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TRAVEL
228
January14
Tasting opportunities
Unlike other regions of France,
the wines in Alsace are labelled
by grape variety, so tasting and
buying here is easy. The most
well-recognised varieties are
gewürztraminer, pinot noir, riesling,
pinot blanc and pinot gris. Locals
say the vineyards are tightly held
and passed down through the
generations, so there’s a lot of
knowledge and tradition. Do enter
one of the many wine cellars
(
caves
)
for a tasting; it’s also a
cultural and historical experience
as most of the buildings are very
old and atmospheric.
used to transport wine barrels in flat-
bottomed barges. Other than its beautiful
town centre, Molsheim’s claim to fame is
being the birthplace and manufacturing
centre of luxury car brand
Bugatti
.
We stopped for lunch at
Rosheim
, a
quiet village with three town gates and
the half-timbered houses and quaint
architecture the region is renowned
for. Relying on my minimal French,
we stepped into the quaint
Altenburg
Brasserie
and successfully orderedwhat
the locals were having: the
plat du jour
and half a carafe of local pinot noir, just
to warm up. Even the locals commented
that it was unusually cold for September.
While temperatures had been in the mid-
20s only the previous week, today it was
14 degrees Celsius, but with no rain so far.
We’d covered what we thought was
over half our daily kilometres at this
point, so leisurely pedalled through
the vineyards taking in the scenery.
The grape harvest was starting; people
were busy preparing equipment in the
numerous workshops and there were
pickers in the vineyards.
While enjoying a long downhill cycle
into
Obernai
I realised that we’d barely
seen anyone other than locals all
day. We found them, swarming all
over this lovely city. With its stunning
medieval and Renaissance streetscape,
decorative buildings and window boxes
overflowing with flowers, it’s impossible
not to take photo after photo.
By now it was 3.30pm and, according
to themaps, wewereonly a fewkilometres
from
Barr
and our bed for the night. After
pushing our bikes up a long, slow hill
passing paddocks of contentedly grazing
cows, we soared down the other side,
finding
Les Hortensias Hotel
easily.
Our odometer read 53km. After locking
the bikes away in the garage, we claimed
our waiting bags and treated ourselves
to a hot bath followed by tasty local fare
in the hotel restaurant.
A dinner reservation was made on
our behalf each night of the trip and
the meal was included in the tour price,
which happily avoided the risk of making
a bad choice in an unknown town. If you
are happy to eat your own bodyweight
in
sauerkraut
or
choucroute
, try the
Strasbourg regional specialty I ordered
on our first evening, at the charming
Brasserie Flo
. To my husband’s
amusement (he chose the modestly
portioned duck
confit
), my plate arrived
with lashings of boiled cabbage and
potato, and seven varieties of sausage
and pork. Topped off with a warmmolten
chocolate pudding, this carbohydrate
and protein overload proved useful for
the next day’s exertion on the bike.
Overnight, wekept a very close
eye on the unseasonably
dismal weather forecast, but
the morning brought a few hours of
clear blue sky. So, after a quick buffet
breakfast we loaded the panniers and
hit the road, bound for
Barr
, 45km
away. We quickly learnt to look for the
orange arrow which marked our route.
The sticker was fixed intermittently on
road signs, buildings and posts along
the roads, lanes, tracks and cycle paths.
Conscious of the distance and not too
sure of what lay ahead, we set a cracking
pace, knocking off the first 20km to
Molsheim
along the tree-lined
Canal
de la Bruche
, a sixteenth-century canal
DAY
2