The friendly white storks, the iconic emblem of Alsace, are found in large numbers throughout the region. Protected in Italy since 1976, the grey wolf has since entered France through the Maritime Alps. There is now a population of about 900 chamois in the Vosges, particularly in the high ridges of the valley of Munster above 800 metres. From Colmar, next to the foothills and at the base of the Vosges mountains, clouds arriving from the West are forced to rise and fall as precipitation over the high summits, hence protecting the lower area from rain. The topography of Alsace, the Vosges and the Black Forest in Germany all play a major role in the local climate. In the South-West, the Gate of Burgundy opens Alsace to Franche-Comté, while the crest of the Vosges mountains serves as a natural border with Lorraine.
This quiet region of densely forested hills, small streams and rivers and rocky outcrops is very beautiful and slotrize casino no deposit bonus well worth exploring – Neuwiller-les-Saverne is to the south-west of the park and Lembach to the north-east. To the south of the region lies the city of Mulhouse and the rural land of the Sundgau, which reaches the Swiss border in the Jura mountains. The Alsace region is located in north-eastern France and is famous for its wine, its colourful half-timbered houses and its castles, which sit enthroned on the summits of the Vosges mountains. Colmar is the principal centre of the wine-growing region, whose vineyards extend in a narrow strip along the lower slopes of the Vosges west of the city. The massif of the Vosges gradually gives way eastward to the plain of Alsace, while to the south the region of Sundgau in southern Haut-Rhin rises to the Jura Mountains.

Que faire en Alsace en avril ?

• During the interwar years, German influence remained strong in the two recovered régions, and in the early 1940s Alsace was once again annexed by Germany, for the duration of World War II.
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• At one time every tall roof and steeple seemed to have a resident stork, but these then suffered a serious set-back and almost disappeared from Alsace.
• As in previous times, these castles still seem to dominate the Alsace Plain even today, watching over the Vosges valleys, communication channels and sometimes the abbeys.
• Several cities and villages along the Alsace Wine Route have become famous and attract a very large crowd of visitors during the summer months and Christmas, where they have beautiful Christmas Markets.
• These gems of the wine country are often made up of old medieval ramparts, winding alleyways that bloom with magnificent geraniums, winstubs, vaults, half-timbered houses, and medieval churches.

After 1918, French was the only language used in schools, particularly primary schools. French lost ground to such an extent that it has been estimated that only 2% of the population spoke French fluently, and only 8% had some knowledge of it (Maugue, 1970). Between 1870 and 1918, Alsace was annexed by the German Empire in the form of an imperial province or Reichsland, and the mandatory official language, especially in schools, became High German. The French language never really managed, however, to win over the masses, the vast majority of whom continued to speak their German dialects and write in German (which we would now call "standard German").citation needed From the annexation of Alsace by France in the 17th century and the language policy of the French Revolution up to 1870, knowledge of French in Alsace increased considerably. During the Lutheran Reform, the towns of Alsace were the first to adopt the German language as their official language instead of Latin.

• Thus, a proportion of the HGVs travelling from north Germany to Switzerland or southern Alsace bypasses the A5 on the Alsace-Baden-Württemberg border and uses the untolled French A35 instead.
• In the Vosges mountains, many farmhouses (fermes-auberges) serve an authentic traditional farm meal called “marcaire”, which features pie as a first course and roïgabrageldi (potatoes with smoked pork shoulder) as a main.
• As an administrative entity, it encompassed the départements of Haut-Rhin (“Upper Rhine”) and Bas-Rhin (“Lower Rhine”) and was bounded by the régions of Lorraine to the west and Franche-Comté to the southwest.
• The traditional habitat of the Alsatian lowland, like in other regions of Germany and Northern Europe, consists of houses constructed with walls in timber framing and cob and roofing in flat tiles.
• Alsace became one of the French regions boasting a thriving Jewish community and the only region with a noticeable Anabaptist population.

This is due to the region having belonged to the Holy Roman Empire until the 17th century, and also to the fact that the region has passed between German and French control four times between 1870 and 1945. Since 1972, it has been compulsory for wine to be bottled in the region where it is produced. The region has one of France’s lowest unemployment rates (8.4% in 2011). With an annual recorded rainfall of 530mm, Colmar and its region take advantage of one of France’s driest climates, making it ideal for vines to grow on the southern slopes. To the south, the Jura mountains mark the border with Switzerland from Basle to the vicinity of Porrentruy. Being the smallest administrative region of continental France, Alsace stretches from south to north along the Rhine, which borders its eastern flank.
Following the Protestant Reformation, promoted by the local reformer Martin Bucer, the principle of cuius regio, eius religio led to a certain amount of religious diversity in the highlands of northern Alsace. The divergence in policy from the French majority is because the region was part of Imperial Germany when the 1905 law separating the French church and state was instituted (for a more comprehensive history, see Alsace–Lorraine). Alsace is generally seen as the most religious of all the French regions. But by the 2010s, Alsace had entered a new period of slow demographic growth, though the Strasbourg area had become one of France's fastest growing regions.

Alsace, a unique journey… just like you!

The Alsace region’s touristic appeal is closely linked to its rich history. The Alsace region is also known for the richness of its gastronomy. The Alsace vineyards extend across the hills of the Vosges at between 200 and 400 metres high, over some 14,000 hectares of grapevines which produce an average of 150 million bottles of wine.

Le Massifs des Vosges

The traditional language of the région is Alsatian, an Alemannic dialect of Upper German spoken on both sides of the Rhine and closely related to Swiss German. Although German dialects were spoken in Alsace for most of its history, the dominant language in Alsace today is French. With the purpose of "Francizing" the region, the Rot-un-Wiss has not been recognized by Paris. As it underlines the Germanic roots of the region, it was replaced in 1949 by a new "Union jack-like" flag representing the union of the two départements. The authentic historical flag is the Rot-un-Wiss; Red and White are commonly found on the coat of arms of Alsatian cities (Strasbourg, Mulhouse, Sélestat…) and of many Swiss cities, especially in Basel's region.

Alsace’s main cities

They maintained their own customs, Yiddish language, and historic traditions within the tightly knit ghettos; they adhered to Jewish law. By 1790, the Jewish population of Alsace was approximately 22,500, about 3% of the provincial population. The population grew rapidly, from 800,000 in 1814 to 914,000 in 1830 and 1,067,000 in 1846. This had grave effects on trade and the economy of the region since former overland trade routes were switched to newly opened Mediterranean and Atlantic seaports. At the same time, some Alsatians were in opposition to the Jacobins and sympathetic to the restoration of the monarchy pursued by the invading forces of Austria and Prussia who sought to crush the nascent revolutionary republic.

To appreciate the natural environment you can explore the Regional Natural Park of the Ballon des Vosges which occupies much of the western Haut-Rhin. The most important religious monuments in Haut-Rhin include the romanesque abbey at Murbach and the 11th century abbey church at Ottmarsheim. There are also numerous picturesque villages, among them some that are also classified among the 'most beautiful villages of France' (Eguisheim, Hunawihr and Riquewihr). The larger towns in southern Alsace include Colmar, with an impressive historical centre, and Mulhouse, well known for its important museums.

High population growth during the post-WW2 economic boom of the Trente Glorieuses ended after the 1973 oil crisis. The city of Colmar has a sunny microclimate; it is the second driest city in France, with an annual precipitation of around 550 mm (22 in), making it ideal for vin d'Alsace (Alsatian wine). It doesn't rain much in the area because of the protection offered by the Vosges mountains. Alsace is the part of the plain of the Rhine located at the west of the Rhine, on its left bank.
French government institutions employ a variety of means to prevent the German-speaking Alsatians from publishing media in their native language. However, the Constitution of France still requires that French be the only official language of the Republic. Today, the territory is in certain areas subject to some laws that are significantly different from the rest of France, which is known as the local law. During the war, 130,000 young men from Alsace and Lorraine were conscripted into the German armies against their will (malgré-nous). In order not to antagonize the Alsatians, the region was not subjected to some legal changes that had occurred in the rest of France between 1871 and 1919, such as the 1905 French law on the separation of Church and State. With the arrival of the French soldiers, many Alsatians and local Prussian/German administrators and bureaucrats cheered the re-establishment of order.