Did you have a favorite Disney princess growing up? I did. In fact, growing up with 4 sisters, we all had a favorite they kind of looked like each of us, they also kind of remarkably fit our personalities as well. My sister Tashina’s favorite was sleeping beauty, Meghan’s was Ariel, Tarah‘s was Cinderella, and Heather was Snow white. Mine was Belle. I loved her spunk and love of reading, she had brown hair like me, and I felt like I could relate to her character (you know, minus the whole Stockholm syndrome, thing…).
Anyway, as we were planning our itinerary for our trip to Europe, I knew I wanted to visit some other regions of France, and one that I stumbled upon pretty quickly was the Alsace region. I read so many great things about the landscape in the region, the beautiful rolling hills and vineyards, the charming little Alsacain towns, and the unique culture. And I really wanted to visit the town of Colmar, the very village that inspired Disney’s beauty and the beast.
It did not disappoint.
The Alsace region of France went back and forth between France and Germany for somewhere around a thousand years, and so imbedded deep in the region is a sort of French Bavarian culture completely unique to the region. It was one of my favorite stops on our journey through Europe.
We stayed in a cottage we found on AirBnB (more on that later) in the most charming little town called Andlau about halfway between the regions two major cities, Strausbourg and Colmar. On our first day after arriving in the Alsace region we visited Colmar. If you head to France it is a must see. Such a fun charming town, and feels like something straight out of a fairytale, which if you think about it, it kind of is. ;-)
The great thing about Colmar is that traveling to the city is easy. You can catch a high-speed train straight from Paris and it only takes a little over two hours to get there. We rented a car and drove, since it was the first stop on our European road trip after Paris, but the drive is much longer, taking 6-7 hours. (I don’t recommend this unless you’re planning on continuing on somewhere else.)
Colmar is a beautiful colorful little city with a charming little canal running through the area they call little Venice. There are flowers spilling over the sides of the bridges, colorful houses and shops all around, cobblestone streets, tons of charm, horse drawn carriages, Gondola rides, I could go on, but you probably get the point. It is high on charm.
There are lovely little Christmas shops selling holiday goods year round and lots of Patisseries a beautiful church to see (of course) and there’s even a Chocolaterie that would make Juliette Binoche proud.
Make sure to stop for some Alsatian pizza (flammkuche—as it’s called in German). It’s a yummy flatbread pizza, and super unique. My kids loved it. It’s a great city to just walk around and explore all afternoon, which is exactly what we did. I even bought an ornament from a little Christmas shop for our tree.
Tips for Comar:
-There is parking outside of little Venice about a 5-10 minute walk away, easy to get to. I don’t recommend trying to park in Little Venice.
-Stay away from heels. As with the rest of Europe, cobblestone abounds so leave your heels at home. I wore these Born shoes literally our entire trip through Europe and they were perfect. I cannot more highly recommend the brand for travel footwear.
-A lot of the restaurants in the square we ate in seemed to shut down for a few hours after lunch, so don’t try to grab a late lunch or you might be out of luck.
Want to read more about our trip to Europe? Check out my post about why Paris is so great with kids, or how to book a Vacation photographer. And come back soon, I’ll be sharing more about our full trip itinerary, details on my Europe capsule and the places we stayed, and I’ll even be sharing some secrets for how to find the best prices on airfare.
Have you shared your full itinerary? I want to do this with my littles!!
Hi! The “places we stayed” link at the end of the post isn’t working :) I was hoping to hone in on places/areas to stay for a trip we are planning to France. Thanks!