Colmar, France was listed on our river cruise as an optional tour. This small town in the Alsace region near Germany and Switzerland looked interesting, so we decided to stay a few days before our cruise started in nearby Basel. Our Airbnb loft apartment, according to Google, was a 20-minute walk from the train station, but the cobblestones and narrow streets always make it a little more challenging with roller bags and loaded-down backpacks. We found the town charming, if a little on the kitschy side.
Colmar looks like it was built for postcards: half-timbered houses painted every shade of pink, mustard and teal, flower boxes on every window, and little canals winding through the old town. It’s also busy. Tour buses roll in every day, and some streets feel more like a theme park than a working town. Get out early, or stay out after the day-trippers leave, and it gets a lot better. The prettiest stretch is La Petite Venise (Little Venice), where flower-covered houses lean over the canal and swans drift by.
Our Loft Above the Old Customs House
Our loft was tucked up in the top of the gable (circled in red below), right across the square from the Koïfhus, Colmar’s old customs house dating back to the 1480s. The real show is its roof, covered in diamond-patterned glazed tiles in green, yellow and red that glow at sunset. We had that view out our window every evening.
The loft itself was all exposed beams and white walls, with a full kitchen and plenty of room to spread out. Worth the walk from the station, cobblestones and all.
E-Biking the Wine Route to Eguisheim
This is wine country, but not as well known as nearby Burgundy. We rented e-bikes one day and rode out to Eguisheim, a circular, double-walled village on the Alsace Wine Route.
The ride is easy, mostly bike paths and farm roads through the vineyards, with the Vosges foothills on one side and views across the Rhine plain toward Germany’s Black Forest on the other. The e-bikes made the short climbs up into the vines a breeze.
We also lucked into the grape harvest. A tractor towing a trailer full of celebrants rumbled through the narrow streets of Eguisheim, everyone wearing grapevine garlands and cheering and waving at people on the sidewalks.
Eguisheim is built in rings around its old castle, so you just keep walking in circles along the cobbled lanes, past crooked half-timbered houses spilling over with flowers. It regularly makes the lists of the most beautiful villages in France, and it’s easy to see why. The fountain in the main square is topped by a statue of Pope Leo IX, who was born here. The whole village is small enough to see in an hour or two, and there’s a winery on nearly every corner if you want to stop for a tasting before the ride back.
Colmar made a good base for a few days before the cruise, with easy train connections and Basel less than an hour away. If you go, give yourself a day out on the wine route. It was the highlight of our stay. The Alsace has a whole network of bike paths connecting the wine villages, so we’d love to come back someday and do an extended bike trip, riding from one village to the next.