Two ‘Beaux Villages’ in Alsace

In a world of quaint and beautiful villages, some stand out, and some of those are selected and publicized, bringing new attention—and visitors. In France, an organization called Les Plus Beaux Villages de France selects a few each year to add to the list.

There’s a risk in that: villages run the risk of turning into tourist traps, buried in souvenir stands, or, on the other hand, being frozen in time and no longer real villages.

The association, which now has 157 villages all over France, thinks about this and says that “We aim to avoid certain pitfalls such as villages turning into soulless museums or, on the contrary, “theme parks”. Our well-reasoned and passionate ambition is to reconcile villages with the future and to restore life around the fountain or in the square shaded by hundred-year-old lime and plane trees.”

We had a chance to see about that last September on a tour of Alsatian villages; two of those we visited, Eguisheim and Riquewihr, are on the list. They certainly are beautiful and pleasant to visit, and both exhibit, in differing degrees, some of the difficulty of walking that knife edge between real life and tourist trap.

Our visits were part of an all-day tour from Strasbourg with Ophorus Tours. It’s actually meant to be a group tour, but because of a slow week, it turned into a private tour with our guide, Danielle. We started out with a visit to Colmar, which is also pretty, but too large to qualify for Most Beautiful Villages.

After Colmar, we visited Eguisheim, which is not only a Beau Village, but won a 2013 TV title as France’s Favorite Village on the show of the same name. The pictures above were taken in Eguisheim, which has roots going back to paleolithic times. Its real history begins with the Senones, a tribe of Gauls who were conquered by Romans.

It is the Romans who began wine production in the area, and it is one of the many Alsatian villages on the ‘Wine Route’ that passes through the area. In the early middle ages, the Dukes of Alsace fortified the town and built a residence; the village grew up around it.

Literally around it. If you follow the description below, you’ll see what I mean.

The two paths that split ahead here mark ancient street ways. The homes and workshops of villagers, including merchants and artisans, face the buildings in the center, which were mostly stables, warehouses and food storage. Even now, in the picture below, you can see the difference between the left and the cruder buildings on the right.

And there is even a local celebrity to remember, though he’s been gone for nearly a thousand years. Pope Leo IX, also known as Saint-Leon, was born here in 1002. The hotel and the fountain it faces are reminders.

Leaving Leo behind, we continued on to Riquewihr for lunch and more pleasant views, this time of a town whose appearance is said to be little changed from the 16th century. Despite its many old buildings, I tend to doubt the literalness of the claim!

And a linguistic puzzle. Alsace is, in many ways, a child of both Germany and France, and the mixing goes much farther back than the period between 1870 and 1945 when the area was taken by Germany, returned, taken again and returned again.

But so many place names end in ‘wihr’ in Alsace, while none do in Germany or France? And while it’s easy to pick out some things certainly German and some certainly French, it’s clear that both in language and culture, much is simply Alsatian. But ‘wihr’? The best I can find is that Alsace was left behind when, over the years, it became ‘weiler’ in Germany! Today, in German, the town would be Reichweiler. But I digress…

Despite having a slightly smaller population than Eguisheim (1,500 to 1,300 in 2007), it seems busier and with more shops and restaurants. This may well be because it is a more significant center for the wine industry and home of Dopff du Moulin, one of the major producers of Alsatian sparkling wines, which are called Crémant because they can’t be called Champagne. Same production method but a different region!

Below, some more views of the village.

Above the village, one of the many local vineyards that produce a variety of grapes, including especially Riesling. Most of the local vintners own pieces of many different fields. The vineyards are graded for quality and other factors; only a few have the rank of ‘grand cru,’ which refers to the source, not to the wine made from it! That was news to me…

For visitors interested in art, of a sort, a local painter has a shop fully-stocked with this image in a choice of seven or eight sizes, all hand-painted (as if that made a big difference in this case!) If you’re a fan of the Wallander mysteries, the books at least, you’ll wonder if there’s an occasional grouse in the corner of some of the paintings.

The area’s conflicted history is reflected in this memorial, placed near the village church (and scene of fighting near the end of World War II). Unlike many that honor those ‘Morts pour France,’ this monument is inscribed ‘From the town of Riquewihr to its children, victims of the wars of 1914-18 and 1939-45.’ The wording reflects the fact that many locals were conscripted on both sides, depending on who controlled the territory at the time.

A series of then-and-now photos of Riquewihr during World War II can be found at this link, one of them taken at the spot below, in front of the church.

Before leaving Riquewihr, we stopped at Dopff au Moulin (we were told very carefully to always specify ‘au Moulin’ because there are other Dopffs, though we didn’t encounter any), and were treated to tastes of several of their sparkling wines.

In all, a pleasant day in early September, with the sun out, a knowledgeable guide, and villages that certainly live up to their designation ‘Among the Most Beautiful Villages of France.’