Obernai - arty village in Alsace

Since the Sedan photos keep on playing hide and seek with me, I have decided to continue with Alsace, the eastern region of France, north of the Alps and bordering Germany.  If I think of Alsace I think of colourful houses with timber frames, white grapes, pinot gris wine, storks, pottery, munster cheese, kugelhopf, bäckeofe, flammekueche, the Vosges mountains, the Rhine, as well as Hansie en Grietjie.  You might ask what are all these things I'm talking about. I'll try to cover it in this post and the one I'll do on Strasbourg.
Alsace has an interesting history, bordering the Rhine.  Archeologists found traces of Celtic history, then of course there were the Romans.  The Franks (the French) established the duchy of Alsace in the mid-7th century.  Then there was the time of German influence.  There were two dynasties that had a major influence on Alsace, the second being the famous Hapsburgs from Austria.  Alsace asked the King of France to liberate them from the Hapsburgs and kings of France (Louis XIII and Louis XIV) formed an alliance with the German princes against the Hapsburgs.  Alsace had to go through the Thirty Year War, the War of Succession of Spain and of Holland before it finally became entirely French in 1679.  In 1871 the Germans occupied Alsace, part of the reasons for WWI. In 1918 it was returned to France until the Germans ruled Alsace again from 1940-1945, whereafter it was again returned to France.  Like in many other regions in France, the Alsacians have their own local language that they use in their everyday life and it is not easy for the French to follow the language! Our neighbours are an Alsacian married to a Champenoise and for her it is difficult to follow what they say when they visit his family.  It is a region where you will see and hear so many Germans, you'll think you are in Germany.
My mom and I followed the same route that JL and I did the year before, visiting Strasbourg and a beautiful village, Obernai - 25 km south west of Strasbourg.  Obernai was born as a fortified city (see the old wall below) of the Romans and Gauls and later transformed into a Frankish royal residence.  Many buildings are built in the renaissance style and there are some remarkable roofs that reminds one of the roofs one find in Bourgogne (Burgundy).



It is a village surrounded by vineyards and fruit trees and today the vineyards are Obernai's principal source of income.  Although you would easily believe it to be tourism.  It is a touristy village with craft shops lining the main street and even side streets, filled with beautiful pottery typically Alsacian and embroidered articles.  Despite the tourists, I'll still recommend that you include this village in a visit to Alsace. It is sympa village, as we'll say in French, the little shops a pleasure to visit and seek some special pottery from the region.