Words From The Wonderstruck : More on Route Du Vin and Colmar, France

On Saturday we ventured out to 2 more villages along the Route du Vin: Ribeauville and Riquwhir. Seriously, pictures don't really do any of the villages or countryside justice. It is so peaceful, relaxing, and fun to take a hike, ride a bike, try some wine, and eat the local cuisine. That is really all you need to do to enjoy yourself here. Our first stop was Ribeauville, known to be less touristy and it had a hike up to some castle ruins that we wanted to do. We parked for free, which is always nice, and made our way into town. First stop was to find some yummy treats!! We found a cafe and sat down to have some coffee and hot chocolate for Ryan! Then we went on a patisserie hunt and found a cute little place with friendly staff. We ordered pain au chocolat and a vanilla eclair to go. It was Ryan's first pain au chocolat and it definitely won him over.

The Castle St. Ulrich that we hiked up to first

sitting down and enjoying a quiet cup of morning coffee

We shared these, but my inner fat kid wanted to eat them all

This is the bakery to go to in Ribeauville!!

Storks are big here...

local market

Start of the hike to the 3 castle ruins

According to Rick Steves it was 2-3 hours roundtrip for the hike up to the Trois Chateaux. We tried to see all three, but got lost looking for the 3^rd castle.

You follow the main street Grand Rue until you find the Hotel aux Trois Chateaux and turn right up the cobblestone lane. From here you follow the trails up to the three castle ruins. You get a workout and some pretty views on this hike!

I timed the hike and we saw 2 castles and got lost trying to find the other in a little less than 3 hours. I was determined to do it faster then the recommended timeframe.

trail up to the ruins

After a pretty intense hike, we needed fuel so we stopped at a local vender and got some yummy fresh baguette sandwiches. We walked around and looked at the wine tasting rooms. They make the cremant d’alsace similarly to champagne, which is a pretty fascinating process. I lost Ryan and when I found him, naturally, he had ice cream in hand. That boy can chow on some ice cream!

I was worried about the sun because it was so hot, but don't worry, this Rodan and Fields girl is working on reversing her sun damage, so I had my Reverse Sunscreen with me at all times for frequent reapplication!

Then it was time to make our way to Riquwhir. Driving into this town it is gorgeous, surrounded by vineyards with the Vosge Mountains in the background, and put an old Medieval village in the middle its heaven. The downside is it is the most visited village by tourists, which takes away from its beauty. We had the hardest time finding a parking spot so definitely go here early in the morning or evening time because after 10 am its going to be a zoo.

We quickly found some wine tasting at Cave Dopff et Irion. Great people in there and great wine! We left with a handful of bottles to take home all under 10.00 euro a bottle! There were several other cellars you could visit, but we couldn’t carry that much wine and we were trying to stay on a budget. We sampled some macaroons and walked through the town exploring. This town also has a touristy train ride, but since we had already done this in Obernai, we didn’t feel the need to do it again. There are several vineyard trails/hikes that stem off of the village and it’s also a great village to bike from. Many villages are close by, so you could rent a bike and ride from village to village for an afternoon if you’d like.

considered a skyscraper in medieval times

Ryan found something that looks like him!!

Overall both villages were adorable, but we loved the quietness of Ribeauville and the lovely hike that we had there too. Then it was time to drive to Colmar and check into hotel for the next 2 nights and prep for dinner.

We stayed near the train station at a hotel called P’tit Dej-Hotel Colbert. It was about a 5-10 minute walk to the city center and clean. Downside, we were by the train station and everytime the train went by we both woke up startled because it was so loud. We started our Rick Steves walking tour through Colmar as we hunted for a restaurant for dinner. We walked by the Maison Pfister House with its elaborate house where he showed off his wealth externally. We walked through the Petit Venise area because we thought it had some interested restaurants, however all 3 that we chose were full without a reservation.

We continued walking down to the main square area, but found a local Indian Restaurant that had a good menu. We ate like kings there!! Ryan and I had been craving good Indian food for the last 2.5 years and it was a nice break from French and German cuisine. From there we found the custom’s house, which was cool because in the summer local wineries will sell cheap glasses and bottles of wine here each week. We bought glasses for 1.50-2.00 Euro each and sat and enjoyed the evening chatting and listening to local street music.

The next day we woke up bright and early to explore the next few villages on our list: Eguisheim and Turkheim. I will say right off the bat that Turkheim had little to offer and we spent less than an hour there. It was Sunday and lots of the shops were closed, but really there just wasn’t anything super amazing about it. We spend most of the day in lovely Eguisheim so I will focus more on what there was to do there.

It’s a really small village and quick to walk through. We started walking the circular outside of the village, and then we walked down the middle through Grand Rue. Once we arrived we were on our pattiserie hunt and of course we ordered pain au chocolat of course and an eclair. The Pain au chocolat was HORRIBLE, but before I knew this I ordered a caffe au lait. It was really disappointing, but we paid for it so we had to drink the coffee and eat the treatsL Rick Steves recommended a place called Le Café and note to self next time we will check that out.

Eguisheim also had a pretty hefty hike that left from the top of town. We stopped in the tourist information office first to get a map and information so we wouldn’t get lost, but the map wasn’t great and of course we did have a few detours in the route. We decided on one of the shorter routes that took us about 11 km or more round trip. The trail went up into the Vosge mountains and up to more castle ruins called Husseren les-Chateaux. At one point the trail wasn’t well marked, so we went into the woods because we saw a trail and felt like maybe that was the way. Once we were in the woods there was a fork and again we took both paths finding out that neither was the right way and we had to back track altogether to find the correct route. During this detour (this part is gross) Ryan who loves to use the restroom in the woods, showed me the 3 different ways that one can poop in the woods and how to find the right kind of leaves for wiping. We have a very close relationship, yes we are weird, but for those of you that know Ryan, you know this is pretty much how he rolls and he is not ashamed.

The hike was beautiful, quite a workout, the view amazing, but the ruins were less exciting. The trails continue on for more castles and sites, but we had more places to go so we headed back to town to finish exploring. We were starving and we found a place recommended by Rick Steves called Charcuterie-Café A Edel. It was such a cute place with great food. I had the quiche with a green salad and Ryan had a charcuterie plate. We both had a glass of the local wine that was divine. We walked around town and went into the local shops. Pottery is big here and I was on a mission to find the legit kind at a good price and the print I liked. If you like to wine taste then this village is a must. Every 20 meters there was another cellar to taste wine. It really is like water in this part of France, well, probably all of France.

Had we known that Turkheim would be a bust, we probably would have hiked longer, or stayed and tasted more wine. Either way, Eguisheim is a great village and worth a stop on the Route du Vin.

That night in Colmar we finished walking around town and found a great quiche place for dinner with some amazing ice cream to share for dessert. We both always loved quiche, but now we are truly obsessed!

Monday was our last day of travel so we wanted to see one more village, but we also wanted to get home and pick up our pup early. We really miss that dog when we have to kennel her. We headed out to Kaysersberg for our last Route du Vin stop. It apparently has lots of history in this village and several hikes as well. This is another place where you can easily rent a bike and ride to other villages or just ride and enjoy the scenery.

We walked through the village and into the Church. There is a cute glass blowing shop across from the church and you can watch them make glass, which is always really cool. We took a mini hike up to some more castle ruins. It was about a 10 minute climb from the tourist info center and then to get to the top of the keep another 115 steps. From this point you can continue hiking into the mountains, but we decided to make our descent and continue through the village. Since this was our last stop I was determined to find some French pottery to take home. While we live overseas I will be collecting Italian, French, and Polish Pottery items to go with things I already have! I found a great shop with the real handmade pottery and great prices!! The lady was super friendly so we bought a few pieces to take home.