A Beautiful Visit to Alsace, France

After my cousin and I returned from our trip to the south of France this summer, I felt the predictable slump upon returning. There was quite a bit of jet lag, and Y”T season, which can feel challenging, was on the horizon. (Don’t get me wrong, I was extremely grateful to have had such a beautiful summer trip!! And for Y”T!) I decided to try and put something on the calendar for the week after Simchas Torah, knowing that it would be helpful to have something really special to look forward to. On my bucket list for awhile had been the Alsace region of France, and it seemed like a nice place to go in the fall. I set a price alert on a ticket to Paris, and when my credit card emailed that it was at the lowest price it was liable to reach, my cousin and I booked our trip. This was in late July. At that time, we also booked an Airbnb, a round-trip high speed train from Paris to Strasbourg, and a day tour to a few wine villages. Then we let it ride for a bit, and finished up planning in September.

 

This trip exceeded my expectations, and the truth is I have never really heard about (frum) people doing this trip, so below is my detailed itinerary in the hopes that it might be interesting or helpful.

 

Strasbourg is the largest city in Alsace, a region in eastern France near the border of Germany. Alsace has flip-flopped between German and French control over the centuries, and it has a unique hybrid character because of that. We stayed in Strasbourg, which has a thriving frum community, for six nights, and did several day trips. (Because many people were concerned about this — we did not see any rioting or violence b”H.)

 

Sunday

• Our flight was on a Sunday night with the budget airline French Bee. This was an overall smooth experience except they are VERY strict about carryon size (ask me how I know). After some stress at the counter, the rest of the journey went well b”H.
• French Bee does not serve meals (unless you pay separately), so we brought our own food for the flight (which was just as well, as plane food is getting progressively sadder IMO).

 

Monday – Arrival

• We landed in Paris Orly Airport around noon. On our previous trip to Paris, we had flown in and out of CDG and I have to say, ORY would be my choice every time. It’s much smaller and easier to navigate. I used my fancy EU passport to get through passport control fairly quickly (joined later by my cousin), and then we walked to the airport Metro station.
• There is a special (higher) fare for subways to and from the airport, just as a heads up, but still cheaper and easier than Uber. In fact, I am proud to say that we did not take a single Uber on this trip except our Uber home from the airport back in the U.S.
• Our train was scheduled for 5:25 pm from Gare de l’Est so we had several hours in the interim for lunch. We took the metro to Rue La Fayette and climbed out of the subway to be greeted by classic Haussmann exteriors and rooflines — welcome to Paris! We ate a solid pasta lunch at Il Palazzo, which we had enjoyed last year as well — in fact, my cousin ordered the same dish as last year. It was pretty cool to return to a spot in Paris, I have to say.
• From there, we took the metro to Gare de l’Est. This train station services eastern France and Germany (hence the name); the announcements were made in French, English, and German, which made us feel like we were truly en route to Alsace.
• Our train ride went very smoothly b”H, and in under two hours we disembarked in Gare Centrale of Strasbourg. We took a local bus a few stops to our apartment and figured out where to find the lockbox and how to get inside.
• It was nice to stay in an Airbnb for a change and I think I would do it again. We had so much space (we each had our own room — I turned the living room into a bedroom) and it was a really pleasant place to spend the better part of a week, especially Shabbos.
• Our apartment was found via the Chabad website and it was in the heart of the frum community. Most kosher restaurants and stores were minutes from our front steps! We also saw numerous frum people around during our stay, which was so nice.
• We had pizza and salmon salad at a café around the corner. And then we went to bed!

 

Tuesday – Colmar

• We had breakfast at the same café, Kfe de la Paix. We ate here most mornings. It was nice to feel like a regular in such a short time.
• We took the bus from our apartment to the train station, and a train to Colmar. This was about a half hour train ride. We got there around 10:20 and followed the Rick Steves walking tour around town.
• Colmar was amazing. We agreed that if we had to pick one day trip to prioritize, it would be Colmar. It was just so, so charming. The half-timbered houses, the bright colors, the canals. The day actually started out pretty gray, so my pictures are a mixed bag, but the sun came out later and we got some nice ones with bluer sky. We were in Colmar about four and a half hours. In that time, we walked through the old town, bought fruit in the market hall, took a Petit Train ride around (with audio guide), and a little boat ride in the canal. We actually missed our boat by a couple of minutes (awks) but they were very nice about it and put us on the next one which worked in our favor because we had the front row.
• The prettiest part of Colmar is Petite Venise. The area around Rue des Marchands and Grand Rue is charming too. It was overall the loveliest day.
• We returned to Strasbourg and our apartment. I charged up a bit and went back out to visit the European Parliament, which is free to visit. Note that you need to bring a passport to gain entry, and there is a security process. There is an audio guide but I didn’t use it much, I just sat in the plenary chamber for awhile, which felt kind of cool, and then went back to our apartment.
• We had dinner at Le B. Delicious Asian food!

 

Wednesday – Wine Villages

• The next day we got up early, had breakfast at our café and bought lunch to go. We took the tram to our van tour, which left at 9 am.
• This was a beautiful day. (I keep saying that. It’s true. Alsace was truly lovely.) We drove through several villages along the wine route, stopped in four for 1-2 hours each, and went to a winery where we learned about the wine-making process (and there was a tasting, which my cousin and I obviously did not partake in).
• The villages we stopped in were Ribeauville, Riquewhir, Kaysersburg, and Eguisheim. We also drove through others, my favorite was Bergheim. The villages had oodles of charm — cobblestone streets, half-timbered houses, shutters with heart cutouts (apparently this was a system in medieval times for signaling if the home had an eligible maiden living there), stork nests, fountains, window boxes, clock towers…
• I used Rick Steves as a guide in these villages to discover interesting things to look at.
• In Riquewhir, we had time for lunch, and in Kaysersburg, we sat in a vineyard and ate our brioche. All of the villages are nestled in miles of vineyards, and the leaves were turning yellow, and it was truly so lovely. This day also started cloudy and cleared up for part of the afternoon, which I am so grateful for.
• When we got back to Strasbourg, we took the tram directly to dinner at Autre Part. I tried a tarte flambee/flammkuchen, which is basically like a really flat dough with cheese and onions. It’s an Alsatian specialty and I liked it well enough but I don’t really “get” it. I also had a salad with goat cheese croutons drizzled with honey, which was delicious. We shared a chocolate mousse for dessert.

 

Thursday – Black Forest

• The next morning, we took the bus to the train station, the train to Offenburg (Germany) and transferred to a train to Gengenbach. For this day, we bought a regional transportation pass for the Germany side of things, so we didn’t have to buy individual tickets throughout the day.
• This was probably our most underwhelming visit of the trip. Gengenbach seems to get enthusiastic reviews online but it wasn’t that exciting, in our opinion. There are a few medieval towers which look nice in pictures, and we took one of those little train rides around (the Gengenbahn), but it was a stretch as there just wasn’t that much to see. I would probably suggest swapping this part of our itinerary out for the Black Forest Open Air Museum.
• From here we took the Black Forest Train to St. Georgen (about 45 minutes down the line) so we could see some Black Forest views. For mysterious (to me) reasons, I was really intrigued by the Black Forest and wanted to visit it, so this was accomplished. It was a scenic ride that reminded me of driving through the Adirondacks en route to Montreal, but on a more dramatic scale.
• At St. Georgen, we crossed the station to take the train back in the other direction and got off at Triberg. From the station, we took the bus (550) to Marktplatz.
• Triberg has a fun store called The House of a Thousand Clocks which was the main draw for me. It’s a cuckoo clock shop! This is one of my favorite memories of the trip. You can make a cuckoo clock cuckoo by moving the minute hand to 12. We had fun roving from clock to clock watching them cuckoo. I took a few videos also which I can’t stop watching lol. These clocks run into the hundreds and thousands of euros – very impressive.
• We also walked up to see the Triberg falls. This was nice and scenic. I had read about the presence of cute red squirrels here but unfortunately didn’t see any.
• Finally, we walked back down to a bus stop and took the bus to the train station. We took the 3:15 back to Offenburg, then transferred to a train to Strasbourg.
• Back in Strasbourg, I walked around the area called Petite France, which is charming and picturesque and took some nice pictures in the golden hour lighting.
• Then I went back to our apartment and we went back to Le B for dinner. Mmm!
• There was a restaurant called Empire Steak Building nearby which had a diner vibe (checkered floor, red vinyl stools and chairs) that looked cute, so after dinner we went here and got Coke and fries. We ended up schmoozing there for an hour and a half. So that was a fun addition.
• We got back to our apartment and booked a boat tour for the next day. And…lights out!

 

Friday & Shabbos – Strasbourg

• In the morning, we had an early breakfast at our usual spot and did our Shabbos shopping! We bought challah rolls and pastries at the cafe; dips, grape juice, vegetables and snack at two grocery stores; and Shabbos food and salads at a takeout place. We brought everything back to our apartment, set the table for Shabbos, and took the bus to the 10:30 boat tour.
• This tour was a little over an hour. It was pleasant enough and I learned more about Strasbourg, although I would have probably enjoyed an open top boat more.
• Then we took a Petit Train ride around the Neustadt, which is the part of Strasbourg that was built up during Imperial German rule from 1871 to World War I. We enjoyed this. There was actually a second train ride through Petite France but it seemed like enough for one day.
• After that, we split up – my cousin went shopping and I went to Parc de l’Orangerie to try and spot a live stork. I knew that it really was the wrong time of year and the wrong time of day, but I had read that the park has a resident stork population and hoped I might get lucky. After walking around awhile and spotting many stork nests, I hadn’t seen an actual bird. I sat on a bench to eat my protein bar and got ready to go. Then I looked up and…there was a stork in a tree! It was across the pond, but I did get to see one after all. I even got to see it fly to another tree and spread its stork-y wings.
• After that I walked back to our apartment (and I saw a red squirrel(!) on my way out of the park), stopping at a convenience store to buy a New York Times. So I had a Shabbos read (as I did not bring physical books).
• We really enjoyed our Shabbos meals and rest. My cousin went to a shul with a chazzan which she really appreciated, and I stayed in!
• On Motzoei Shabbos, we, unfortunately, had to pack up to go.

 

Sunday – Paris

• Our train to Paris was early Sunday morning. Before we left, we stopped at a bakery to buy pastries. Then we took the bus to the train station.
• We arrived back in Gare de l’Est at about 10:15. We checked our luggage into station lockers and parted ways.
• I headed to MAM, a free modern art museum. This was one of the museums that had loaned a few pieces to the Berthe Weill exhibition I saw in Montreal last summer, which put it on my radar. I enjoyed this.
• The museum was not far from the Eiffel Tower, which I love, so I then went by to take pictures from various vantage points.
• Then I walked to Le XXV and had lunch (spinach goat cheese quiche and cheesecake) and bought food for the flight (pesto mozzarella pasta and a croissant).
• Finally, I headed back to the train station to meet my cousin and pick up our luggage. We took the subway back to Orly Airport…and after an uneventful flight, arrived back home Sunday night!

 

This trip was beautiful. I would do it again — and I hope I truly do get to return to Alsace. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask away.

 

Thank you for reading, and have a good Shabbos!

 

(Image credit: Philippe Serrand/Pexels. Colmar!)