We headed back along the Routes de Vins d’Alsace today to visit the town of Riquewihr. Shown here on the stylised map as being slightly north west of Colmar.

I had been reading a book over the weekend entitled “Les Plus Beaux Villages de France“, and this town was listed, along with Eguisheim, that we visited last week.

The area is famous for its Rieslings, but both Mick and I have had enough of still white wine for the time being. While it is excellent, we have agreed to buy only Crémant d’Alsace – during the remainder of our time here.

I apologies that this post will include mostly photos of buildings we found fascinating. It became obvious why this town was listed in the book I read.

The colours were amazing – and all the buildings in the centre ville were beautifully maintained. Mick and I noticed dates inscribed above the doors of some of the buildings and they were old!  This town is famous for its historical architecture, much of which dates back to the 16th Century, and based on what we saw, that is correct.

This was one of the archways leading to the town gate (shown below) that led out to the newer part of the town and lots of parking spaces.

Today, this town had quite a few people wandering around with us, but the biggest group was a group of Japanese tourists, mostly women, all eager to get photos of each other in front of something beautiful.

Just like me! So no criticism intended.

There are huge timber beams on this outside of the gate – shown in this panoramic shot below. I wondered if this was once where a draw bridge was attached.

We were there during the start of the lunch hours – 12.30pm-2.30pm – and there were loads of restaurants and one patisserie to choose from. But Mick and I had packed a picnic. (in French faire un pique-nique).

Before we left to find a picnic spot, Mick looked with interest at the knives, but resisted the temptation to buy. But, we did decide to buy a bottle of rosé to share with our picnic lunch. It was very pleasant indeed.

Before we headed home, we visited the town of Ribeauvillé only 4 Km away. Becasue it was still lunchtime, we were able to drive right through the town and get a park outside a bar where we had a coffee.

We wonder if there is any end to the beauty of this area.