What? No croissants?

September 28, 2015 -- We are pleasantly surprised by Alsace.  No more of the simple, sandy-colored villages of the Burgundy wine country.  Here the combination of half-timbered houses, history, bright colors, German influence, and especially the fine food and wine makes Alsace very special.
Riquewihr is, as the guidebooks say, the jewel in the crown famous for the local dry Riesling and other great Alsace wines produced here; and looks today much as it must have in the 16th century. Remarkable as a charming little medieval city hidden between the Vosges mountains and some of the most famous vineyards in Alsace, Riquewihr is only seven miles from Colmar and minutes from other popular Alsatian villages like Ribeauvillé, Hunawihr, Eguisheim or Kaysersberg. < The half-timbered houses recall the days when Riquewihr and neighboring towns were home to a local but landed aristocracy.  The village main street is a steep one mile climb from bottom to top where the big Dolder gate stands sentinel.  

Along either side of Rue General de Gaulle are shops and the former homes of the wealthiest citizens.  I found that one can set out on a morning run through the vineyards and the roads that enable tractors and wagons to get to the grapes.  With the sun shining on the hillsides, it's easy to see how grapes like this area.

We discovered on our this, our first morning, that there is no artisan bakery in this village, and that the local grocery store, just around the corner from our apartment, only opens at 9:30 a.m. While they do always have a few croissants, the entire supply was exhausted by 9:40 a.m.  I guess it's a very flexible market for bakery goods.

There are very few tourists in view early in the morning, but by 10 a.m. they are beginning to arrive.  

The town has two churches, one Catholic and one Protestant, both standing on the same street -- but at opposite ends of it.

We drove about 20 miles south to Colmar, where the secular and religious architectural landmarks reflect eight centuries of Germanic and French architecture and the adaptation of their respective stylistic language to the local customs and building materials (which include pink and yellow Vosges sandstone and timber framing).

Colmar is situated along the Alsatian Wine Route and considers itself to be the "capital of Alsatian wine" (capitale des vins d'Alsace). 

The city is renowned for its well preserved old town with cobbled pedestrian-only streets, its numerous architectural landmarks and its museums, but it is also a bustling modern city with factories and warehouses along the highway as you drive in.

Colmar's city-center features lots of interesting buildings with steeply pitched red- and green-tiled roofs, pastel stucco walls, and aged timbers.  The very French style shutters combine with German style half-timbering and cascades of window box flowers. Your eye will be caught by the image-rich and colorful signs which identified merchants and tradesmen of all kinds.  In an age of illiteracy, these distinctive signs helped customers find their services and goods.

Marcia and I are standing here before the Koïfhus, the former customs house, that had a strategic place at the confluence of the Grand’Rue and the rue des Marchands, two of the major roads in the medieval city. Built between 1433 and 1480 at the Place de l'Ancienne Doaune, the merchandise subject to communal tax used to be stored on the ground floor, while on the other floor used to sit the representatives of the Decapole, the league of ten free Alsace villages. 

There are many striking views and  cityscapes in historic Colmar. An part of town that is crossed by canals of the river Lauch (which formerly served as the butcher's, tanner's and fishmonger's quarter) is now called "little Venice" (la Petite Venise).  We saw boatloads of Japanese tourists floating serenely through the city, cameras snapping photographs with machine-gun rapidity.

Green and red tiled roofs

Isenheim Altarpiece

The Unterlinden Museum was closed and undergoing a renovation, and we were directed to visit the austere Dominican Church nearby to see the famed Isenheim Altarpiece that dates from 1515.  The altarpiece was a little hard to grasp at first, being a series of three paintings on hinges that pivot, so that it can be seen open, or closed, or from behind. It is said that Germans know this painting with the same affinity and rereverence that Americans know the Mona Lisa.

Schongauer's "Virgin In A Rose-Bush"

In the same Église des Dominicains you can see another famous work, the exquisite Virgin in the Rose Bush by Martin Schongauer.  Painted in 1473, the colors and texture make it look like it was done yesterday. A graceful Mary is shown as a welcoming mother, and the robins, goldfinches, and sparrows in the rose bush bring it to life.

This painting used to be in the nearby Church of St. Martin (which we did not visit at all) but was stolen in 1972.  When it was recovered (no further details offered) a few years ago, it was placed in the Dominican Church for better security. 




We wandered over to a nearby cafe for a hot pretzel snack, and then continued our way through the city, admiring the architecture and the scenes.  The sun had slipped under a cloud and it seemed cooler than before in the breeze. We saw the "meter man," a figure carved into the side of a building at #9 Rue Marchands which once housed a tailor's shop.  He is holding a bar, Colmar's local measure of about one meter -- a reminder of the days when each town had its own set of measurements as well as time.

We returned to Riquewihr for a wine tasting at the Hugel shop -- it is just down the street from our apartment.  

We did buy some wine!

There was in fact no charge, and we did our best to be good visitors by buying three bottles to take home and drink.  Unlike the German and other tourists we see at these tastings, we simply can't buy a half dozen cases to put in the back of the car and drive home.

The Dolder

Rue de General de Gaulle

While wandering the town, we discovered a cheese tasting room.  It was downstairs in the cellar, but had pretty much the same kind of arrangement:  you get to taste several kinds of cheese with the understanding that you'll probably buy some to take away.

We did.  

I believe soon after this we acquired some delicious munster cheese as well as some more epoisses, a soft aged cheese whose name means "worth the effort." There was a cheese cellar down the street, which worked much like a wine shop -- you can taste and sample, with the understanding that you'll probably buy something.  

Again, we did.

For dinner, we had reservations at d'Brenndlstub, a restaurant in a hotel that is run by the same family who own the Michelin one-star La Table du Gourmet. This establishment has a modern, hip vibe to it and it was quite busy.

Marcia remembers that we had the three course menu; her omble fish with pasta, sun-dried tomatoes, celeriac, apples and citron cream sauce was one of the more inventive dishes she enjoyed during two weeks in France! All the food was very good.

Riquewihr, after the tourists left