Step into France’s most beautiful town “Turckheim” — a fairytale-like dream scenery

Text and photos byPaperclip 'Foodography & Happiness'

It was last summer during my trip to Italy that I met a girl from Bahrain in the Middle East. She had a beautiful name, translated into Chinese as “Little Deer,” was around my age, also a teacher, and shared my passion for travel. She told me about the places on her travel wish list, one of which was a town I’d never heard of — Eguisheim. That evening, I looked it up on a map and discovered it was right nearthe fairy-tale town of Colmar in Alsace, France — which planted a seed in my mind about when I might be able to go back and explore it.

However, traveling from Switzerland to Eguisheim is a bit of a hassle. First, you have to go to the northern city of Basel to catch a train to Colmar, then switch to bus route 440 or 208 from Colmar to Eguisheim — there’s no direct train.

Once namedFrance’s most beautiful town, Eguisheimis not only famously fairytale-like in appearance but is also essentially a wine town. The surrounding area boasts over 300 hectares of vineyards, and thanks to its mild climate and fertile soil, it’s considered the cradle of Alsace’s grand cru wines. As a result, wine-tasting and wine-selling restaurants are everywhere. The town isn’t very large — unless you’re there for the wine, you can probably explore it all in about one or two hours.

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The hotel I stayed at was in a great location, right at the entrance of the town, across from the tourist information center. There was a sign out front with “Circuit A Visiter” written at the top — meaning a recommended circular route for visitors to explore the town. If you look at Eguisheim from above, all the buildings are arranged in a circle, so this “circuit” refers to that layout.

On the left side facing the town, the starting point of the circular route is a building that splits the road in two — arguably the most photogenic spot in Eguisheim. It really does make for a stunning photo, though getting the composition just right can be tricky.

These houses date back as early as the 13th century, when half-timbered architecture was in vogue. The first time I saw this style of building in person was in 2004, when I visited Shakespeare’s hometown of Stratford-upon-Avon in England and the central city ofYork — it left a deep impression on me back then. I also saw many such buildings in Colmar last year, but I guess subconsciously it wasn’t enough, so this year I came back to this most beautiful town to take it all in properly.

But unfortunately, I came at the wrong time.

Eguisheim is most lively during the Christmas season, when the entire town goes all out decorating their homes, turning the place into one big Christmas market. Or in spring and summer when flowers are in bloom, every household puts effort into adorning their homes with potted plants and blooms — after all, the town even won the European Entente Florale floral design award in 2006. But January and February are their off-season, so almost no restaurants are open, everything is under repair, and tourists are few and far between. Coming here at this time, it felt like seeing a diva who had just left the stage, stripped of her makeup and performance.

Without the buzz of prosperity, what remains of this ancient town is desolation, and in the evening, it gets a bit eerie.

If it weren’t for a schoolchild walking by after class, I’d have thought these houses only existed for holidays and no one actually lived here.

A nearby elementary school.

I’m not going to complain about the emptiness — in fact, it made me feel more at ease. The only inconvenience was that there was nothing to eat at night. At one of the two places that were still open — a cookie shop — I managed to buy a sugared chouquette (a type of doughnut) with cranberry jam inside (I’d originally wanted cinnamon apple, but the shop owner ended up giving me the wrong one…), along with a few cookies, and made do with that for dinner back at the hotel.

I walked around the main street loop twice and only ran into three other groups of tourists the whole time. I’m sharing the photos where people are in them, just so you don’t think I was the only person in town.

Walking around the main street loop eventually brings you back to where you started. You can also wander along the side streets. On a normal non-off-season weekday, there would be souvenir shops to check out, but now there’s nothing. I took a close look and noticed there’s no supermarket here, not even a convenience store, apparently. The cookie shop owner said the nearest supermarket is in another town, about 3 kilometers away.

There are a few castles in town, but by normal standards, they’re only about the size of churches.

This is one of the symbols of the Alsace region — the stork, believed to bring babies — and I actually got to see one.

I walked around the loop twice. It felt a bit like… watching a movie trailer, getting excited, buying a ticket, and then realizing the best parts were all in the preview. Before I came to Eguisheim, I looked up some photos online and thought it was gorgeous, but in reality, the streets I saw in person were pretty much exactly like the ones in the pictures — and that was about it.

However, I wouldn’t say this town isn’t beautiful. It’s just that without the flashy decorations and the bustling crowds of people, only the charming and photogenic historic buildings remain — and that still leaves me feeling a bit wistful about this trip.

So, with this experience in mind, I thinkit might be a better plan to adjust the itinerary to focus mainly on Colmar — staying in Colmar, then picking one day to take a bus or taxi here (the fare is about 12 euros), spend a day or half a day exploring, and then return to Colmar.

Or perhaps just choose a better day to come back.

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Eguisheim Official Website (English)

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