Colmar is a small town in the Alsace region. The Alsace region is marked by the presence of brightly colored half timber houses, wine vineyards, a blend of French and German culture, and a slower pace. The half timber architecture is what you see in Beauty and the Beast. The colorful houses with dark beams running through the walls and roofs of the homes!

Colmar also had many canals that connected straight into people’s backyard. The roads were still cobblestoned, with more farmers markets.

I got my fresh baguette and french cheese sampler and ate the entire thing in a day! That was actually the only thing I ate that day, along with boiled eggs.

Of course, we had to find crepes. Unlike Liege waffles that were sold at almost every street corner, we could not find any crepe vendors! After a while, we found ONE high school aged boy cooking up crepes in front of a chocolate shop. We were not that impressed with our crepes but we couldn’t try any others. 

The next day, we had our grand biking trip planned. We were most excited for this, renting bikes for the day and biking around to neighboring cities, walking around, eating lunch, and then bike to the next city. In total, we biked 32 miles and were out and about from 9 am to 5pm. 

First, we biked to Eguisheim, the exact town modeled in Beauty and the Beast. This was possibly the sleepiest town we visited, with barely any shops open, barely any tourists or locals out and about. Looking at the houses, you could tell they were original, but with maintained paint. Symbols in the doorways symbolized the professions and trade of who lived in what house. The years were also stamped next to the emblems to show the age and originality of the buildings. 

We got lunch at an Italian restaurant (I had desperately been craving pasta), and we ordered traditional French pizza (Tarte Flambée) and escargot! The snails were kind of large…cooked with garlic butter and very soft and squishy. I still couldn’t get behind the texture, five years after trying snails for the first time in Vietnam. The flambée was on a super thin crust, almost puff pastry like, with a cream base instead of tomato sauce, with onions and bacon as toppings. It was basically a deconstructed carbonara.

Since we’d finished around lunch time, we still had the whole afternoon to bike to another city. Kasyersberg was pretty similar, with the same half timber buildings and quiet sleepy pace. The bike there was exhausting – mildly uphill through unfortunately empty vineyards and suburban neighborhoods, we almost got lost and struggled to find the bike path a couple times. 

At our leisure pace, Mom and I chatted while I had directions on my phone. We made it in relatively good time, in time to catch most shops closing up for the day (3pm). Thankfully, one little family run cafe was open, serving pastries and drinks in what seemed to be like their backyard/courtyard. We order fresh pressed apple juice, a blueberry tarte, and apple crumble – all homemade. Kayserberg is definitely not a tourist location, so it was interesting to see so many tourist dependent shops in such a small town.

Reinvigorated from our snack and break, we headed back through vineyards to Colmar to return the bikes. To stay on flat paths, we biked around hills instead of over mountains (the shorter mileage), adding distance to our rides. Our butts were sore by the end, but it was so beautiful to see the French countryside and the youthful joy on Mom’s face while doing something she’d dreamed of.