A Superficial Overview of Alsace

The next few posts will focus on planning. Specifically, planning a five day or so stint in Alscace, France that will include our family and my wife's parents as travelers. I thought a quick overview of the region might be helpful before we dive into details.

Alsace Overview

For those of you who are not familiar with the region, I was not either until I started planning this portion of our trip. Alsace is a small region in France, located up in the north-east corner, bordering Germany and Switzerland (see maps). It should come as no surprise, then, that the culture in Alsace is apparently heavily influenced by Germany. Half-timbered houses are common, the wines are very similar to the ones found just on the other side of the border, and the German language is not uncommon. The main city in Alsace is Strasbourg, and Colmar is a much smaller secondary city. One of the great attractions of Alsace (to us and others) is the Wine Route, which connects connecting dozens of villages in the countryside containing hundreds of wine producers.

For me one of the great attractions of Alsace is that it presents an opportunity to experience a sub-culture within France that is so strongly influenced by Germany. It will be akin to visiting Germany while being in France, and hybrid cultures like these are very fascinating - interesting food, architecture, and history are almost always present. Alsace is also one of the areas of France least-visited by North Americans, which opens up the possibility of being in a place that relatively few of my neighbors and acquaintances have visited. I like having unique travel stories to share, and I hope this part of our trip will provide that in spades.

I'll share more about our experience there when we visit. For now, a few pictures of Alsace from around the web: