Tour Highlights:
- Picturesque fortified Alsatian wine villages
- Wonderful range of Alsatian wines and beers
- Superb scenery with vineyards, mountains and pine forests
- Alsatian cuisine, culture and art
- Ancient châteaux, castles and fortresses
- Friendly multilingual representatives
Together with local resident and walking guide, Glenn Ford, we have put together a wonderful itinerary in one of France's most beautiful and historic regions. Glenn has been organising walking tours in the area for many years and the average age of his regular customers is 60+ so the walks are designed to be informative and entertaining rather than a strenuous challenge.
Nestled on the borders of Switzerland and Germany and separated from the rest of France by the Vosges Mountains, Alsace is one of France’s best kept secrets. It is a world-renowned wine region and its famous “Route du Vin” (wine road) encompasses more than 100 wine producing villages between Strasbourg and Thann. As well as producing fantastic wines, Alsace is also France’s best beer brewing region and a centre of culinary excellence, so you know that your efforts will be well rewarded!
Our tours start in the midst of the Alsace vineyards near the superb city of Colmar, famed for its paintings and sculptures. Our tour will lead us through Grand Cru vineyards and flower decked wine villages with cobbled streets and half-timbered houses, straight from the pages of a Brothers Grimm’ fairy tale book. You will visit some of the most beautiful villages in France, such as Riquewhir, Turckheim and Eguisheim. You will also visit Glenn’s home village of Voegtlinshoffen, which he thinks produces the best white wines in France! You will certainly have the opportunity to taste them and make up your own mind. The forests and hills of the Vosges Mountains of Alsace are celebrated for their unspoilt beauty and numerous castle ruins. We will learn about some of their myths and legends that surround these as we proceed on our leisurely way.
At the end of each full day we can relax and enjoy the excellent Alsatian wines and cuisine. Alsace is a wonderful place for gourmets as it offers more Michelin star restaurants than any other region of France! Great wines, too. Forget any preconceived ideas about rieslings being sweet and nasty (perhaps you recall Black Tower or Blue Nun), as Alsace produces an excellent range of sophisticated white wines and some great champagne styles too. Some of these wines are so good that they never get the chance to leave Alsace and, of course, we will do all we can to maintain this tradition by tasting one or two...(or three or four!)
A fascinating aspect of Alsace is its intriguing complex history. Since 1870 Alsace has changed nationality five times. We will learn how this has influenced everyday life in Alsace. Even today, Alsatian newspapers have a German edition and many of the older generation speak Alsatian.
Come and discover this fantastic region the best way possible – on foot.
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