Our next stop would be three nights in the French region of Alsace. Other than a brief stop in Strasbourg, I had never visited this area of France. I was certain there would cute areas to explore with German influence, but beyond that wasn’t too sure what to expect. In the end, it was an area that completely charmed us.
Hotel Stay: Hotel Resort Barriere, Ribeauvillé
It is a spa located just outside the cute, quaint town of Ribeauvillé. It was very comfortable with a nice view and seemed like a great place to relax between sightseeing and wine tasting.
Just a small note – mostly for our future notes – apparently in France, it is imperative that men wear a speedo-type suit, that is to say nothing resembling board short or trunks of any kind. So, since women were able to wear a one-piece or two-piece suit without any limitations or rule, I got started on my relaxing in the warm waters of the pool, moving from the indoor portion to the outdoor portion of the pool, letting the jets sooth me. Then a bit later, my husband came down from the room in his usual trunk. As he removed his spa-appropriate robe, he was approached by the deceptively friendly-looking spa attendants who informed him that his attire was not only inappropriate but unacceptable and he could not enter the pool dressed in such as way. He was informed he could purchase attire that would allow him to use the facilities to relax. By that point it was too late, relaxing seemed not in the cards at that point, but we consider ourselves warned for the future.
Fortunately, we did not choose this location solely for the spa. The town has much to recommend it. Ribeauvillé is a charming town, even teeming with tourists. When arrived, we picked up a few pamphlets at the information center, but were immediately struck by the colorful half-timbered buildings – or colombages in French – all around.
Beautiful half-timbered homes throughout Alsace.
View of Ribeauvillé
A lovely place to sip a glass of Riesling.
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