Weekend getaway in Alsace France

Friday June 1 - Sunday June 3

This year we wanted to have one weekend getaway trip to somewhere nearby (which for our family is a relative term). I REALLY enjoyed the Black Forest last year, so I felt a lot of pressure to find somewhere equally as enjoyable. I researched "the most adorable towns in France" and found Colmar, France - a town neither of us had heard of. It is located about 5 hours from Maastricht on the Eastern side of France, bordering Germany. It looked like a village out of a fairytale. Half timbered homes, small canals, and an unpretentious wine scene. Plus, it was a blend of French and Germany culture which meant we could enjoy pretzels and crepes with equal enthusiasm.



Our drive wasn't as smooth as I would have liked, we drove through a ton of rain and then construction which added hours to our time. We were pretty happy to get down to wine country because then at least we had pretty views to keep our minds off our stiff legs. In one village we passed through, we saw a tiny fruit stand of some sort, so I stopped the car and made Pearce get out and buy whatever they were selling. It turned out to be two types of cherries- the most delicious I have ever tasted. Also, I now understand why cherries are always depicted dangling in twos- they come in pairs!

vineyards in the distance

Getting closer

Small fruit stand

Travel delirium

Not a bad place to be stopped in traffic

We were so happy when we arrived to Colmar and to our loft which was located right at the heart of Colmar. We only had to walk outside (and down five flights of stairs) to wander the colorful streets or pick up any necessities like wine, croissants, or ice cream. When in France.....

We couldn't' believe how nice our place was! Online pictures seriously did not do it justice and having booked it so long ago I forgot we had two rooms- a parent's dream!

Kitty Lucille

Our View of Petite Venice

Alsacian dinner

One of the downsides to having a car is you have to pay for parking every two hours starting at 9am so we headed out early to take advantage of our allotted time.

We had heard good things about the two town tourist trains that were not actually trains but a tram-type system. It brought us all over the town and through headsets we actually learned a little bit about what we were seeing. This was the first tour that both kids actually paid attention to the whole time- a fluke I'm sure.

Taking the necessary tourist shot

The French sleep in apparently

Oh there's a person!

The Cathedral

Head phones for all

There were stork nests all over town

At 11am we returned to our car and headed out to see some of the nearby towns. We headed south first and visited the town of Eguisheim. We didn't know too much about it, or really visiting the region in general, but it became clear very quickly that people came for the wine. You could stop into wine shops, cellars, restaurants and sample all of the wines from the region. Since we had the kids we weren't that interested in heavy wine-tasting, but we were able to have our first taste at a random event promoting an art event occurring that day. We both tried the Cremant - a sparkling white known in the region and which rivaled any champagne I have ever drank. We also met a very friendly man who told us all about the wine in the region and a cellar he recommended in the town so we headed over there next.

The also had "bretzels"

Lucille taking a photo of us

Walking through more beautiful streets

Hendryx loves wine country

And so do we!

Traditional dish

famous tart flambee

After lunch we decided to drive to another highly recommended town,  Riquwihr. I'm not sure how its possible but it was even more charming than the last town and it was packed with tourists.

Love the mix of german and french culture

clock tower

Happy guy now

I always make Pearce drive on the back roads when we travel and we always find the best stuff that way. That's how we stumbled on a Beer Garden/Playground/Petting Zoo. We spent the rest of our day letting the children play...oh, and eat ice cream.

 On our trip home we took back roads through the mountains because every time we tried through one of the wine towns we were detoured because of various athletic events. Apparently people there are very fit! It was a cool drive, with lots of castles. Also, we went through the longest tunnel I have ever been in - like seriously freakishly long and we got to drive through Luxembourg again. Didn't do any sight seeing but did go to our first McDonalds in years. That made the kids very happy.

Castles dot the hills in this region

I tried to create a barricade. It did not work.

Yay Mc-i-ds!

Both Pearce and I really enjoyed Colmar immensely and would go back in a heart beat. When we arrived home that night and I was scrolling through my Instagram I saw Anthony Bourdain was there when we were. Its probably better we didn't see him because I would have majorly fan girled on him. Can't wait to see that episode!