Obernai is the town where the Alsace wine route really begins to feel like itself, a handsome walled place of twelve thousand people at the foot of the Vosges, just south-west of Strasbourg. The old centre is a pleasing jumble of half-timbered houses, painted in cream, red and ochre, set around a market square with a Renaissance well, the Puits aux Six-Seaux, whose six buckets once hung from a wheel. The Kappelturm, a medieval tower that was once part of a chapel, rises above the square, with a fine view from the top.
It is also a town with a saint. Odile, the patron saint of Alsace, is said to have been born here in the seventh century, the daughter of a local duke. According to the legend she was born blind and gained her sight when she was baptised. She later founded the convent on Mont Sainte-Odile, a sacred hill about thirteen kilometres to the west, which is still a place of pilgrimage and a fine destination for a ride, with views over the Rhine plain.
The Route des Vins d'Alsace, established in 1953, was the first of France's wine routes, and it runs south from here for about a hundred and seventy kilometres, through villages that look as though they have been taken straight from a storybook. The riding is relaxed rather than sporty. The roads weave between vineyards and villages in easy curves, and the surface is generally good, but there are plenty of cyclists, tractors and tourists, and the speed limits in villages are strictly observed. In harvest time, from September to October, trailers loaded with grapes slow the traffic, and the air smells sweet. Spring is lovely with green vines, and the Christmas markets in winter draw huge crowds.
Alsace food is hearty and delicious: choucroute with sausage and pork, tarte flambée, a thin crisp pizza-like flatbread with cream, onions and bacon, and the sweet and savoury baeckeoffe, a stew baked in an earthenware pot. The local wines are mostly white, Riesling, Pinot Gris, Gewurztraminer, and the dry, floral Crémant d'Alsace is a good sparkling choice. Cafés and restaurants line the market square and the lanes around it, and a stop for a coffee and a slice of kugelhopf is easy to justify.
Obernai is a proper town, with fuel stations, supermarkets and all the services a rider might need. It is also a good place to fill up before heading into the quieter villages. Parking in the centre can be tight in the season, so look for the car parks just outside the walls.