La route du vin

As I mentioned before, H and I were kicking around the idea of doing the too-charming-for-words route du vin. Well, we did it, and we did it à vélo ("by bicycle"). You can view all of our route du vin photos on our Flickr account.

Did I mention that June is summer storm month in Alsace?

We had planned to rent bicycles at the tourism office in Selestat, but they rent bicycles only durng the "summer." Their website defines "summer" as May-October, so we figured no problem, but their onsite staff defines "summer" as July-October. Guess which definition trumps.

The woman behind the counter was nevertheless quite helpful. She phoned a bike rental company in the region and got a great deal for us: 10€/bike/day with free delivery and one day free. It was so typically French. Nothing worked the way you'd expect from reading the literature, but everything got taken care of anyway.

As soon as the bikes arrived, we became closely acquainted with the obvious disadvantage of travel by bicycle, which, as we learned early on during our trip, can be summed up in one word: weather. Just as we got ready to depart, the clouds crashed and the skies opened. Naturally. We spent two hours in the tourism office, waiting out the storm and enduring the gentle taunts of the staff, "You're going to do the wine road by bicycle, eh? Ha ha!" H slept. I read inane travel lit.

It was already 4pm by the time we finally got on the road. Selestat lies on the Alsatian plain, east of the foothills of the Vosges mountains, where they grow all the wine grapes. (Alsace as a region is bordered by the Rhine to the east and the Vosges to the west.) We made our way west and quickly found the route du vin, thanks to my expert leadership. And then we immediately took a wrong turn. After spending around 45 minutes circling a suburb which had only a single entrace/exit, we began to eye the western horizon with trepidation as a second thunderstorm rolled in. So of course I made a second wrong turn, which put us squarely in the middle of a cornfield. Thank goodness my wife has such a well-developed sense of adventure. And a forgiving heart.

"Um, J--you did say that there's a route du vin, didn't you?"

As we slogged through the crops, the temperature dropped, the skies darkened, and it began to drizzle. So there we are, getting rained on in the middle of an Alsatian corn field, when H pops out with, "I think I saw where we could take shelter with some cows a bit back there."

At first, I was skeptical, bu then it began to rain in earnest. So I thought to myself, "Let us not stoop at this moist crossroads to any ill-conceived prejudice against our bovine bretheren. Lead on, brave and observant cowmaiden!" Or something to that effect. And let me tell you: whatever their drawbacks--and I'll allow that they probably have some--cows make great company when it's raining and they've got a roof and you've got nothing but Gore-tex.

The cows were very generous. We didn't even have to tip.

After waiting out the second storm with the cows, everything smoothed out. The rain even helped along the fruits of the season; as it happened, we were lucky enough to be abroad during cherry season.

Grocery stores which spritz their produce with water in order to make it look more appetizing have got a long way to go before they can compete with this.

Despite a week's worth of lugubrious forecasts, the weather cooperated for the remaining duration of our trip, and we were able to enjoy the bicycle's openness to the elements as a singular advantage over travel by car or train. When you travel by bicycle, you're really in the landscape--as opposed to travel by car, which conducts you through the landscape. And what a landscape! For charm, beauty, gentility, and sheer glory, Alsatian wine country stands head and shoulders above most landscapes I've encountered...

The road wraps the vine-laden hills like a silver ribbon.


Old Rhine castles cling to the mountainsides and crouch among the vines.


Every 2 or 3 km yields another charming village or lovely city.


The cities and villages actually compete with one another for the best floral displays.


There's even a sorcerer's tower or two... (that's me doing my best Harry Potter).

I don't care what Disney says. There's no vacation more magical than this.