Walking in the Alsace in France  between Chatenois and Andlau with lots of churches, vineyards, and villages  but few ice-creams 

Date walked: 18th April 2018

Distance: around  10 miles

Map used: IGN No 122 Colmar, Mulhouse/Bale covers the area but at a scale of 1cm to 1 km but it is really not good enough for following the footpaths. I subscribe to an App called IGN Outdoors and this allowed me to download and plot each days walk onto my phone at a large-scale (4cm to 1 km).

Arranged through: Sherpa Expeditions, who chose the route, selected and booked our accommodation, arranged luggage transfers and provided detailed walking notes and large-scale map extracts for each walk.

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I had passed a perfectly comfortable night at the Hotel Dontenville: opening the shutters in the morning onto the busy road below I could see that it was going to be another hot day. Up to now we had had a very easy time of it, distance wise, with no day’s walk more than 9 miles. Today’s was intended to be about 12; our notes said the route was “easy but long way”.  Call me chicken (call me what you like in the privacy of your own homes) but I thought I’d like to make it a bit easier. Looking at the map I saw the obvious solution.

Even if you can’t make out that much you can see that after passing through the village we were intended to follow the GR5  due west, make a steep climb into the hills to pass by a couple of castles and descend to Dieffenthal. My suggestion to Bob was that we just keep to the lower slopes of the vineyards and head straight for the village, thus taking a mile or so and a lot of sweat out of the equation ; Bob concurred.

Chatenois was a perfectly pleasant (apart from the duplicitous cafe owner referred to in my last post) village and had a nice buzz on what seemed to be market day, though neither of us felt a need to buy lunch; decent breakfasts  and the odd piece of fruit en route meets our food needs on most walks.

Ahead we could see a clear view of the boycotted Chateau de L’Ortenbourg. 

Fine though it may be, I was perfectly happy not to be climbing those wooded slopes. On the outskirts of the village our view expanded to take in the more ruined castle of Ramstein.

Barely mentioned in our notes, I reckon my view of it was quite sufficient.

The D35 was quite a busy road, so we kept well to the left….

… passing a sawmill.

Just showing what a good job my 250mm telephoto does

This was where we made our “straight ahead” deviation, and for the next mile or so of quiet lane we had good views of the Chateau de l’Ortenbourg above us.

That’s what I would call “perched” but don’t cos that’s a dreadful cliche.

From signs by the vineyard we were informed that we were in Pinot Noir territory.

The Alsacians are proud of their wine and along this vineyard trail, we found many interesting boards and signs informing us about the location of the vineyards.

A little bonus for our shortened route was a visit to the little wayside chapel of Taennelkreuz.

A simple little place, I liked its vaulted ceiling.

A little further along the road we came across the only Memento Mori that I think we saw on the trip.

Dieffenthal was a tiny little place; no place of refreshment but nevertheless, plenty of reminders that the catholic church likes to make its presence felt no matter where you are, with its church…

…….wayside shrine…

There’s something awful about these. What is it?

…. and crucifix.

Whereas this I find moving.Is it about quality?

I wonder if the ever-present symbols of religion reflect a historic desire of the weather-dependent viticulturists to acknowledge God’s perceived influence over their fate?

Between Dieffenthal and the next village of Dambach-la-Ville we passed through the vineyards belonging to Frankstein, who have emblazoned their name on the well-tended hillside..

Dambach-la-Ville  (according to wikipedia the Frankstein Grand Cru is one of the regions finest wines – one might ask who wrote the entry). The village had the expected Tour du Rempart…..

And very fine it was, too.

….a rather elegant church….

…. and, of course, storks both real….

Here nesting on the Tour Nord du Rempart

… and not so real.

Hanging above a street was a rather lovely sign announcing the Ruhlmann winery.

I bet they reckon to give Frankstein a run for their money.

There were some brightly coloured houses….

… and although our notes referred to a couple of restaurants, everything seemed closed and cafe/bar found us not.

At the end of the village a wayside chapel looked like it could double up as a prison for dangerous dogs.

Maybe it is a dog pound?

Time for a change of map.

We’ve reached the bottom of this one

The road from Dambach to Blienschwiller was as quiet as the grave. The  condition of the bus stop left something to be desired.

Our notes made no recommendation to see anything in Blienschwiller, so we were content to pass it by, safe in the knowledge that we were not missing out on that bar that makes the best coffee in the Alsace. Next up was Nothalten, which was similarly ignored.

The route takes that little track to the left of the church.

We did pause by the road at the edge of the village where a stone bench shaded by the fresh green leaves of pollarded limes invited a rest.

And I took a snap of the church.

We continued to climb gently through the vineyards ….

…….finding a table and bench above the village where we had a bit of a sit and a map check.

Bob’s cheery face

The Fermes de Vignerons Boemstein might have been offering tastings in theory but no one appeared to be about and besides, stopping for a glass at this stage of the walk on such a warm day might have proved fatal.

We had decided that we would stop for a proper break when we reached the Cistercian Abbey of Notre-Dame de Baumgarten just a few hundred acres of vineyards away.

The Abbey is in a little river valley. On the way down the hill we passed some guys set up table beside their van for lunch. Nice. The Abbey was not much to write home about and whereas in the UK it would have had a cafe, here it just had a notice that its grounds were a place of silence.

Still, it had a tree where we could sit and enjoy our anchovies (Bob) and apple (Me).

I’ve no idea why Bob appears to be grimacing.

A family arrived by car of two adults and three (grandchildren). We had a chat (somewhat hampered by our rubbish French)  with Granddad whilst Grandma and the kids tentatively went into the grounds and appeared to receive a brief guided tour by a nun.

The Chapelle St Bernard De Baumgarten next to the Abbey….

…..was one of the lest interesting places of worship I have visited, lacking charm and atmosphere.

Well, it wasn’t there for my benefit.

Rested somewhat we walked on towards Bernardville passing a fenced off pond where a duck had abandoned its nest of eggs to be warmed by the sun whilst it enjoyed the shade.

This pic was never going to work.

Bernardville was as quiet as very other little village we passed through. Our notes suggested that we might try a free tasting at the Cave Risch-Petit. No one appeared to offer this and we would have probably refused anyway. Now if I had been offered an ice-cream, that would have been a different matter.

Someone in the village had had  creative idea about what to do with the wall of their drive, though I can’t say the plants looked very happy about it.

From Bernardville we climbed through the vineyards…..

Are you getting a bit bored of Vineyard pics?

… to the edge of the woods, looking back to give us a view over the ice-creamless village.

It wasn’t much of an ascent – no more than a few hundred feet. We passed the ubiquitous crucifix…..

… and enjoyed the next slightly shaded (the trees still not having fully broken into leaf) mile or so.

I noticed with great envy (we have not had much success establishing this) large patches of Lilly of the Valley.

We soon had our first view of Andlau….

… and in a few minutes more we were in its quiet streets.

But, joy of joy, there was a shop selling ice-cream so I was a happy bunny.

The Hotel Kastelberg was situated on the far side of the village.

A smart but attractive place, we received a friendly greeting and we had spacious and comfortable rooms. We were half-board and after a nice snooze we met up for some crib on their terrace where I very much enjoyed a couple of small (250 mls ) carafes of Riesling served in ice-filled plastic bags and Bob stayed with the beer. I am embarrassed to say that I have not the faintest idea what we ate that night but it seems that we enjoyed a chilled Pinot Noir.