2026-06-15 Route des Vins and Rouffach

 Monday, June 15,, 2026

After grocery shopping in the morning and lunch at home, Dave suggested we follow the Route des Vins starting at Pfaffenheim and going south with stops at Rouffach and  Guebwiller, borh one star towns in the Michelin Green Guide. We've already seen the towns north of  Pfaffenheim, so today we're picking up where we left off.

Of course, the scenery is, as usual, spectacular with rolling hills, towns dotting the landscape, vineyards everywhere, and the Vosges mountains for backdrop. We never get tired of seeing these expansive scenes of Alsace. 

The central square of Rouffach is Place de la République where both the Tourist Office and the church, Notre Dame de l'Assomption (Our Lady of Assumption) are located. And, bonus, there's parking right next to the church. After a brief stop at the Tourist Office to obtain a walking tour, we began our exploration of the city.

Notre Dame de l'Assomption

Our walking tour says "Rouffach was built on land occupied by humans since the Neolithic Age" around 6000 BC thanks to its dry, sunny climate, fertile lands, and sources of water. Of course, the Romans built a villa in the 1str century, placing it where the Place de la République stands today (smack dab in the center of town). Property of the Bishop of Strasbourg, with 11th century walls didn't protect it from being destroyed several times. Rouffach became a city in 1238 and flowered in the Renaissance. Rouffac was surrendered to the French in the 30 Years War. It was annexed by Germany in 1870, became French again in 1918, was annexed by Germany in WWII and freed by French and American soldiers in 1945. (We've heard this story in so many villages. 

Number one on the walking tour is the church. It seems a very grand church for a city of less than 5000 inhabitants. But our guide says the church was owned by the Prince-Bishops of Strasbourg, thus grandeur was necessary.  The church is very impressive from outside, although difficult to get far enough away to get the whole church. It's a mishmosh (is that a word?) of styles having been built in the 13th century and renovated in later centuries. One of the 19th century towers was never completed due to the war of 1870. 

The inside is both familiar and yet different from other churches. 

This baptismal font was carved in 1492 while the copper cover was created in 1906

Dave was intrigued by these lights which seemed to spread light up and down and around without bulbs. (They have to be there somewhere!)

Lynn found this effigy in the back of the church. It is of the knight Werner Falke, probably 14th century. His legs were cut off in the French Revolution

We followed the city walking tour, which took longer than we expected. 

map of walking tour of Rouffach

Yes, we walked to each of these historic buildings: From R to L: former granary, former stonemasons workshop, witches' tower, former city hall.

The square in front of the former town hall was named for a WWII hero, Joseph Freyeisen. The bottom of the inscription reads, "His memory obliges us to defend liberty, refuse the arbitrary, and keep the Republic alive."

We saw storks nesting in trees. That's new.

And, of course, storks nesting on roofs

The reason we were seeing so many storks is that Rouffach has been instrumental in growing the stork population. They have a netted and fenced sanctuary where they raise baby storks for the first 3 years. This erases their instincts to migrate (and never come back) and these storks live year round in Alsace. Babies of these parents do migrate, but return to Alsace. In 1974 there were only 9 pairs of storks in Alsace, due to electric wires, thirst, hunger, and poaching. As of 1997, there were 220 pairs of storks. Hooray!

One last sculpture in a fountain (literally) comes from a 1699 legend that townspeople, who had suffered a bad grape harvest, dumped the statue of St Urbain, patron saint of winegrowers, into the Ohmbach river.

St Urbain fountain

Out of time, we scratched the tour of Guebwiller and headed back to Logelheim. Tonight, Dave grilled chicken for dinner, so we need time to get the charcoal lit.