Blienschwiller 14 Oct 15

Deciding that Obernai was the furthest north we would travel in the Alsace, we started our journey back down towards the Rhine, aiming to cross at Neuf-Brisach after first filling up the fridge and larder at the Lidl in Obernai. On the way up towards Obernai we had spotted a lovely village with a superb France Passion stopover in a vineyard, so we headed back to Blienschwiller and parked up amongst the vines at Spitz & Fils. The weather had suddenly become very cold so the heating went on. Suddenly lots of cars surrounded us and people gathered around where we were parked. A white van drew up and the assembly embarked and disappeared up the hill where we could see them picking grapes on the steep slopes. Later they returned and disappeared into the vigneron's house, emerging some time later slightly the worse for wear and carrying lots of boxes of wine. We decided that we need to apply for this sort of work!

In the meantime, we had a delightful walk around the hills and vineyards surrounding this village. Woken early in the morning by the church bells, we packed up and, after breakfast, we bought a few bottles from the very nice vigneron. He explained that the pickers were gathering the very last grapes of this year's harvest. We have to say that he produces some very nice wines and the France Passion scheme is a great way of spending a night in a beautiful spot.