Colmar is the best base on the Alsace Wine Route, which runs north and south along the foot of the Vosges through a string of fortified hilltop villages — Riquewihr, Ribeauvillé, Kaysersberg, Eguisheim — all reachable by car in under twenty minutes. Eguisheim, the smallest and arguably prettiest, makes the most natural afternoon out. Strasbourg, an hour north by train, is a full day. Mulhouse to the south is industrial but has the excellent Cité de l'Automobile and an unusual textiles museum. Across the Rhine, Freiburg in Germany is forty minutes by car and a different world.