driving in france - rhein to alsace

There's no vignette for France. Instead, you pay tolls as you go on the AutoRoute, preferably with cash. Given your short distance within France, you could probably avoid those. www.viamichelin.com will display routes without tolls, among other planning choices. See also http://www.ricksteves.com/travel-tips/transportation/driving-europe-tips.

The main autoroutes in Alsace (A35 north - south) are toll free, as are the autoroutes around Strasbourg and Mulhouse.
You can tell this on www.viamichelin.com by the colour scheme used (click here), but it is not obvious, you have to look in the map key.

thanks for the info and I appreciate the viamichelin site.

can you tell me anything about France requiring portable breathalyzers in cars?

Kathy,
They proposed that law, but then delayed it's introduction a number of times and eventually never implemented it.

The law turned out to be impractical. First you had to have an unused breathalysers in the car, but they had a limited life span (a "use by" date of about 1 year) and the manufacturers could not produce enough.
Second, the idea was presumably that if you had had a drink, you could use the breathalyser before you drove off to check. But if you actually used a breathalyser and it showed you were OK, you no longer had an unused breathalysers in the car and would be breaking the law - catch 22.

See here for the full gory details: http://www.theaa.com/motoring_advice/overseas/driving-abroad-whats-new-2012.html

Hi Chris,
thanks for clarifying!

Just got back, drove all over Alsace. colmar at rush hour is messy but other than that it is smooth and easy. Parking in most towns was a snap last week, do make sure to buy a tkt if needed. Saw a ticketed car in Riquewihr.