Route des Vins d'Alsace

Scenic road chapters

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Marlenheim

   Marlenheim is where the Alsace Wine Route begins, or at least its northern end, and a sign on the edge of the village announces it. From here, a signposted trail of about a hundred and seventy kilometres winds south along the foothills of the Vosges, linking over a hundred villages built among the vines. The first impression is of low hills in ordered rows, half-timbered houses with flower boxes at every window, and storks nesting on chimneys and church towers. In spring, the white blossom on the cherry trees brings a sudden, brief brightness.

   Read the complete Marlenheim write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Marlenheim is where the day begins. Next is Obernai.

2. 2. Obernai

   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.

   Read the complete Obernai write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Obernai comes up about 24 km into the recorded legs. Next is Ribeauville.

3. 3. Ribeauville

   Three ruined castles stare down at Ribeauvillé from the first slopes of the Vosges, and each belonged to the same family. The lords of Ribeaupierre ruled this corner of Alsace for centuries, building the Saint-Ulrich, Girsberg and Haut-Ribeaupierre castles one above the other on the ridge, and from the town's main street you can see all three on a clear day, like a set of broken teeth. A footpath climbs to them, and the view from the top, over a sea of vineyards to the Rhine plain and the Black Forest beyond, is the best reward.

   Read the complete Ribeauvillé write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   about 64 km into the recorded legs you reach Ribeauville. Next is Riquewihr.

4. 4. Riquewihr

   Riquewihr was once the property of a distant German dynasty, and some say that explains why the town looks so well preserved. It belonged to the counts, later dukes, of Württemberg from the fourteenth century until the French Revolution, and during all that time it grew rich on wine and trade, building tall half-timbered houses with carved doorways, oriel windows and courtyards. The Thirty Years War and later conflicts largely passed it by, and the old walled core survived largely as it was built, which is why people now come in their thousands to walk its main street, the Rue du Général de Gaulle, under hanging signs and baskets of flowers.

   Read the complete Riquewihr write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Riquewihr, about halfway. Next is Colmar.

5. 5. Colmar

   Colmar is the driest city in France, and the Vosges are the reason. The mountains to the west catch the rain coming in from the Atlantic, leaving the Alsace plain in their shadow with some of the lowest rainfall of any French city, and the sunny, dry climate is the secret of the wines and the orchards that surround it. It is a small city of about sixty-five thousand people, the capital of the Alsace wine country, and it has a charm that has made it one of the most visited towns in eastern France.

   Read the complete Colmar write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Colmar sits at 121 km, about halfway. Next is Eguisheim.

6. 6. Eguisheim

   The streets of Eguisheim run in circles. Houses were built in concentric rings around the old castle at the centre, and the lanes follow the curve of the oldest fortification, so you can walk round the village like the rings of a tree, passing half-timbered houses in pastel colours, flower boxes and wrought-iron signs. It is a layout found in very few places, and it makes the village feel like a small, perfect machine. It has been voted among the favourite villages of the French, and on a sunny day you can see why.

   Read the complete Eguisheim write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Eguisheim comes up about 90 km into the recorded legs. Next is Thann.

7. 7. Thann

   Thann marks the southern end of the Alsace Wine Route, where the vineyards run out and the Vosges close in on the river Thur. It is a small industrial and market town of about eight thousand people, with a Gothic church whose slender spire is one of the finest in Alsace. The Collégiale Saint-Thiébaut, built in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, has a richly carved west portal and a roof of glazed coloured tiles, and it was built to house a relic of Saint Theobald, a bishop whose thumb, according to legend, was brought here in the Middle Ages. Legend also says that three small lights appeared in the fir trees above his resting place, and to this day, on the evening of 30 June, the town burns three fir trees in a fire ceremony to remember it.

   Read the complete Thann write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Thann closes the day.