Alsace: The Wine Route and the Crest of the Vosges

Editor's note

Two nights in Strasbourg. From 1647 to 1874 its 142-metre cathedral was the tallest building in the world. Be there at 12:30 to watch the apostles parade on the astronomical clock, then climb the 332 steps to the platform, 66m above the square. Batorama boats circle the Grande Île, UNESCO-listed since 1988, through Petite France and the Ponts Couverts to the European Parliament. Walk the half-timbered tanners' houses of Petite France and look back over them from the terrace of the Barrage Vauban. Eat a tarte flambée or a choucroute in a winstub. Through Advent the Christkindelsmärik, held since 1570, fills the old town.

Editor's note

One night at Obernai. Its market square keeps the Halle aux Blés of 1554 and the Kappelturm belfry, nearly 60m high. Above it, the convent of Saint Odile, Alsace's patron saint, stands at 764m inside the Mur Païen, a 10km wall of about 300,000 blocks once blamed on the druids. At Rosheim, the church of Saints Peter and Paul was built of pink and yellow sandstone around 1150, and at Ottrott two castles stand 50m apart on one ridge. At Natzweiler-Struthof some 50,000 prisoners were registered between 1941 and 1945; the museum of the deportation is in barrack no. 1, beside the national memorial and cemetery.

Editor's note

Two nights at Riquewihr, walled in 1291. Walk its walls to the Dolder gate tower and taste a Riesling grand cru from the Schoenenbourg slope. Haut-Kœnigsbourg, at 755m, was rebuilt for Kaiser Wilhelm II and opened in his presence on 13 May 1908; part of Renoir's La Grande Illusion was filmed there. Below it at Kintzheim, the Volerie des Aigles flies birds of prey over the castle ruins, and more than 200 Barbary macaques live free at the Montagne des Singes. A 6km loop climbs from Ribeauvillé to its three castles. At Sélestat, the Humanist Library of Beatus Rhenanus is on UNESCO's Memory of the World register.

Editor's note

One night at Colmar. In the Musée Unterlinden, stand before the Issenheim Altarpiece, its panels painted by Matthias Grünewald in 1512–1516, then take a flat-bottomed boat along the Lauch through the Petite Venise. Auguste Bartholdi, sculptor of the Statue of Liberty, was born here, and his house is now the Musée Bartholdi. Eguisheim coils in concentric streets round its octagonal castle, and Kaysersberg, Albert Schweitzer's birthplace, has a fortified bridge below the Schlossberg castle. Neuf-Brisach was built from nothing between 1698 and 1702 on the octagonal plan Louis XIV chose himself; walk its ramparts and stand on the Place d'Armes at the centre.

Editor's note

One night in the Hautes-Vosges. The Route des Crêtes runs 89km along the ridge, built just below the crest in the First World War out of sight of the German guns, and is open from about April to November. Walk up to the 1889 orientation table on the Hohneck, 1,363m, and look for chamois. Book ahead for a repas marcaire at a ferme-auberge: smoked pork, roïgabrageldi potatoes and the farm's own Munster. At Gérardmer, a 5.5km path circles the largest natural lake in the Vosges. At Bussang, the Théâtre du Peuple opens the back of its stage onto the forest, which becomes the scenery.