Where to stay in the Alsace Lorraine region?

We were in Colmar on the Best of Eastern France tour, and it is nice. Touristy, but also a real town. Get off the main drag, and there's plenty of local life.

Thank you for your quick reply. I will check it out.

You have posted this in the Germany forum. You might get more responses if you post in the France forum.

With a car, stay in one of the villages. Eguisheim is small and very near Colmar, easy to visit the other villages. I don't know if there's much beer production, there are lots of vineyards and wineries. Without a car, you can get around by bus but it will be challenging. Colmar is a fairly large city (70,000 inhabitants) and Strasbourg is over a quarter million, but the historic centers are less bustling, especially in Colmar. The only rail connection is between the two. If you want to rent a car, you'll have more options from Strasbourg than Colmar.

Chani's idea is a good one. We visited a vineyard as well as a winery outside Eguisheim. And our lunch stop was there, as well. We were all on our own for lunch, and had time to wander the village. My spouse and I found a great lunch there, with wonderful local wine.

Thank you all for your suggestions. We will have a car and we are interested in wineries. We drove a car this spring in Italy and found parking was a problem. Is parking in Strasbourg difficult? How is Munich parking? Maybe taking the train into Strasbourg would be a better idea, it would be just a day trip. Any other recommendations for places to visit or nice drives? We are just in the planning stages.

Strassbourg is wonderful.
Yes, Alsace Lorraine is now in France. It was a part of Germany from 1870 until 1918.

I only had a car in Strasbourg long enough to drop my luggage at my hotel before returning it. Luckily there was a space in the small public parking lot (pay by the hour) next to the hotel. I imagine there are other larger lots but expect parking to be expensive. Parking in Colmar is easier, but not necessarily a snap.

You may get better advice if you elaborate on your plans. It now sounds like you will be arriving from Munich. It's unclear whether you will have a car from Germany or only want it for your days in Alsace. Where are you going afterward?

As for interacting with locals, my experience was that most people speak French or German (maybe both?) but not much English.

The French are quite conversant in English, but you have to approach them right. NEVER start talking to them in English. Start like this, in French, "Excuse moi, mais parlez vous Anglais? Phonetically, X- coos-eh mwah , may par-lay voos Ang-lay? with no accented syllables.

Having visited Alsace about 10 times, we quickly settled on Kaysersburg as the place to stay

Although few ever think of it because of the fame of French wines (wines the French never drink. They are too sensible waste money on that), French beer is outstanding, and the best comes from Alsace.

The 3 top culinary centers of France are Paris, Lyon, and Alsace, and not necessarily in that order.

Alsace Lorraine is a political creation, but they are two different worlds. Forget Lorraine. Alsace is where its at.

We always have at least one meal in Kaysersburg's Au Lion d'Or, The restaurant is still operated by its founding family in its original building. It opened for business in 1729, three years before George Washington was born.

We stayed in Riquewihr which was absolutely charming, especially after the day trippers departed and the village became quiet and without crowds. We took day trips ourselves to Kaysersberg and Eugesheim and others. Our daughter's family stayed in Ribeauville which they loved.

It is interesting that the Alsace area is now French, when my husbands family lived there it was German and they always considered themselves German, never French. His family moved from Alsace to Odessa and then to North Dakota. They were a very close knit group, German cooking, language, traditions and never marrying outside the group. My husband is 99.9% Central European, after a 100 years in Russia and 100 years in North Dakota. I finally got some new blood into the gene pool! So I know that Alsace is French, but it will always be German to them.

Oh my!! Here is a question for the France forum (at least according to the Treaty of Versailles!).

The Alsatians belonged to the Germanic tribe of the Swabians and were part of the Holy Roman Empire for many centuries till 1681, when the Alsace (Elsass in German) and its capital Strasbourg (Straßburg in German) was annexed by Louis XIV. It was French till after the Franco-Prussian war of 1870/71. Then it became a part of the newly formed German Empire up to the Treaty of Versailles at the end of the war from 1914 - 1918, which was later called the First World War. After the defeat of the French in 1940 it became German again. After the defeat of Hitler Germany in World War II it became French again and it has been French since. Many of the natives of Alsace are bilingual. They speak French and a German dialect though there are fewer and fewer German speakers because the German language isn't considered important at the secondary schools in Alsace. Older people speak that dialect, younger people only if their families speak it at home. French is the official language. So Alsace changed ownership five times in its history.

We based in Kaysersberg years ago & really liked it; probably any of the small towns would be charming. I have strong memories of walking around K'berg's quiet lanes at night, & vineyards a stone's throw away.

Know that oftentimes parking is at an outlying lot & you must schlep your stuff into town. We stayed at the nice Hotel L'Arbre Vert (but caveat, this was probably 15 yrs ago).

Riquewihr is just ridiculously charming & knows it, & may be pricey for overnight.

The open air museum at Ungersheim, the Ecomusee d'Alsace, was great. Bought a small wheel of Munster Fermier there that was one of the best cheeses of our lives (the smellier, the better); its paper wrapper perfumed our scrapbook for years!

Ah yes, the the history of which country Alsace was in . . .

In the dark ages Alsace was settled by German speakers. The linguistic boundary was the Vosges mountains to the west of Alsace, which is a greater barrier than the River Rhine, which has always been a trade route.
It became part of Burgundy, and when Burgundy ceased to exist part of the German Empire.
It was divided into a number of small German states and independent cities. France kept "nibbling" at these capturing them one at a time. The biggest bite was taken in 1648 at the end of the 30-year-war. Strasbourg was annexed in 1681, the last bit of Alsace did not become French until after the French Revolution, when the Republic of Mulhouse was annexed in 1781.
After the defeat of Napoleon, Alsace stayed French. Even after his defeat, France was still bigger than before the revolution.

Then in 1870 it became totally German, in 1919 totally French, in 1940 German (it was "liberated German territory", not part of Vichy France), and in 1945 again French.
All of which explains the complex mixed French-German culture.
100 years of Frenchification, education in French only, mass media, TV, migration from other parts of France etc. have ensured it is now French-speaking.

We loved staying in the Alsace region several years ago. We rented a gite in the town of Ribeauville, which is just north of Riquewihr and Kaysersberg. It's a walled city with two small castles that overlook the town and valley below. Lots of lovely towns in the area to visit, many wineries and restaurants. We used a car to explore the Vosges Mnts and other sites and museums that were close by.

I am excited to further explore all of your suggestions. Thanks!

Hi

Do you want to stay in Lorraine or in Alsace?

Keep in mind that the Treaty of Frankfurt did not take the entire province of Lorraine. The northern half around Metz went to Germany, while the southern half around Nancy stayed in France. The new German Emperor and the Prussian military chiefs wanted Metz...some pretty bloody battles were fought there in 1870. The military cemeteries there attest to that, I saw that one in Gravelotte in 1999 as a day trip from Metz. Some of these cemeteries are also along the side of the roads

I know a French family in Colmar. When the younger daughter became of age to have to take a foreign language, German was the first language, then later she had to learn English. In the late 1980s I met and talked to French girls from Alsace (spelled Elsaß prior to the Writing Reform), who preferred speaking German since they were better at it than talking in English. By the time they started learning English they had had 2-3 years of German, then they were learning both languages at the same time.

Strasbourg is not a small town. The main tourist villages/small towns - Eguisheim, Riquewihr, Kaysersberg and Ribeauville - may fit your bill and are close enough to each other and to Colmar, and not that far from Strasbourg. There are numerous park and rides in Strasbourg - https://www.cts-strasbourg.eu/en/getting-around/park-and-ride/ - we used the Robertsau Boecklin P&R. If staying In Riquewihr, which is what we did, a cheap bus ride to Colmar is better than driving in.

For a non-touristy village, with hardly any shops and a few good restaurants, Bergheim is a little gem. If you have the time, Wissembourg is worth the effort, missed by many visitors to the area. Château du Haut-Kœnigsbourg is a great visit. Not too far away, on the German side, are the equally pretty villages of Gengenbach and Staufen, as well as the larger Freiburg.

Near Strasbourg I would suggest Obernai too.