Route du Vin

In this region of France known as Alsace, the song of the open road is “Roll Out The Barrel.”

To be sure, spirits are high along the Route du Vin, which is to say the grape lover’s highway between Strasbourg and Colmar, a path strewn with dozens of little wine-producing villages that appear like sketches culled from a book of fairy tales.

The journey represents one of life’s joys, a time for toasting one’s companion with the wines of Alsace while exploring narrow, cobbled streets and ancient half-timbered buildings that Alsatians seriously believe inspired the brothers Grimm.

Barely 75 miles long, the Route du Vin is a slice of history, a glimpse of medieval Europe. There comes to mind Turckheim, a village on the outskirts of Colmar that reflects a period when such towns were walled, as indeed is the case today in Turckheim.

Traffic funnels through 800-year-old gates; the sun reflects off slate roofs, and Turckheim’s cobbled streets are crowded with visitors who take shelter at Hotel des Deux Clefs, just as they have for nearly 400 years.

At Hotel des Deux Clefs, guests awaken to the tolling of church bells and gather of an afternoon in the bar, which also serves as the reception, to taste the wines of Alsace in a setting of timbered walls and leaded windows.

One enters Turckheim down a cobbled street where a fountain flows only steps from a verdant square facing Hotel des Deux Clefs. Inside the bar/restaurant, the room is alive with the music of Johann Strauss, and we found the comely proprietress, Marie-Claire Planel-Arnoux, busily arranging flowers fresh from her garden.

Classical melodies continued to set the mood throughout the day in this former coaching stop, with its fine wines and a menu that features sauerkraut, sausage, pork, guenelles de foie and coq au Riesling.

The stairway leading to guest rooms creaks with one’s footsteps, reminding visitors that generations have passed this way and that others will follow, but that this particular moment is precious, a split second in Turckheim’s history and that you are part of it, and that it will not be played again. A mere moment.

In the dining room and outside in the garden, guests spend entire afternoons over lunch, divorced from fast-paced cities beyond the gates of Turckheim.

The garden is particularly pleasant on a sunny afternoon. Flowers flow from a bucket suspended above a well, and ivy climbs ancient walls. Later, strings of colored light add to the magic as the sun disappears and darkness softens the scene and church bells toll once more.

With darkness, the last town crier remaining in all of France emerges from a guardhouse, a ghostly figure in a flowing cloak, swinging a lantern whose yellow glow casts eerie shadows against ancient walls while the crier calls to a gathering crowd, “All’s well!”, his words echoing through vacant streets like the uttering of a spirit braced against the chill wind that whips the folds of the crier’s cloak, nearly snuffing out his lantern.

For another half-hour, the group traces his footsteps until, finally, the crier returns to the guardhouse, calling out once again, “All’s well!” before disappearing through a darkened doorway.

Stars shine brightly as the group returns to Hotel des Deux Clefs for brandies, later climbing the creaking stairway to slip beneath thick eiderdowns as church bells toll the midnight hour.

From Colmar, the Route du Vin skirts other ancient villages and churches with their baroque steeples and half-timbered homes and hotels that reach across Alsace. Cattle graze beside the road and vineyards sweep to the Vosges, the mountain range that forms the western extension of the Black Forest.

Castles rising on wooded hillsides face mile upon mile of gingerbread villages, and fragrant breezes stir among the narrow streets of Eguisheim and Kaysersberg, which was the birthplace of Albert Schweitzer, the jungle doctor whose home functions as a museum, drawing legions of visitors.

During the high season, tour buses crowd the streets, bumper-to-bumper, outside the gates of Riquewihr, a village that’s a flashback to the 16th Century, its ancient walls surrounding cobbled paths lined with sidewalk cafes and half-timbered houses that sag with age.

To avoid the tour groups it is best to remain overnight in Riquewihr. Indeed, Riquewihr is best enjoyed in the late afternoon and particularly in the evening when lights glow through amber and leaded windows, fires blaze warmly in restaurants with smoke-stained walls, and the village is at peace again.

One can, of course, avoid crowds during daytime by taking to the side streets with their topsy-turvy homes and window boxes crowded with geraniums and other blooms.

Hotel St. Nicholas at 2 Rue St. Nicholas is a pleasant, unpretentious hideaway facing a quiet path, its inviting lounge and spotless rooms providing peace in an atmosphere that harkens back to a century when coaches rattled through Riquewihr and horses’ hoofs echoed along its narrow paths.

Other travelers return of an evening to Colmar, the capital of Alsatian wine whose cobbled streets pass beneath half-timbered houses in a medieval setting unrivaled along the entire Route du Vin.

While its old town--the core of Colmar--is a page out of a child’s storybook, its treasure is the world-renowned Issenheim altarpiece by Mathias Grunewald in Colmar’s Unterlinden Museum. Others are drawn to the museum of Frederic Bartholdi, who created the Statue of Liberty.

In the tourist season, crowds stroll through the old town with its carved gables, ancient signs and a hotel that is simply a gem, Le Marechal at 4-6 Place des Six Montagnes Noires--a wedding together of four former private residences that face a canal in that section of Colmar known as Petite Venise .

Other canals flow through Colmar’s Little Venice, but the mood surrounding Hostellerie Le Marechal is special, particularly for guests whose tables face the water with its swans and the amber light of lanterns reflected by its surface.

The hotel is a glimpse of medieval Europe, a quaint and pleasant choice, with the stirring of fragrant breezes and the musical background of Bach, Beethoven, Mozart and Wagner. Candles glow and the wines of Alsace flow--as do the notes willed to listeners by those composers.

Guests, especially Europeans, return regularly to Hostellerie Le Marechal, seeking solace within its ancient walls. In the lobby, which is hardly bigger than a cloak room, an antique clock strikes the hour. The hotel is filled with warmth and good cheer, and fortunate is the couple that receives the key to room No. 12, with its timbered walls and antiques and windows that frame the canal, which makes for one of those picture-perfect settings--particularly for honeymooners.

One should not arrive in Colmar alone, for not to share its magic would be a pity. In Colmar, poets and painters are inspired by the twisting streets and half-timbered houses whose balconies face scenes from another century.

Michelin bestowed a star upon the 16th-Century Restaurant Au Fer Rouge at 52 Grand Rue, where couples gather of an evening in three small rooms given over to romance--as well as the restaurant’s award-winning cuisine.

Proprietor Patrick Fulgraff prepares four small tables on the upper level, another five on the ground floor and half a dozen in a basement setting that’s a showplace of medieval intrigue.

To get a fix on Au Fer Rouge, this remarkable little restaurant is only steps from Maison Pfister, which is acclaimed as the most beautiful house in Colmar. A few doors away, the proprietor of a six-stool bar serves wine as well as espresso and cappuccino, and passers-by are lured into a bakery whose seductive fragrances drift through Colmar’s cobbled streets like the aromas pouring from a kitchen on Christmas Day.

In Colmar’s old quarter, half-timbered structures rise above the canals, their balconies blood red with flowers, their shadows fading with dusk. Later, lamps spread their glow and melodies flow from the doorways of restaurants that bid couples to step across the threshold to savor the romance inside.

In a small bistro just off Tanner’s Square, a boy with a mandolin strummed a haunting melody for a girl with golden hair who sat alone, eyes focused on the candle burning at her table. As she looked up, the boy put aside the mandolin and together they slipped away into the night.

The moon was full and the evening was just beginning.

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The Route du Vin d’Alsace:

The wine route of Alsace climbs hills and slips into valleys, passing through towns and villages with near-unpronounceable names: Hatmannswiller, Wattwiller, Wuenheim, Guebwiller, Bergholtz-zell, Gueberschwihr, Voegtlinshoffen, Wettolsheim, Eguisheim, Niedermorschwihr, Ribeauville, Rorschwihr and Mittelbergheim. These and dozens more.

Castles face the plains of Alsace and footpaths are cut into vineyards so that one may stroll as well as drive while doing the Route du Vin. Alsace, bordered by Switzerland and Germany, is a 120-mile-long province that’s famed for its fare as well as its wine.

A three-star Michelin restaurant, L’Auberge de L’ll at Illhausern, is rated one of France’s best. Other one- and two-star restaurants are scattered throughout Alsace.

Traveling through the province, motorists brake at scores of wine-tasting cellars and festivals that are held in Colmar during August, Ammerschwihr in April, Molsheim in May and Ribeauville in July. Later, with autumn’s harvest, the entire province comes alive with celebrations.

In its turbulent past, the province of Alsace was the victim of a succession of intruders. During the German occupation of World War II, the French language was banned and Alsatians were forced to fight alongside the Germans. Others hid Allied prisoners and specialized in sabotage.

The battle to recapture Alsace is recalled as one of the bloodiest of the war, with entire villages destroyed. At the same time, vineyards fell victim to the German army as troops cut a swath through fertile valleys, wiping out competition for their own wines.

When following the Route du Vin, it is best to rent a car rather than ride a crowded tour bus. Frequently, Colmar is chosen as a base for day-trips to surrounding villages (Its grandest hotel, the Bristol, at 7 Place de la Gare, is a third-generation family operation with an excellent restaurant, tastefully furnished rooms and a caring staff.)

In July, an international music festival attracts artists from nations around the world to this historic old town with its 15th-Century Customs House, the 14th-Century Pfister House and the Unterlinden Museum.

Transportation: Alsace and the city of Colmar are served by frequent flights, and there’s excellent train service from Paris’ Gare de l’Est.

For other details concerning the province of Alsace, contact the French Government Tourist Office, 9454 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 303, Beverly Hills 90212, (213) 271-6665.