Day 13: Eguisheim

Last full day in Alsace! Another pastry for breakfast, and we were off. Time to make the most of this day.

We’d seen the countryside, mountain, and the cute village. I had originally planned to take us on a circuit through the Vosges, perhaps even over to the other side in the Muenster valley. It’s on a nice route called the Alsacian Ring.

But a quick poll of the electorate revealed that more twisty mountain driving would cause general unrest. Whereas Annemarie had spotted a name of a town that was not in my guidebook (for shame, Fodors) but was on other tour lists.

For every San Gimignano, there’s a Volterra. For every Rothenburg, there’s a Dinkelsbuhl. Again with the second bests, a recurring theme here. If Riquewihr was the prettiest little village in France, Eguisheim was not far behind it, and may have been better for it. As anyone who’s gone there will tell you, San Gimignano and Rothenburg are crammed with tourists and the related shops. The second bests, the Volterras and Dinkelsbuhls and such, get to come off as a little more authentic. I liked Eguisheim more than Riquewihr.

Eguisheim also had a more obvious story to tell. During the 11^th Century, one of their own made good, extremely so, and became Pope. So pretty much everything in the town is named after or refers to him their favorite son, including their compact main cathedral and central square.

 Was he a good Pope? The town placards think so -- they say he spent ten years criss-crossing Europe, pleading for peace among warring Christian kingdoms. Well intentioned, but ineffective. It would be for the next Popes to direct the medieval bloodlust externally. Problem solved.

We had a casual lunch in town, but found a key item from the checklist: Crepes! You can’t go to France without having some crepes! Maybe not the best ever, but plenty good, and one more check off the list.

One of the other delights of Eguisheim is that it is home to a large population of storks. The stork is the traditional local animal, but they were elusive in Colmar and Riquewihr. Don’t like tourists, I guess. Eguisheim had them by the bushel. Authentic, right?

With the rest of the afternoon to play with, we decided – well, I decided – we had to visit a vineyard, or some sort of winery. We walked into two wine merchants in Eguisheim, and in both of them no one came to help us. This was just before and just after lunch (12:00-2:00 in France), so I guess the proprietors were taking a break. Must be nice to be able to ignore business.

We drove through the lovely countryside for a little while, along the Alsacian Route de Vin, in search of a promising spot. I was hoping for a winery with a view over proprietary vineyards, with an owner ready to tell us which rows of grapes went into the wine we were drinking. This does not exist, of course. It would be seen as a waste of precious space to plop a building into the actual wine growing turf, so all wineries are located in towns. Fair enough, we backed into a normal, non-tourist town where a wedding was underway outside the church, and I followed a sign to a vendor. I ended up nearly walking into a private house, whose wine-sipping occupants directed me around the back, where I found a winery with closed gates and a barking dog. Will no one sell us a bottle?

Someone did, at a little shop close by. It wasn’t cute or picturesque, just a little shop with boxes strewn about, and a bar. We tried a few varieties and settled on two whites and four rosé crémants, all for about $80. The latter we took back to the US, and as of this writing, one bottle remains.

A pretty good day. Crepes, check. Storks, check. Winery, check. What’s left to do? Well, while driving around we spotted a chocolate factory – remember way back in Appenzell, when I sacrificed the visit to a Swiss chocolate factory in favor of the (rained-out) coaster ride? You don’t? The kids remembered. This was a very last minute chance to make good on the Appenzell decision.

Being Saturday, the “factory” was closed – no tour. I’m sure the boys were expecting a Charlie & the Chocolate Factory experience, so there was some disappointment. But they watched a nice video of the chocolate making process, and we bought all kinds of goodies, so I’m counting it as being close enough. Chocolate Factory, check.

But wait! There's more! We got back to Colmar with just enough time left for Paine, Holman and I to take a quick tour on the river. Because we were on vacation, and had to squeeze everything in.

We were just about Franced-out after that, having packed very much into these last two days. No expensive farewell dinner – the hotel restaurant is quite fancy, but och, it was more than we can do. We purchased some baguettes, with cheeses and salami, and ate in our hotel room. No balcony, no view, it was a little cramped, but the cheese was good, as was the wine we had purchased earlier that day. France, we love you, but our time was up.