DAY 1
Drive from Cologne to Strasbourg
Our trip actually began the day before in Amsterdam. After work, we drove to Cologne, Germany, where we worked remotely for a day before continuing onward. So our vacation officially after work on Friday, when we drove the first leg of the journey into France.
We were staying the night just over the German-French border in Strasbourg, a 3 1/2 hour drive from Cologne. We booked a room at a chateau-turned-hotel on the outskirts of town, which afforded us stress-free parking at the end of a long day.
Where we stayed: Chateau de Pourtales
After checking in and getting settled into our room, we headed back outside to check out the surprisingly lively beer garden adjacent to the hotel. We bought a bottle of local wine (Riesling is one of the common varieties in the Alsace) and grabbed a quiet seat on the periphery.
We were pretty tired after a busy pre-vacation work week and our evening drive, but we still mustered the energy to plan out a loose itinerary for the next day while we enjoyed our bottle of wine. Before long we were headed to bed.
DAY 2
Strasbourg Cathedral & Petite France; an evening stroll around Colmar
The morning of our first full day of the trip would be spent exploring Strasbourg, the largest city in the Alsace region. So after breakfast at the hotel, we rented bikes from the reception and made our way toward the city center.
Once in town, we parked our bikes and picked up with a self-guided walking tour from our guidebook. The first stop: the towering Strasbourg Cathedral at the heart of the old town.
The formidable red sandstone facade stands in striking contrast to the simpler, half-timbered houses surrounding the church. Inside, the dark Gothic interior is punctuated by beautiful and intricate stained glass, 80% of which is original, having miraculously survived the French Revolution and both World Wars. We hung around the impressive astronomical clock from the 16th century at the rear of the church to watched on as it chimed on the half-hour.
After our detour to the Cathedral, we continued on our walking tour, which took us along narrow streets lined with half-timbered houses until we met the river l’Ill. From there, we followed the river westward until we reached Petite France.
Strasbourg’s historic quarter is a relatively compact neighborhood (hence the name Petite France) that’s sectioned off from the rest of the city by a number of canals. Originally this area served as a place for the sick to get well again without infecting the other residents, thus the “island” layout made by the waterways.
These days, this area is the epicenter of tourism for the town, and for good reason — Petite France is incredibly charming. The winding canals are lined with well-maintained half-timbered houses, whose upper stories hang precariously over the waters below.
After our stroll around Petite France, it was time to make our way back to the hotel. We biked back and were soon in the car headed to our next destination of the trip, Colmar.
The route from Strasbourg to Colmar was a pleasant hour-long drive through the region’s wine country. Before we knew it, we had arrived and were checking into our new home base for the next couple of nights.
Where we stayed: Reflets Sur La Lauch Appartements
We rested for a bit in our room before hitting the streets to explore Colmar. We had a late dinner reservation, so we first headed to Le Cercle Des Aromes for a snack of local cheeses, cured meats, and wine.
Feeling recharged, we decided to follow another of our guidebook’s self-guided walking tours — you’ll notice this is a recurring theme throughout the trip. The tour first took us down the Place de l’Ancienne Douane with its lively canalside cafes and bridges lined with overflowing flower boxes.
We next came to the Tanners’ Quarter, a narrow street where all of the freshly-tanned hides were once dried, stretching them out on the sloped roofs.
Our tour ended in Petite Venise, where we were afforded an unusually peaceful scene of an area that’s typically crawling with tourists. (Tip: if you’re planning to visit, go late in the day to avoid the crowds, like we did!)
We walked along the canal and admired the too-perfect-to-be-real pastel houses. Across from the canal is the Old Market Hall, which has served produce, meat, and fish to locals since 1865.
We ended our first adventure-packed day of the trip with a fantastic meal at L’Arpege, a cozy restaurant serving Alsacian dishes using only local, organic ingredients. After dinner, we took the same path back to our hotel with a brief stop on “Fanny bridge” to take in the nighttime scene.
DAY 3
Unterlinden Museum; driving the Route de Vin with stops in Kaysersberg, Riquewihr & Eguisheim
Our first stop of the day was at Colmar’s main attraction, the Unterlinden Museum.
The museum occupies a 13th-century convent that has been updated to house an extensive collection of artworks that range from prehistoric to contemporary. This is the most-visited museum in all of the Alcase with most visitors coming from Germany to see the 16th-century painting known as the Isenheim Altarpiece (this is apparently as famous as the Mona Lisa for Germans).
After we finished up at the museum, we headed back to the market we stopped by the previous evening to pick up some picnic fixings for lunch. We bought a couple of creamy cheeses, an herb-covered sausage, orange marmalade, and baguette and were on our way.
The rest of the afternoon would be spent exploring the beautiful Alsatian countryside including stops at a few of the area’s many picturesque villages, so we decided to save our lunch for the first stop of the day.
We loaded up the car and headed north from Colmar, linking up with the appropriately-named Route de Vin (wine route), which stretches for over 100 miles and connects the area’s most well-known wine-producing towns. The road is flanked on both sides by rolling hills, every square inch of which is covered by grapevines. Even without the detours this is a beautiful drive!
Our first stop along the Route de Vin was the village of Kaysersberg. We parked our car on the outskirts of town and headed toward the Town Hall, where we found the perfect bench for our picnic. After lunch, we were ready to explore the rest of the quaint Alsacian village.
Kaysersberg is in many ways just a scaled-down version of Colmar but with an extra dash of storybook charm. Instead of a well-manicured and pristine canal, a babbling book overgrown with weeds and lined with a rough cobblestone wall winds its way through the center of town. Kaysersberg in some ways feels more authentic than Colmar, too. It’s easier to imagine regular people going about their business here (if you can look beyond the gawking day-trippers, of course).
We walked the length of the village and decided to follow signs pointing to Château de Kaysersberg. The road took us uphill to a staircase and dirt path, which quickly climbed above the rooftops.
At the top we found a castle mostly in ruins, surrounded by vineyards clinging to the steep terrain. We climbed the 100 steps to the top of the castle’s tower for an even better view of the town and the countryside beyond.
After some time walking around the ruins, we made our way back down the steep staircase and retraced our steps through the village before reuniting with our car. We linked back up with the Route de Vin and just a few minutes later arrived at our second stop of the day, the medieval town of Riquewihr.
Riquewihr is a very popular stop for those wishing to sample regional wines in underground wine caves. We passed beneath the town hall and onto the town’s main avenue Rue du Général de Gaulle, which is lined with signs promoting free wine tastings and an abundance of souvenir shops.
We followed the cobblestone road as it climbed slightly upward until we reached the other end of town and its monumental Dolder gate. Having reached the end of the road, we turned back and did a bit of window shopping on our way back to the car.
The last stop of our whirlwind tour of the Alsacian countryside was in Eguisheim, the smallest of the villages we visited that day but one of the most popular for day-trippers like ourselves.
It’s practically impossible to get lost here. The village is laid out in a circle with one road dissecting it into two halves. We first followed the outermost road, Rue du Rempart, which encircles the village before heading inward to check out the small square complete with an equally minature castle and church with a surprisingly colorful painted interior.
The biggest attraction was not the castle itself, but rather the massive stork nests perched atop its roof!
Storks are a big deal in the Alsace — you can find them everywhere, from shop signs to souvenirs. Same as in the US, they’re thought to bring babies and are therefore a sign of fertility and luck. And so Eguisheim, like many towns in the region, are more than happy to play host to their family of storks in their oversized nests.
After our quick stopover in Eguisheim we were finally headed back to Colmar, backtracking along the Route de Vin.
Once back in Colmar, we spent some time resting before heading to Restaurant La Soï for dinner. This restaurant specializes in the Alsacian tarte flambée, which is similar to a thin crust pizza topped with gruyere and ham (and no sauce, although that was also an option on the menu). The crust was so light and crispy — delicious!
After dinner, we swung by a candy shop to pick up another local specialty: dried fruits dipped in chocolate.
DAY 4
Lunch at Maison Lameloise; sunset walk through the vineyards surrounding Beaune
We checked out of our hotel in Colmar and headed south to another one of France’s wine regions, Burgundy.
The town of Beaune would be our home base for two nights while we explored the region, but before heading to the hotel, we first made a detour to the nearby town of Chagny, a relatively nondescript town known for its culinary scene. We had a 12:30pm reservation at Maison Lameloise, one of France’s most highly touted Micheline-starred restaurants.
Dinner here will cost you upwards of €500 for two people, but the lunch menu is a (relative) steal at about €85 a person. This included five courses and a few “extras” and small bites in between.
After our three-hour fine dining experience, we were ready for a nap. So we drove the rest of the way to Beaune, checked into the hotel, and spent the next couple of hours lounging in our room, working up the energy to venture out to explore our new home base.
We eventually motivated ourselves to leave the comfort of our hotel room to see a bit of Beaune. We walked through the town, eventually making our way to the outskirts of town to a small, idyllic park. We continued through the park until we reached the other side to the outer edge of the vineyards that surround Beaune.
Where we stayed: Les Jardins de Lois
We decided to turn back once the sun set behind the vineyard-covered hillside, taking the same path through the park to the center of the old town. We’d finally worked up enough of an appetite after our lavish lunch, just in time for another rich Burgundian meal at Les Popiettes.
I didn’t make a reservation in advance so we were lucky to grab an empty table inside. We ordered two local dishes: escargot and bœuf bourguignon (aka Beef Burgundy). The snails were, well, earthy, but the beef burgundy was delicious!
DAY 5
Hotel Dieu des Hospices; driving the Grand Crus wine route & wine tasting
After breakfast at our B&B, we headed to Hotel Dieu des Hospices to check out Beaune’s main attraction.
The Hospices de Beaune was founded in the 15th century as a hospital for the poor. The outside of the complex is subdued, blending in well with its surroundings despite being such a large complex. As it turns out, all of the detail (and construction budget) was saved for the interior.
The majority of the complex is arranged about an inner courtyard. At a sharp contrast to the comparatively bland exterior, here the roof is decorated with multicolored tiles laid in a striking pattern that’s characteristic of Burgundian architecture.
The interior spaces are equally impressive. One of the most impressive is the Grande salle des Pôvres (Large Poor Hall), a huge room with a striking barrel vaulted ceiling that accommodated the poorest residents. Another room called the Chapel was reserved for bedridden residents, who were able to attend mass from the comfort of their velvet-lined beds.
Following our morning tour of the Hospice, we swung by a shop for some picnic items and set out for a drive along the Route des Grand Crus.
The Route des Grand Crus runs about 60km from Santenay to Dijon and passes by some of the most prestigious vineyards in Burgundy. The drive felt like a grander version of the Route du Vin in the Alsace, and many of the vineyards were noticeably fancier and more maintained.
We first drove southward toward Santenay to stop by La Rochepot. The castle was unfortunately closed, so we wandered around the exterior a bit before heading onward and upward to a scenic overlook with sweeping views of the region. From here, we mostly stayed on backroads, connecting one tiny village to the next.
We ended our driving tour of some of Burgundy’s finest vineyards with a wine tasting in Gevrey-Chambertin.
Neither of us knows much about wine, but we couldn’t visit Burgundy and not do a wine tasting, so we searched around for a low-pressure tasting experience that would be educational for novice wine tasters such as ourselves. We also didn’t have any reservations in advance, so we needed a plan that accepts walk-ins.
With some research, we found just the place at Philippe Leclerc. They charge an entrance fee of €10 a person, and the fee is waived if you decide to buy a bottle of wine.
We sampled 8 wines from different plots of land over different years. We also learned a bit about the particularities of growing wine in this region — the soil, slope, and orientation to the sun all play a role.
As the end of the tasting, we selected our favorite bottle to purchase as a souvenir.
Back in Beaune finally after a full day exploring Burgundy, we decided to rest for a while back at the hotel before heading out for another exceptional dinner, this time at a restaurant called La Buissonnière.
Don’t miss it…
This post is a part of a larger three-week road trip around France. Check out the full itinerary and an overview of the trip here!
