2026-05-07 Huniwihr & Haut Koenigsburg Castle & Return to Sick-Dreyer Winery

 

Another day, another Plus Beaux Village. There are 15 in this region, so we have many more to visit. Today is again grey and rainy, but like the intrepid tourists we are, we headed out anyway. Our first stop was Hunawihr, a small village along the Route des Vins (Wine Route). 

Thanks to missing a turn on the north side of Colmar, we were treated to a replica of the Statue of Liberty in the middle of a round-about. (Sculptor Bartholdi is a Colmar native.) We went around the round-about twice to try to get a shot out the window. This is the best we got.

Bartholdi statue in Colmar

Huniwihr, a village of 555 people is too small to even have a tourist office. That also means we're almost the only visitors, allowing us the calm to take in this village's history. Luckily, we had picked up some tourist information at the Riquewihr Tourist Office. 

Stained glass in the Hunawihr church

Hunawihr was settled in the 7th century by Hunon and his wife Huna after whom the village is named. Converted to Christianity, the couple built the first church. According to legend, Huna washed clothes of the poor and needy in the village's fountain. Huna was also credited with miracles, including turning the water in the fountain into wine after a bad grape harvest. She was sainted in 1520 and the church became a stop on the one of the routes of Saint Jacques de Compostelle. Protestantism was introduced in 1537 and in 1687, the Simultaneum was introduced by Louis XIV which allowed both Catholic and Protestant services to be offered in the same church.

Kim walking through the graveyard of St Jacques Majeure

The church clock has grapes & leaves - symbol of Hunawihr

The current church dates from the 15th century. It sits on a hill at the edge of town, surrounded by walled fortifications. Around the church are both a catholic and protestant cemetery and offers great views of the surrounding vineyards.

defensive walls around the church

View of the town from the church graveyard

French graves are "rented" - that is paid for an amount of time - note the grave is for the family. Small plaques and mementos remember the names of those buried there. 

Views overlooking the town and nearby vineyards were stunning, even on this cloudy day.

We worked our way down the steep hill from the church to the west end of town. Besides interesting houses, this town has many door lintels with carvings. With street signs and house addresses in short supply, it took us a bit to find some of these. 

The pinmaker' sign in the center of the year 1565

The door and lintel of the 1565 house

A key denoting the innkeeper

The butcher's emblem

As we're about to finish explore the last 11 buildings and lintels, the rain began, not hard, but enough to get wet. Janis and Clark and Kim and Dale opt to go back to the car and Dale moved it to the end of the street Dave and I were exploring. You can always trust Dave to find every item on these discovery tours and he wasn't giving up for a little rain.

Looking through the gates of houses reveals sheds and barns in a courtyard used by the vintners and vignerons

Dave in front of a cool house

Looking through the gate of another winemaker's house. House on the right, barn on  the left and shed in the back

We worked our way down this main street of the village checking out houses and lintels. It is clear that this has been and is still a wine producing village. (In fact, one of the Alsatian Grand Crus, Rosaker, is a product of this village.) We decided this village is worthy of a second visit, in good weather.

Half-timbered house with barn/sheds on the ground floor

Notice the tractor in the arched doorway

At the bottom of the Grand Rue, we met Dale and took the car to the Saint-Hune fountain and wash house. Every Plus Beau Village must  have at least 2 culturally significant monuments. In Hunawihr, these are the 17th century fountain and the Sainte-Hune fountain and wash house. 

Sainte Hune fountain and washhouse

Sainte Hune covered wash house

Luckily, we had decided to have lunch at home as the rain continued all the way home.

Dave ate the leftover choucroute garni from yesterday

The afternoon itinerary is a trip to Haut Koenigsburg castle, since much of that tour would be indoors in the completely restored castle. Since it's not handicapped accessible, I stayed home (and took a nap!)

First mentioned in 1147, this château fort (fortified castle) has changed hands multiple times and was also pillaged multiple times. Owned by the Hapsbourgs in the 15th century, it was pillaged by a gang of knights. It changed hands and was again pillaged and burned in the 30 Years War (1618-1648). Left as a ruin for 200 years, it was acquired by the town of Sélestat in 1865 and was then offered to German Emperor Guillaume II (Wilhelm II in German) in 1899 when he annexed Alsace to Germany. Guillaume completely restored the castle (1900-1908). After WWI (1919) Haut Koenigsbourg was given to France. Since then, France has improved the visitor experience and maintained the castle. Whew! 

Janis & Clark about to enter the castle

Haut Koenigsbourg can be seen from many spots in this region as it crowns the top of its peak in the foothills of the Vosges mountains. 

Koenigsbourg scene from the valley

This castle is stunning, both outside and inside.

Can you find the dragon?

Looking down from the high tower

After the tour of Haut Koenigsburg, the crew stopped at Sick-Dreyer to pick up a few bottles of their most excellent wines. Etienne invited them into his tasting room and enthusiastically offered samples of his wines. An hour later, they collected their 6 bottles of wine and headed for the LeClerc grocery store. 

Janis, Clark, & Etienne

These were opened and drunk in 1971 by Etienne's father and grandfather. They had been bottled in 1834 and 1895. Amazingly (to me at least) the wine was still good.

These are the wines they sampled

LeClerc was crazy busy with so many people shopping at the end of their work day. Luckily the list was small and they escaped with only minor bruises.

It was almost 7 when the crew got home - too late for aperos. Janis made a delicious chicken stir fry for dinner.  The poor dear wasn't even allowed to rest after dinner as she made one more bread pudding for tomorrow's dinner. I'm not sure we can let Janis go home! She knows where everything is in the kitchen and can work all the appliances!

As if today wasn't crazy enough, there is a beer fest in town. Dave and Dale walked the few blocks to the fest. They tried a couple of Luxemburg beers, neither to their liking. Dave said it was like a German beer fest.

 

Dale & Dave & beer

2025-05-06 Mulhouse

 

Mulhouse (pronounced in Alsace as mul OOZE) has a couple of museums that sound pretty interesting. The girls are interested in "le Musée de l'impression sur étoffes" the world's largest historical collection of printed fabrics, most using wooden block printing. The guys are interested in "le Musée National de l'Automobile, collection Schlumpf." with over 450 old cars. For these, we will divide and conquer.

The Automobile Museum

Weather is iffy today, with rain predicted for the afternoon. Hoping that the morning will allow us to be outdoors, we headed south for 25 miles. 

It's colder than we expected and windy, so all of us are huddled in our coats. We should have brought one more layer today.

That's me in the red trying to stay warm and dry. Neither worked.

We parked just across the street from the Tourist Bureau where self-guided tour brochures led us the two blocks into the old city. We found an interesting art installation around a couple of trees outside the Tourist Office.

Tourest Office 

These trees are wrapped in crocheted trunk dresses

This tree was at the Musée des Beaux Arts

Mulhouse is quite a large and modern business city. It boasts 110,000 residents but has still managed to maintain its 16th and 17th century city center. 

Place de la Réunion - in front of the town hall - so named to celebrate the union of Mulhouse to the French Republic - around 1792

Of note is the very ornate town hall which marks the center of the historical city.. 

Hotel de Ville - City Hall

Painted figures on the end of the Hotel de Ville

Kim by the fountain near the Hotel de Ville - still decorated in its Easter finery

On the town hall square, as in many French cities, there is a merry-go-round to entertain the kids.

Merry-go-round on Place de la Réunion

The town hall square is surrounded by houses of historical importance. We took photos of ones  that were interesting to us - old mostly. Europe does not tear down old houses (and they were built to last), but repurposes them, modernizes the interiors, sometimes adds rooms on (but always discretely) and keeps up the historic elements of the house. Of course, as we've learned from vintners we've met, these homes stay in the family for generations, sometimes going back to the 1500's or earlier.

Mieg House - on Place de la Républic

Former presbytery of Temple St Etienne (In the French Revolution, churches were renamed as non-denominational Temples )

Anchoring the other corner of the town hall square is the city's very large church, Temple Saint Etienne. 

As we walked toward the restaurant Dave had booked for us for lunch, we passed this playground. It looks like a lot of fun for the young monkeys. (I'm thinking of you, Sasha, Sonna, Evie, Penny, Tristen, & Arwyn!)

Dave had researched Zum  Sauwadala online and found it also in our Michelin Green Guide. It's located just a couple of blocks from the historic city center. Good thing, because the sprinkles are getting stronger!

Its menu features classic Alsatian dishes. We arrived a bit early since it had begun to sprinkle. The restaurant didn't disappoint. The inside was, if not genuinely old, decorated historically, and had all the trimmings of an Alsatian wine bar. Reviews from French patrons were universally glowing. 

Despite only opening at noon, the restaurant was bustling. A man and woman were the sole servers for this pub, with the woman primarily behind the bar filling drink orders. But service was attentive and our waiter spoke English! 

Orders of rabbit, choucroute garni (sauerkraut with meats), and various tartes flambées (that extra thin crust, sour cream and cheese pizza). Our meals were universally delicious, except Dave and I were unable to finish our sauerkraut. 

As I was leaving the restaurant and giving our "pardons" to the table next to us (tables are so close together that those moving from the bench had very little butt room for leaving) one of the gentlemen asked if we were American. When I said "yes" he was astounded that we had found this genuine Alsatian restaurant. Americans don't come to restaurants like this. I took that as a compliment and left with a "Bonne journée". 

Outside, it was now raining, and we  had several blocks to get back to the car. Crossing streets here can be an adventure as there are trams and their rails all over, making streets wider to cross and with fewer cross walks. We were all rather dampish by the time we got in the car. In a city like Mulhouse, the contrast is easy to see. Modern Mulhouse is just two blocks from the historic district.

Dale drove us the short distance to the fabric museum where they were able to pull up right to the door thanks to a closed lane (construction) in front. The boys went on a bit farther to find the car museum. We were to call them half an hour before we were finished and they would pick us up. This plan actually worked well. We were spared the cars, and they were spared  the fabrics. We were all happy.

Lynn looks at a demonstration of the fabric printing process

Fabric samples of selvedge edges

projected image of a fabric panel

The fabric museum traced the history and inspirations for the printing on fabric. We learned that this museum has the largest collection of sample fabrics in the world. In its early stages, more than 10 steps were required to print a design on cotton. Mulhouse became a center for this craft. We learned that DMC embroidery floss came from the mills of Mulhouse owned by the Dollfus-Mieg & Compagnie. While the company was begun in 1746 to manufacture chintz, DMC thread wasn't created until 1898. The company is still manufacturing in Mulhouse. 

What to say about the car museum? The building and entrance look very modern which suits the decoration of cars at the entrance. Quite dramatic. 

The front window of the museum has full size models of cars where half the car is mounted inside the museum and the other half outside the museum. Wow!

Inside are automobiles nicely displayed in a giant indoor parking lot. OK, so maybe not a parking lot, but close. These are some of their favorites.

This is the first car that you could order and pick up - 1894

An early Bugatti

Lamborghini - AVentador S - from 2011 (named after a famous fighting bull) one of the few modern cars in the museum - it goes 0-100 km/h in less than 3 seconds 

Another Bugatti 

Rolls Royce

Back together again, we head home for dry clothes and soup for dinner. Of course, there was wine.

This is a usual pre-dinner processing of photos