Alsace

Alsace sits in the northeastern corner of France, pressed against the Rhine and the German border, and its identity reflects the geography. The villages look Bavarian — half-timbered houses in sherbet colours, window boxes overflowing with geraniums, stork nests on church steeples. The food is Franco-Germanic: choucroute garnie, tarte flambée, baeckeoffe. The wine is unambiguously great — Alsatian Riesling, Gewürztraminer, and Pinot Gris are among the most expressive whites in Europe, made in a dry style that surprises drinkers expecting sweetness.

The Route des Vins runs 170 kilometers along the eastern foothills of the Vosges, threading through villages that could have been designed as film sets. Riquewihr, Eguisheim, and Kaysersberg are the postcard stops. They are crowded in summer and at Christmas, but visit on a Tuesday in May and you will walk cobblestoned streets in near solitude, ducking into winstubs (wine taverns) where a glass of Grand Cru Riesling costs less than you would believe.

Colmar is the region’s most beautiful city — a smaller, calmer version of Strasbourg with a canal district (Petite Venise) that earns every comparison and the Unterlinden Museum housing Grünewald’s Isenheim Altarpiece, one of the masterpieces of Northern Renaissance art.

Strasbourg is the capital — a European Parliament city with a Gothic cathedral whose astronomical clock performs daily at 12:30, a petite France quarter of medieval tanneries, and a Christmas market that may be the finest in Europe.

When to go: May to June for wildflowers and quiet. September to October for the grape harvest and golden light. December for the Christmas markets, which are genuinely extraordinary.