Alsace—Accessible Beauty and Flavor Everywhere

Village of  Eguisheim

Our six day bicycle trip with friends in Alsace is over, quickly morphing into a happy memory.  What will we remember the most?  Probably the food, wine, the intense heat, the cycling, and the camaraderie.    But most of all, we will remember the beauty.  Alsace has everything--quaint villages lined with cobblestone streets, flowers everywhere, verdant vineyards, forests, stork nests, 

flowers everywhere!

One of  countless stork nests

and farms.  Even in the villages where few tourists venture, the French make them look beautiful just for their own enjoyment.

The 100+ temperatures pretty much dominated our last two days.  But the scenery, cold beer, and camaraderie distracted us from it.  Friday we rode only 17 mostly flat miles, with a detour to a fascinating wine museum.  

An 800-year old wine press

Alsance Countryside

About the only places air conditioned in this part of France are the supermarkets.  So we added a one-hour layover to the frozen foods section of a supermarket as the 2:00 pm temperatures hit 106. 

Our destination of the 1300-year old village of Eguisheim, home of Pope Leon IX in 1040 was well worth it.  Our beautiful non- air-conditioned hotel was right in the center of everything, and as with the previous place, we had a great few from our room.

Eguisheim (Not my photo)

Our Eguisheim hotel on the left

cooling off

Refreshing swimming hole

Our last ride, 36 miles on the 4^th of July, was our best.  Stopping along the way to soak our jerseys in public fountains, we ascended 1,000 feet on mostly shaded bike paths, to the town of Munster (as in Munster cheese), then to a forested park where Bertrand had a gourmet picnic lunch waiting for us.  He taught us the fine art of opening a wine bottle without a corkscrew, using a shoe and a big boulder.  (Wish I had known that in college!) 

After a swim we headed back down to the stifling plains, stopping at a public fountain and a swimming hole to cool off.  We topped the day off with a spectacular meal at a French restaurant  in the cooler highlands above the valley.  

Our last supper with guides Laura and Bertrand

Chain Tatoo

Morning view from our room

We can’t say enough good things about our guides, Bertrand and Laura Marchel, the owners of Cobbles and Corks Bicycle Tours. I met Bertrand last September when he was guiding my 850-mile Zion-Taos trip.  He was born and raised in France, the son of a famous chef and hotel owner in the village where we stayed our first night.  He used to own a French restaurant in Telluride, Colorado where they live from September-May.  Alex, their eight-year old son is a bundle of bilingual energy!  They spend the summers here—quite a lifestyle. 

Even without being able to speak French, Alsace is very user friendly and accessible with or without a bicycle.  We could go on and on about the food, wine, good times, the heat, our friends, the friendly people, and our charming guides.  Our photos don’t do the beauty justice.  You’ll just have to experience it for yourself. 

At a hot buy delightful gourmet picnic lunch

Now on to London to see our daughter Shanti and her boyfriend, Alan.  Then all four of us are off on a four-day hiking trip through the Cotswolds.  We hear that we might even need jackets!