Bill for Two Persons
| Alsatian Lunch Menu | 18 Euros |
| 26 Euros Menu | 26 Euros |
| Carola Bleu 1/2 Litre | 3.6 Euros |
| Pinot Gris 1/4 Litre | 7.6 Euros |
| TOTAL before tips | 55.2 Euros (CAD$77.3) |
Doesn't this handmade soap look delicious? After getting some unique gift items we visited the Office de Tourisme and picked up some brochures and a map for our upcoming hike towards Hunawihr and Ribeauville. The most useful was a folded map called "Sentier viticole des Grands Crus," available free-of-charge but in French only. That became our most reliable hiking map.
We followed the advice of the tourism office staff and exited the Upper Gate on the western edge of the walled village, and turned right onto the patriotically named Rue du 5 Decembre 1944. From that point on it was near impossible to get lost, as Riquewihr, Hunawihr and Ribeauville are lined up almost exactly in a south-north direction.
The start of the hike winded through some apple orchards to the highest point of the hike for a panorama of Riquewihr set among the vineyards (see picture at the beginning of the article). After that it's mostly downhill in terms of elevation, and the view was about to get even better.
To the north was our upcoming intermediate stop of Hunawihr with its famous fortified church, and vineyards stretching across the Alsatian plains as far as the eye can see. To the west was the wooded peaks of the Vosges Mountains, the border between Germany and France prior to WWI. And on the horizon to the east, 20 km away, was the modern border along the Rhine. If you've been wondering about the German-sounding names of these French villages, they've changed hands four times between the two countries in the past 150 years.
It was only a couple weeks before the harvest season when we visited, and along the entire route were these ripe old vines of Gewürztraminer and Riesling. Prior to this trip I was never a fan of white wine, but that all changed after visiting the Alsace, the Mosel and the Mittelrhein over these several weeks.
Closer to Hunawihr we started to spot another spectacle beyond the rolling hills of vineyards. Once ruling over the local peasants of neighboring Ribeauville were the town's three medieval castles, Saint-Ulrich, Girsberg and Haut-Ribeaupierre.
This first section of our hike was actually shorter and easier than I originally thought, as we started approaching Hunawihr at about 30 minutes, after merely 2 km of walking. Here's another medieval village set among the endless vineyards, though without a fortified wall to protect the peasants. Instead the fortification was built around the church of Saint-Jacques-le-Majeur at the village's highest point.
Here we would enter yet another beautiful village of 16th Century half-timber houses in lovely pastel colors, en route to our final destination of Ribeauville. We've got another 2.5 km to go on this day-hike, which I'll have to cover in the next article.
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