The golden colours of Alsace

For the last few days, I've been staying in Alsace and spent some time the last two days doing one of my favourite things ever: enjoying the Route des Vins d'Alsace. This is the 170 km road that runs along the eastern foothills of the Vosges through quaint, brightly-coloured villages, over undulating hills, and through miles and miles of vineyards with glimpses of medieval castles on many of the hilltops. The fall is a particularly good time to be here with the "vendange" (harvest) going on and the hillsides are gradually changing hue from green to gold, orange and red.

A couple of nights ago, our dinner was Mont d'Or, dubbed the 'holy grail of French raw milk cheeses'. This cheese is apparently available only in the late fall and winter and is often difficult to find. It comes in a spruce wood box and you heat it in the oven. What comes out is gold, goopy, buttery and yummy. You dip potatoes and/or bread into it although we also opted for some broccoli convincing ourselves that made it healthy!  The unanimous vote at the end of it all, however, was that it doesn't measure up to a dinner of Raclette but at least we tried it
.

As I said, the last two days were spent exploring the wine road. I've been here many, many times so I don't feel it necessary to visit the more well known and very touristy villages like Ribeauville, Riquewihr, Eguisheim, and Kaysersberg each time I'm here although I think they are fabulous. Today we went to Zellenberg and walked its "circuit historiques" then went on to Kientzheim where we sat in the main square in the sun having lunch. The vendange is still going on in places and the vineyards on the hills are a lovely golden colour.

On the way back to Rhinau, we took a road further east which parallels the Rhine. We traded the gold-coloured "vignobles" for fields of maize which, where harvested, is being stored in corn cribs, again a rich yellow colour. Everywhere we looked, the scenery was rich in the colours of autumn. Of course it helped in a very big way that the weather was sunny and warm!

Now next, I have to get my head around preparing for my return home. I'm so not ready!