Un petit voyage en France, Part Zwei

...wait, that isn't 'two' in French.... The second part of our mini wine and cheese vacay.

Somehow or another, we managed not to indulge in too much wine during our stay in Strasbourg. Which is a good thing. The last thing you want to do before a day of wine tasting is being hung-ditty from the night before.

Saturday morning, while not nearly as beautiful as the day before, I awoke with a full agenda of things to do. After a super quick stop in the local Sephora - which, btw, they do NOT have in Germany and I was running super low on so many things. Life saver! - we were headed about 50 km south to the Alsace Tour de Vins.

The hubs did not get a shot of me coming out of Sephora, but I probably looked like this, but with more crazy eyes. (source)

The hubs kept asking 'Where are we headed?' and my answer was 'Oh I dunno, some town that people kept saying was really cool on the internet'. He should know better by now to even ask.

I am the queen of finding random spots and towns online. And thankfully I am lucky enough and they usually turn out to be interesting, off-the-beaten-path kind of wonderful places. 

One of the beautiful streets in Riquwihr

This one was no different. After a short drive on the highway, the GPS lead us off the main road and back through meandering rows of vines. I don't think the hubs was convinced we were actually going some place in particular, that is, until the absolutely picturesque town of Riquewihr was right upon us.

If you thought Strasbourg looked like a movie set, Riquewihr was straight out of a Disney film. Despite the region of Alsace getting pretty blown up in the war, the tiny medieval town was spared. And has somehow stayed more or less the same as it was in the 16th century. 

The clock tower framing the top of the town.

The town, which is built on the side of a steep hill, is jam packed with little wineries and tasting rooms. Seriously, just one after the other of Cave and Dégustation (cellars and wine tastings) We asked one of the proprietors, and she guessed that in the tiny, sleepy town there were around 25 wine cellars in the city. Boozing comes easy here, I'd say.

And don't worry, we didn't hit them all up. Don't think I would have had the stamina or liver to even accomplish that in a week!

Ok, maybe a week, but it would have to be one heck of a bender!

We picked out a places along the main drag that we wanted to visit and sample their wine. By far the coolest one was Maison Zimmer, which was literally in a cave-like cellar. Cold, damp, musty smelling, and away from the tourist bus full of snow birds from Florida, it really did feel like we descended those stairs and traveled back in time.

Maison Zimmer wine tasting cellar

And holy begeebus, was their Riesling to die for! So good. While I wanted to buy 20 bottles to take home, I reluctantly only purchased two. Damn the hubs and his 'common sense'. 


How good was it? It's been called the songbird of it's generation. That good.

Sorry, blackout there, what happened? Anyways, the idea is to bring back a bottle so we can enjoy it at home, in Texas. Yeah, we will see if that happens! 

How do you manage to look so smooth all the time?! Lol

I asked the lady working there if anyone ever falls down the steps. She said it didn't happen very often, but people are always falling up the steps. Now that is how you know you had a good time wine tasting!

Medieval looking stairs leading back into the sunlight

Besides walking the streets to people watch and eating yet another meal filled with melted Munster goodness, there wasn't much else to do in the town. But really, with architecture and an atmosphere like that, what more do you need?!

If you ever find yourself along the French-German border, you have to check out this area. Wine lover or teetotaler, you will not be disappointed in the beauty of the French countryside!