After the villages we’d been in Riquewihr was equally cute (see photos) but much more touristy.  We had chosen to add an extra day there, and the route manager for our ATG tour had kindly offered to drive use to Colmar the following day, so we effectively added a day and a half in the village.

So, after some welcome down time we occupied our time up and down the Main Street, exploring the side streets, going into the shops specialising in various local produce and generally hanging out.

We tried two excellent local restaurants, and had our second tarte flambé, but by the time Matthieu picked us up we probably had exhausted what Riquewihr had to offer.

One of our highlights was a wine tasting at Hugel, a local producer (with some availability in Oz), where we had an educational tasting of local varieties at all their price points with an engaging staff member with excellent English.  We learnt lots and tasted some very good wines.  And picked up a couple of bottles for Paris.

After two nights in Riquewihr we moved on to Colmar, a much larger regional centre where we caught the TGV back to Paris.  We had an afternoon exploring the old part of town, again very picturesque, and had dinner in the excellent hotel restaurant (in this part of the world it seems the best dining is attached to hotels), before catching the TGV to Paris on Friday morning…