Alsace

Alsace is the French region that Germany keeps trying to claim and France keeps refusing to give back, which is why the food tastes German, the wine tastes French, and the architecture looks like it could not decide between the two and chose both. The Route des Vins runs 170 km from Marlenheim to Thann through vineyards, half-timbered villages, and castle-topped hills that look like someone designed a wine route and then landscaped an entire region around it. Strasbourg anchors the north with its cathedral, its Petite France canal quarter, and the European Parliament. Colmar anchors the south with Petite Venise, the Isenheim Altarpiece, and the most photogenic town centre in France. Between them, the wine villages of Eguisheim, Riquewihr, Kaysersberg, and Obernai line up along the D35 like a string of medieval pearls, each with its own personality, its own winstubs, and its own producers pouring Riesling that costs EUR 8-15 a bottle and outperforms wine that costs three times more anywhere else. The food is the heaviest in France and the best argument for walking between meals. Tarte flambee (the Alsatian flatbread), choucroute garnie (the sauerkraut plate with five types of pork), baeckeoffe (the sealed-pot stew), and kougelhopf (the almond cake) are the pillars, and they are all better with a glass of the local wine. In December, the Christmas markets in Strasbourg, Colmar, and every village along the route turn the entire region into a mulled-wine-scented snow globe that justifies the flight alone.