Living the Dream in Alsace

Alsace (France) Stage 6 – Sat 10th Sept 2016 – Sélestat to Colmar (42 Km)

Weather: 16⁰C min – 29⁰C max, fine, clear blue sky

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“You never know how strong you are until being strong is the only choice you have” ~ Unknown

Riding doesn’t get much better than this anywhere! The weather again was perfect (around 30 degrees and clear blue sky), the riding surface was excellent, the wine towns were even more spectacular than yesterday (particularly Ribeauvillé and Riquewihr) and the scenery was mesmerising.

All week I have been looking at the Vosges Mountains on my right and thanking my lucky stars that my route followed a contour at the bottom. However, today I flirted with the foothills, rising to an altitude of about 400m at one point … but the view at the top made the effort worthwhile, looking down over undulating hills covered with grape vines as far as the eye can see.

One thing that intrigued me today was the number of storks everywhere, even more than you would see in a maternity hospital. Leaving Sélestat I encountered a real live stork crossing the path in front of me, then not much further along there was an aviary full of them as well as a theme ride with stork carriages. All the towns had stork ornaments hanging from buildings or in the gardens, while gift shops all sold storks as soft toys. In one town there was even a Stork Trying to Open a Bottle of Wine! The mystery was solved when the owner of the apartment where I am staying in Colmar told me that the stork was the emblem of Alsace.

Another thing that has been puzzling me is whether I am riding in German or France. Just when the basic French phrases were starting to fall from my lips with a degree of spontaneity, the waitress at the café yesterday responded with dankeschön then today a couple of cyclists greeted me with guten morgen. The wine towns I passed through today on my ride from Sélestat to Colmar (Kientzheim, Orschwiller, Saint-Hippolyte, Rorschwihr, Bergheim, Ribeauvillé, Riquewihr, Kientzheim, Ammerschwihr, Katzenthal, Turckheim) have mainly German sounding names, the buildings have German architecture, and the dish I had for dinner tonight in Colmar was sauerkraut with sausages.

So I looked up the History of Alsace and the reason for my confusion became apparent. The Franco-German border has long been disputed, with ownership of Alsace alternating between France and Germany many times over the years until 1945 when it seems to have found a final resting place in France.

If you think the towns yesterday were awesome, the wine villages I passed through today will blow you away completely, particularly Ribeauvillé and Riquewihr which had me spell bound. It is incredible how flowers, even the simple geranium, can lift a town. Growing flowers in window boxes is encouraged by the French government which runs a competition called Ville Fleuri (you might have noticed the emblem on the welcome sign of most towns).

Colmar where I am staying tonight has the reputation of being Alsace’s most enchanting city, a fantasy of steep-pitched roofs, pastel-coloured, half-timbered, houses, all sprouting geraniums. My camera is likely to go into melt-down because I am spending two full days here and more hot dry weather is predicted. This is what I call living the dream!