My husband and I are arriving in Paris on August 30th this year and departing from Marseille on Sept. 11th. We have 6 nights in the Alsace area - staying in Eguisheim - and then 6 nights in the Luberon - staying in Bonnieux. I'm wondering about a day trip to either Germany or Switzerland. We are thinking along the lines of Freiburg and The Black Forest for Germany or Lauterbrunnen, Murren or Wengen if Switzerland. We will have a rental car, but will go by train if that's the easier option.

We love small towns and villages and walking around exploring them. We also love nature and scenery. I've been reading the forums on a few websites and it's mentioned how Alsace has a lot of Germanic qualities. Would we be seeing anything different if we go to Freiburg? That's partly why I thought about Switzerland instead. See the alps and something different than what we'll be seeing in France. does this make sense or am I totally misinformed? We don't have to do a day trip at all....I'm sure there's more than enough for us to see in Alsace and The Luberon, but why not explore a bit more if we can.

Any advice, thoughts and ideas would be much appreciated! Thank you in advance.

How will you go from Eguisheim to Bonnieux?
If it's by car, you could easily drive through the Swiss and the French Alps.

Strasbourg to me is a great city with a great cathedral. Boat trips on canals in old city or out to modern EU installations would be an easy day trip - Swiss Alps a long poke one way.

Lauterbrunnen is 2 1/2 to 3 hrs away. So you have 5-6 hrs of driving that day. The thrill of the region is the lifts/trains up to the gorge villages. And the views are spectacular. IF the Junfrau is not covered with clouds. Which it has been 3 of the 4 times we have visited this region. What if you drive 2 3/4 hrs there & can't see a thing? The mountains seem to have fewer clouds in the AM than then have from noon & later. It is a risky trip.

We have visited Alsace several times, and are returning for 2 weeks this Sept. We are planning to drive to Freiburg for a visit, and taking the train from Selestat to Basel for another visit Bern is the most interesting city in Switzerland (IMO) - and it is less than 2 hrs away. 2 hrs is about 30 mins past our threshold for a day trip. If Bern interests you, perhaps wait till the last part of your stay in Alsace before you drive there.

Stu Dudley

The plan is to take the train from Colmar to Avignon. Pick up another rental car in Avignon and drive to Bonnieux. So if we go to Switzerland, it would be by train. That sounded easier than driving.

We'll be taking the train from Eguisheim to Bonnieux.

By train too, you can make a detour via Basel - Swiss alps - Geneva. It will cost more than via Besancon - Lyon, however.

Thanks everyone. I'm feeling a bit lost here. The (ideal) plan was to take the train from Colmar to Lauterbrunnen Valley and then carry on to Murren or Wengen. But considering weather is so unpredictable, I'm wondering if this is a good idea. Someone on another forum suggested the possibility of driving from Colmar to Interlaken Ost and leaving the car there and then ride up to Wengen. The whole point is to see some of the Swiss Alps and some beautiful scenery. Wondering if we'd be better off going to Germany and Freiburg and the Black Forest. Sorry.....I'm all over the place with this. Any more suggestions? It's all very much appreciated. Thank you.

I love Freiburg, but that's probably because it's where my family lives. It's a beautiful little university city with what's reputed to be the best weather in Germany. There are great places to eat including a cool food hall and a wonderful market in the Munsterplatz. The surrounding area has terrific local wine, Spatburgunder (pinot noir), with restaurants which are affiliated with wineries. Look for the broom to be hanging, an indication that they're open for business and eat the flammkuchen. You could still go to Basel. It isn't far.

With a car, you can easily see a bit of both Switzerland and Germany. But the most interesting city in the area is Strasbourg.

We stayed in Grindewald (near Lauterbrunnen in the BO) and then moved on to the Alsace (staying in Ribeauville) a few years ago so I am familiar with the route. We had a car and the drive was an easy 2 1/2 hours or so. I think a daytrip would be perfectly feasible but I agree about the weather. Also note that it would be a long day. Once you get to the BO you have to spend time waiting to get up to Wengen and/or Murren and then back down. With that being said, the BO blew me away. We've been all over the alps on numerous trips to Europe and the BO is spectacular. Another option would be to hang out on Lake Thun.

I also agree that Strasbourg is absolutely worth a visit. We took a train from Colmar for the day. I can't speak on the Black Forest because after we left the Alsace region we went to Bavaria, near Fussen, for the remainder of our trip instead.

Thanks for your replies everyone. Some helpful advice. We'd really like to make Switzerland work if we can figure it out. Google maps says it's a 2 1/2 hour drive from Eguisheim to Lauterbrunnen. So approximately 5-6 hours driving time. If we can leave around 6 - 7 am and arrive by 10, we could have at least 6-8 hours of sightseeing time and then leave to drive back to Eguisheim no later than 6pm. I agree, it would make for a very long day, but hopefully worth it! I'm not ruling out other options just yet. If I could convince my husband, we could possibly stay one night somewhere, but since we've already paid for our other accommodations, he probably won't want to do that.

>> 6 - 7 am and arrive by 10, we could have at least 6-8 hours of sightseeing time and then leave to drive back to Eguisheim no later than 6pm. <<

Can you really "get up & go" by 7:00 on a vacation?. Do you need a Swiss sticker on your car - getting one may consume time https://www.myswissalps.com/motorwayvignette . What happens if you hit a "deviation" on the motorway & everyone is funneled into 1 lane going as fast as the slowest truck in front of you. Departing Lauterbrunnen at 6PM will get you back to Eguisheim at 8:30 to 8:45 without deviations. Sunset is at 8PM. And if it is "clouded over"???? In the Alps, we've seen the clouds come in within 15 mins of it being perfectly clear. And once we were in Murren for 4 nights in mid Sept & we never saw the Junfrau. In fact, it snowed one day.

That region is spectacular. Buy just like visiting Mt Blanc - timing is everything.

Stu Dudley

I'd drive to Grindelwald with a car - Lauterbrunnen is in a deep ditch - Grindelwald has a vast panorama of the Junfrau massif and take mountain railways and cable cars to nearby spots.

I would suggest for your time to cop the cable way from Grindelwald to The Mannlichen - raved viewpoint over the spiny ridge of central Switzerland. And you can take the easy downhill few mile walk to Kleine Schedegg - where you could take train to Jungfraujoch and back if time permits.

for lots on day-trip transports once there check BETS-European Rail Experts and www.seat61.com; www.ricksteves.com.

Regarding dining in Alsace.

We will be in Alsace the last week in August and the first week in September this year - 2 weeks. We'll be there when you'll be there. It is our second trip to Alsace since 2000 - the other visit was for only 1 week. Prior to 2000, we visited Alsace on several three-night stays.

For various reasons, I tried to make dinner reservations over the past 2 weeks, for 8 dinners in Alsace at Michelin starred restaurants. Of the first 5 restaurants I contacted - all of them were going to be closed for their "annual vacation" during the last week in Aug & first week in Sept. Fortunately, 1 of these 5 had their vacation starting on a Sunday - and we are going to arrive on the prior Sat - so we reserved. For 1 of the other restaurants, they were returning from vacation on the final Friday we would be in Alsace - so we reserved for that Friday. But 3 others would not be open at all.

Don't know if you are foodies or not - but don't wait too long to reserve restaurants. It seems that this period is a popular vacation time for restaurants in Alsace.

Stu Dudley

I cannot understand why you want to waste you time by travelling from Eguishjeim to the Alps AND BACK if your final destination is in Provence.
Some driving times:
Eguisheim - Cavaillon: 6 1/2 hrs
Eguisheim - Bern - Grindelwald: 3 hrs
Eguisheim - Bern - Chamonix: 4 hrs
Chamonix - Cavaillon: 4 1/2 hrs
Eguisheim - Bern - Gstaad/Glacier 3000: 3hrs
Gstaad/Glacier 3000 - Cavaillon: 5 1/2 hrs

Thank you Stu for the heads up about the restaurants. I'll look into that. And yes....we have no problem getting up and being on the road for 6 or 7 am on vacation. Not every day of course, but for something like this, no problem.
And thanks again to everyone else who chimed in. We're just going to play it by ear and see what comes once we're there. At least now we know what to expect.