A circuit from Strasbourg, July 2012
Alsace tour mapOpen the map in Google My Maps
Strasbourg – Niederbronn – Natzwiller – Colroy La Roche – Colmar – Selestat – Strasbourg. About 420km
Defined by two natural frontiers running south/north for 200km – the Rhine to the east and the Vosges mountains to the west – Alsace is a neatly self-contained region that cries out for a cycling tour. Art cities, vineyards, storks … what’s not to like, on a bike?
Using the fast train from Paris, you could start in Basel or Mulhouse and make your way slowly north, and return from Strasbourg. This would take in the art cities and the wine road, but it would be an incomplete view of Alsace, and I suspect a slightly repetitive one. We decided on a slightly more ambitious and varied tour, starting and finishing at the excellent Hotel du Dragon in Strasbourg (reached by train from Calais via Lille). Two days in the north, two days in the Vosges and two days on the wine road …. was not quite long enough. An extra day or even two would have been better.
We expected our ride through the hills to be torture, made endurable by the prospect of the wine road to come. Quite the opposite, in fact. Our time in the Vosges was the highlight, partly thanks to two superb hotels: the Metzger in Natzwiller (mid-price) and La Cheneaudière (expensive) in Colroy la Roche. After the empty roads in the Vosges we found the most famous wine villages (Riquewihr, Ribeauvillé and Turckheim) overcrowded and touristy, and much preferred Bergheim and Mittelbergheim, beautiful working wine villages (with storks).
Lunch at the Auberge de l’Ill at Illhaeusern was another milestone moment, which stretched to several hours.
Route planning tips: the Grand’ Rue is an easy way from the station to the city centre in Strasbourg; and the towpath of the Rhone/Rhine Canal is a brilliant way in to and out of the city from/to the south. Our attempt to follow the Rhine northwards from Strasbourg on the first day was less successful; the resulting delays meant we never got to Wissembourg.
(Macaron au blanc-manger, sorbet basilic-citron-vert)
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