Sunday, July 27: Alsace-Lorraine, France

We woke to clear blue skies and headed south to travel the Alsace wine route. We caught it in Molsheim, a few towns south of its beginning. This is wine country with villages close together nestled on the sides of the foothills of the Vosges Mountains.  

This archway was about 1/2 meter too short for us, so we parked outside and walked in.

Most of these medieval towns have changed little with arched entry gates, half-timbered buildings, the town wells and grape presses still standing along the narrow streets. We drove through many of these towns and stopped at one where the entry arch was too short for us to get through. We found a parking area outside the town and wandered around and visited the tourist office to get the wine route map.

Gate at other end of town

We continued through the little towns – Jack did a great job of maneuvering our too big RV through these towns that are not meant for large vehicles, and we stopped at a rest stop for lunch and a nap. We wanted to stop in a town that was having a large wine festival, but we could not find any parking anywhere close.

Note the castle ruins on the hilltop

Flowers in every town along the roads and bridges

They had vines trained across the streets in this village

Typical village surrounding the church in the foohills

Wine and Bear Country!

This one we fit through

The clouds began to roll in as they seem to do in the afternoons and we stopped about halfway through the wine route in a the town of Ribeauville. Internet for Jack, some reading for me and one game of Rummy before bed.