Despite being well off the main French tourism trail, Alsace can lay claim to being the country’s leading area for good food and wine as the region boasts more Michelin starred restaurants than anywhere else in France other than Paris.

One restaurant that glitters brightly amongst all these stars is the famous Auberge de I’ll in Illhaeusern (www.auberge-de-l-ill.com), which has held its trio of stars since 1967. Here chef Marc Haeberlin offers his customers his signature chicken and duck’s liver pate in a goat’s cheese crust with truffles and nut and grape jelly from a classic menu of mouth watering dishes.

But holidaymakers visiting the region do not necessarily have to head for one of these gourmet restaurants to enjoy the good food of Alsace. Winstubs are a type of bistro, unique to the region, where visitors and locals alike can enjoy many specialities including choucroute, baekeoffe and tarte flambée. There are more than a hundred winstubs to be found throughout Alsace and the very name guarantees their authenticity.

All this good food needs to be washed down with fine wine and the dry, aromatic AOC Alsace and AOC Alsace Grand Cru wines, 91% of which are white, are world famous. As far as wine producing is concerned Alsace is small and perfectly formed! Within the regions 8283 square kilometres there is over 15,000 hectares of AOC vineyards producing around 160 million bottles of wine per year.

Touring the vineyards of Alsace during early autumn is an experience not to be missed and there are many opportunities for motorists, cyclists and walkers alike along the official 170 kilometre Route des Vins. It runs from Marlenheim North West of the regional capital Strasbourg to Thann, south of Colmar, through the Alsace plain and the foothills of the Vosges mountains.

All along the route, as it winds through pretty villages and past medieval castles, there are stop-offs for tastings and buying at wineries. Well marked trails lead off the main route, up through the vineyards, providing ideal opportunities for walking. Annual wine festivals take place in Eguisheim, Molsheim and Obernai during the October vendage.

Most of the villages along the route have small family run hotels or auberges with plenty of vacancies at the end of the main holiday season, offering a warm welcome and fine food

Independent travel to Alsace from the UK is easy with Air France flights from London City to Strasbourg while British Airways and Easyjet fly from Heathrow and Gatwick respectively to the Basle-Mulhouse European Airport in the south of Alsace. Swiss fly from London City and Manchester to the European Airport. The increasingly popular train takes just over five hours from London to Strasbourg( Eurostar to Paris and the TGV Est to Strasbourg, Colmar and Mulhouse).

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