Paris to Rothenburg ob der Tauber to Colmar

It's going to take you the better part of a day to get from Paris to RodT and then a day to get from RodT to Colmar plus a day in RodT. So, if you are willing to spend 3 days of your trip to see RodT, that's fine. If you don't have that much time then best to leave RodT for another time. Unfortunate but that's the way it is. Personally I wouldn't go that far out of my way and spend that much time and effort to see RodT. It's nice and fun to go there but it's not a see it before you die kind of place.

"It is crazy to go from Paris to Rothenburg, then to Basel (actually Colmar, France, which is right next door) ?"

I see you phrased this as a declarative statement - then added a question mark. I agree with the statement.

Paris-Strasbourg-Gengenbach-Colmar/Basel would be much more reasonable.

Gengenbach:
http://www.thetraveltester.com/gengenbach-germany/

If you overnight in Gengenbach you can ride the trains free of charge to other places in the Black Forest if you wish. One easy outing (25 minutes) is Gutach and the Vogtsbauernhof open-air museum.

When you leave Gengenbach for Colmar, you can ride the train for free all the way to Basel or to Breisach at the French border; from there the bus takes you to Colmar.

These trains are free because of the KONUS program, available in Gengenbach and other Black Forest towns:
http://www.dreisamtal.de/en/service/konus.php?lang=en

A trip from Paris to Gengenbach can be accomplished on a "saver fare" from DB (German Railways.) You can schedule a stopover in Strasbourg on the way to Gengenbach if you wish:

http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/en

Fares seem to be running around €50 for the trip to Gengenbach at present for the May dates I checked.

Rothenburg is cute but it's a much longer journey and not the only old-world town - and it's a tourist bee-hive (trinkets, English everywhere - a "medieval theme park" is a phrase even Rick Steves has used.) Gengenbach gets tourists but it's still a real German town where inhabitants do more than just cater to tourists.

Thank you so much! i especially like the Gengenbach idea. I've actually never heard of that city, but it looks very pretty. It doesn't have the Medieval Torture Museum, which is what has really captured my fascination in Rothenburg, but if R is that out of the way.... :-( Thank you most especially for the train information!!!!! You have been most helpful.

Yes, Rothenburg is a nice stop if it is on the way to somewhere else, but not worth a huge detour. If you go to Colmar, you will be able to visit some lovely small walled towns, like Eguisheim, Turckheim, Kayserberg.

Those sound fun, too! Ya'll are being very helpful! Thank you!

Rothenburg is pretty special but I would agree with others that it is too far out of the way to go. Gengenbach looks amazing! I think that whole region is a very worthy visit. The area from the Rhine/Mosel down to Baden Baden, Colmar, Strasbourg, very nice. We found a lot of the small towns around Colmar to be pretty similar, Colmar itself was a bit of disappointment. The canals ran pretty dry when we were there in May 2010 but the Unterlinden Museum was absolutely great.

I agree very much with the others. Give Rothenburg a look if you're traveling between Frankfurt or the Middle Rhine and Munich. Apart from the extremely high quota of trinket shops and tour buses, however, it isn't nearly as unique as advertised. Many of the towns of Alsace across the river in Baden have much of the same feel (minus the trinket shops), and are much more convenient to Basel.

"It doesn't have the Medieval Torture Museum..."

So you are looking for the out-of-the-ordinary... A very unusual museum - and maybe a less gruesome one - is right in Gengenbach. Pay the Narrenmuseum a visit. The Black Forest is well known for its special Carnival (Fasnacht) traditions and this museum is dedicated to that annual festival:

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g1142455-d8370778-Reviews-Narrenmuseum_Niggelturm-Gengenbach_Baden_Wurttemberg.html

"Torture Museums" are basically ahistorical rubbish trying to creep out tourists and give BDSM fans some inspiration :-P. Most of the famous torture methods seen in fiction were inventions of eighteenth and nineteenth-century horror novelists.

If you must, the Tower of London has an exhibition on the subject in the Wakefield Tower.

Thanks, all!