Colmar is one of the more beautiful and interesting places in Alsace. It’s not big in size, but the location on the Route des Vins, the beautiful buildings, and the splendid art it hosts make of it a place to spend some time in for any tourist in the area. This is exactly what we did, with one full day dedicated to the city.
Maison des Tetes
As we went out for dinner at the end of quite an exhausting day on the Route des Vins which I described in the previous episode I had two principal objectives. A good dinner (as we had practically skipped lunch eating a sandwich in a cafeteria at the Mount Odile convent) and a good bottle of Alsace wine after a dry day on the road of the wine. A friend from the Internet lists had recommended us the Maison des Tetes and we were happy to discover that the hotel and restaurant that is hosted is also one of the famous buildings of the city, built in 1609 and beautifully ornate with carved heads on its facade.
une tete a la Maison des Tetes
I will be bluntly honest, after looking at the menu at the Maison des Tetes we were intimidated by the prices and by the relative small number of choices that I understood what they were about, so we decided to skip this restaurant and look for something else.
restaurant Bartholdi
The place we chose was the Bartholdi which is named after the sculptor of the Statue of Liberty who was born in the city. The decision proved to be perfect, with a good selection balancing local food and French cuisine, and a magnificent choice of wines.
lamb chops a l'Alsace
I went for the escargots which I must have at least once while in France and for lamb chops a l’Alsace because I was too hungry to risk not having what promised to be a consistent meat choice. The portion proved not to be too big, but tasty beyond expected (and expectation were high).
Gewurztraminer of Faller
Did I mention that our waiter seemed to be around 80? She however was moving with a speed and precision that could be envied by many of her colleagues in their 20s. Her recommendation for a good Gewurtztraminer (Liliana’s preferred white wine) was excellent.
Colmar at night
The good wine created the premises of a nice walk in a city which is even more beautiful at night than in daylight. Although located a few tens of kilometers south of Strasbourg, Colmar has a definite Nordic appearance in the style of the streets and of the houses, reminding me strongly Maastricht which I had visited a couple of months ago.
eglise des Dominicains at night
On our way we passed l’eglise des Dominicains whose building started in the 13th century and continued and was completed in the 14th and the 15th century.
Eglise des Dominicains
This is where we started our track the following day. We saw a lot of art during that day, and the next episode will be dedicated to it. The imposing church lets itself be nicely photographed both at night as during the day.
Petite Venise
By the end of the Colmar day we were of course hungry again and we chose to walk to another district of Colmar called Petite Venise (Little Venice) because of the canals that cross it. To me the association with the Pays-Bas rather than Venice was the one that came to my mind.
Le Petit Gourmand
The restaurant that we chose for dinner that evening was Le Petit Gourmand which has a beautiful wooden terrace just by the canal. The choice was excellent again, and we indulged in the Alsatian specialties for our last night in Alsace, by having le baeckaoffae alsacien au 3 viandes marinees – so I did have baeckaoffae in Alsace after all.
Muscat of Antoine Erhart
I remember the wine because it was an excellent dry muscat, which may sound strange to some of my Romanian or Israeli friends who are used with the sweet variants of this kind of wine. It needs not be sweet, and it’s great.
swans at night
On our way back we enjoyed a last sight of the beautiful area in this so pleasant town, and photographed swans that were also enjoying the evening on the canals.