MikePadgett.com

Alsace

— France's beautiful border region has a long and fractious history.”

Squeezed between the Vosges and the Rhine the Alsace region stretches narrowly along France’s spine, flanked by Germany to the north and east and by Switzerland to the south.

To the west Alsace borders Lorraine, a region towards which it has traditionally held a superiority complex. Historically however, Alsace and Lorraine have often shared similar characteristics and suffered similar setbacks.

Both regions were formerly part of the kingdom of Lotharingia and suffered terribly from plagues in the fourteenth century.

Then as feudal Europe splintered into fiefs, duchies and bishoprics, the fateful geography of these regions – on the faultline of Germanic and Frankish cultures – guaranteed them a seemingly eternal status as hotspots for disputes.

And like its neighbour Alsace had until recently an established mining industry, but its capacity for fuelling French fires made it a frequent target for German expansionism.

Today those reignited old rivalries that saw Alsace change hands no less than four times in 75 years now seem thankfully extinguished. Yet the positive influences of German culture on Alsace were both strong and lasting.

For like Germany, Alsace is peppery and picturesque: black letter typography, sauerkraut and a notable passion for horology are all common elements. Many of the vine varieties cultivated on the fertile banks further east in Germany also line the foothills of the Vosges.

In the event, the cold November rain turned out to be harder to stomach than the choucroute garnie (though I confess I didn’t fancy the latter either). Even when the sun shone quite unexpectedly on our first day in Strasbourg, we knew it could only be a stay of execution.

Between Strasbourg and Colmar – where I discovered that most of my preconceptions about Alsace were in fact preconceptions about Rheinish Germany – the wine villages line up neatly for the touristic Route du Vin.

When November falls in these villages, the plurality of which points to Alsace’s historically dense population, not a single person can be seen in the streets. There’s aromatic smoke from the chimneys and the occasional foody smells, but that doesn’t shift the sense of unease that hangs thick like a raincloud. Goldilocks could eat her porridge in peace around here.

High above, the Château du Haut-Kœnigsbourg perches, faintly pompous and flushed with the colour of pink stone. Ruined in the Thirty Years’ War while under the control of the Dukes of Lorraine, Kaiser Wilhelm had it restored in 1900 after taking control of Alsace. The Germans took almost ten years to finish the job, then ten more years to lose Alsace – and the château – to the French.