Alsace, France

It's so easy to take weekend trips from Paris and with the ever growing list of places we want to visit , I thought it best we start now. First stop: Colmar, in the Alsace region of eastern France (not far from the German boarder). Colmar is the capital of Alsace and a beautiful, fairy-tale-like town of half timbered homes, bier houses and small canals. We stayed here for a couple of nights and spent our days driving through the most beautiful wine country I have ever seen. The 'Route du Vins' (Wine Road) starts in Colmar and heads north through a dozen or so picturesque little villages, rolling hills and hundreds of local cave à vins (cellar doors). We were surprised by how strong the German influence is over this side of the country - most people spoke both French and German (but not English), boulangeries were full of pretzels and we were spoilt for choice with bier houses and pubs! It was nice to get out of the big smoke for a few days and see some of the beautiful French countryside. We are already planning our next few trips ... I fear this could be an addictive habit! Bisous x