Alsace
France > Alsace
There's no denying Alsace's attractiveness, with its old stone and half-timbered towns set amid the thickly wooded hills of the Vosges, but it's a quaintness that in many places has become a commodity. Strasbourg, the Alsatian capital and, along with Brussels, one of the "capitals" of the European Union, mostly escapes the tweeness of some of the smaller towns of the foothills. Saverne and Wissembourg, to the north, also avoid the worst of the tourist-brochure image, and give access to some spectacular ruined castles in the northern Vosges.South of Strasbourg, along the Route du Vin, there are countless picturesque medieval villages and yet more ruined castles which suffer to varying degrees from the attention of the tour buses. A very different, horribly sobering experience is the concentration camp of Le Struthof, hidden away in the Vosges forest. Colmar is almost excessively twee, yet still worth a visit for Grünewald's amazing Issenheim altarpiece, one of the most spectacular works of art in the country. By contrast, Mulhouse is thoroughly industrial but boasts some wonderful museums devoted to subjects as varied as cars, trains, electricity and printed fabrics. Every town has a tourist office (www.tourisme-alsace.com), in smaller places usually housed in the Mairie or Hôtel de Ville. Special tourist maps cost around €0.50, but free maps containing a reasonable amount of information are always available.
Pages in section ‘Alsace’: Strasbourg, Mulhouse, Northern Vosges, Southern Vosges, Food&Wines, Language.
Alternate spellings:: Alssace, Alsac, Alsasse, Alsase, Alzace, Aslace, Alsacy
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