{"id":192552,"date":"2026-11-12T10:39:48","date_gmt":"2026-11-12T09:39:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thechicadvocate.com\/?p=192552"},"modified":"2026-11-12T10:39:48","modified_gmt":"2026-11-12T09:39:48","slug":"drei-tage-im-elsass-colmar-weinberge-ecomusee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thechicadvocate.com\/en\/drei-tage-im-elsass-colmar-weinberge-ecomusee\/","title":{"rendered":"Three Days in Alsace: Colmar, Vineyards and a Whole 19th-Century Village"},"content":{"rendered":"

Advertisement. This trip took place at the invitation of the Agence R\u00e9gionale du Tourisme Grand Est<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Alsace: between the Vosges and the Rhine<\/h2>\n

Before we start, some context: Alsace is no longer a region of its own. Since 2016 it has been part of Grand Est<\/a>, the merger of Alsace, Lorraine and Champagne-Ardenne in north-eastern France. Grand Est borders four countries: Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany and Switzerland. Its capital is Strasbourg, and the region stretches from the champagne cellars near Reims and the battlefields of Verdun to the Vosges and the Alsace wine route.<\/p>\n

For you as a traveller that means one thing above all: you can combine very different landscapes and themes within the same region without long drives. This time we stuck to the southern corner, and even that gave us more than we managed in three days. Everything about the region is at explore-grandest.com<\/a>.
\nAlsace sits in north-eastern France, wedged between the Rhine to the east and the Vosges mountains to the west. It is a narrow strip of land, less than a hundred kilometres across, and yet hardly any region in Europe has had a more turbulent history. Between 1871 and 1945 Alsace changed nationality four times, German, then French, then German again, and each time the official language, the school books and the street names changed with it. You can still hear what that left behind: the older generation speaks Alsatian, an Alemannic dialect closer to Swiss German than to French. And you can see it in the houses, the food and the place names ending in -heim and -willer.<\/p>\n

Our trip took place in the southern part, in the Haut-Rhin d\u00e9partement around Colmar. This is the corner with the half-timbered houses in sweet-shop colours, the vineyards on the slopes, and the valleys that lead up into the Vosges behind Colmar.<\/p>\n

\"Map
Our route through the Haut-Rhin: Colmar, the Munster valley and Ungersheim<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

What surprised me was how close it all is. Colmar is about two and a half hours from Lucerne. Alsace isn’t a long-haul trip, it’s a long weekend you don’t even have to get up early for.<\/p>\n

\"View
Behind Colmar the land rises and the valleys run up into the Vosges<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Getting there<\/h3>\n