Ribeauville Travel Video Guide

Ribeauville Travel Itinerary

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RIBEAUVILLE is the largest town between Selestat and Colmar - not as pretty as some of its immediate neighbours, but right at the foot of the mountains and well placed for exploring the many castles and villages that surround it.

If you wish to stay , you could try the rather fancy and friendly little Hotel de la Tour , in a converted winery at 1 rue de la Mairie (tel 03.89.73.72.73, fax 03.89.73.38.74; 300-400F/?46-61; closed Jan to mid-March), with a Turkish bath and a winstub . Two local campsites are Camping des Trois Chateaux (tel 03.89.73.20.00; July & Aug), to the north of Ribeauville, and the much plusher Pierre-de-Courbertin site (tel 03.89.73.66.71; March-Nov) to the south.

In the vicinity of the town is a trio of fortresses built by the counts of Ribeaupierre: St-Ulrich Castle , an hour's haul up a marked path; just north of it the smaller Girsberg Castle , balanced on a pinnacle which somehow provides room for a bailey, two towers and other buildings; and, further on, the ruins of Haut-Ribeaupierre .

BERGHEIM , 3.5km northeast of Ribeauville, retains a good part of its old fortifications, with three towers still surviving - despite being one of the most beautiful Alsatian villages, it rarely attracts the attentions of the tour groups. Also within easy walking range of Ribeauville, this time to the south, the village of HUNAWIHR is another beguiling hamlet, with a fourteenth-century walled church standing out amid the green vines. Hunawihr is at the forefront of the Alsatian ecological movement aimed at reintroducing the stork - the cigogne - to the region, and there's a reserve to the east of the village, Centre Cigognes et Loutres (daily: April-June & Sept to mid-Nov 10am-noon & 2-6pm; July & Aug 10am-6pm; call to check show times, tel 03.89.73.72.62; 45F/?6.86). There is also a breeding reserve for otters and other fishing animals.

Lastly, nearer to the hub of Colmar, there are a couple of tourist targets you may want to avoid, or at least for which you should time your visits carefully. A couple of kilometres south of Hunawihr, the walled village of RIQUEWIHR is exceptionally well preserved, with plenty of medieval houses and a chateau containing a postal museum , the Musee d'Histoire des PTT d'Alsace (April to mid-Nov daily except Tues 10am-noon & 2-6pm; 20F/?3.05); consequently it suffers more visitors per annum than any other village along the route.

KAYSERSBERG , still further southwest, also plays host to more than its fair share of tour buses. It boasts a fortified bridge and a handsome sixteenth-century wooden altarpiece in the main church . But the town's principal renown is as the birthplace of Nobel Peace Prize winner Albert Schweitzer, who spent most of his extremely active, and not always peaceful, life at the leprosy hospital he founded at Lambarene in French Equatorial Africa, now Gabon. During World War I he was interned by the French authorities as an "enemy alien", but nowadays he is suitably honoured with the Centre

Culturel Albert Schweitzer , 126 rue du General-de-Gaulle (Easter & May-Oct daily 9am-noon & 2-6pm; 5F/?0.76).

Two kilometres from Kaysersberg in the village of KIENTZHEIM , the very comfortable Hostellerie de l'Abbaye d'Alspach , 2-4 rue Foch (tel 03.89.47.16.00, fax 03.89.78.29.73; 300-400F/?46-61; closed Jan 9-March 10), in a former abbey, makes a good base for visiting Colmar, 10km away. Try some of the home-made wine.

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