ALSACE - France 2014 - page 1451

cause villages often had only two or three family names, you couldn't say “the Jones
house.” You'd say, rather, the Unicorn House.
The vineyards surrounding town belonged to absentee princes. The impressive man-
sions all around were the domains of men who managed the estate of a feudal lord and, in
return, got a cut of the production. At #14 you can see what would have been considered a
skyscraperinthe16thcentury—thehighestRenaissancebuildinginAlsace.At#16,notice
the broad arches for wagons of grapes. Venture into the courtyard (filled with restaurant
tables) with its traditional Alsatian galleries and evocative old well. The mammoth 1817
winepressdrainedjuicedirectlyintothecellar.Attheentryisacollection of200-year-old
iron stove plates. Decorated with old German texts, these were placed behind the fire to
both protect the back wall and reflect heat out.
At the town's main intersection is a street leading to two churches (Protestant to the
right, Catholic to the left and neither of sightseeing interest). Before the age of private
plumbing, public fountains were scattered through town.
Find the sign for the town gourmet at #42. The word “gourmet” originated here in
France, where each town in winemaking regions had an official wine judge, appraiser, and
middleman. The gourmet was instrumental in effectively connecting the vintner with the
thirsty market. He facilitated sales and set prices. To judge the wine, he needed to have a
little fine food to complement the tasting. The town appointed the gourmet, and the posi-
tion—quite lucrative as you can see by this fine house—was then handed down from fath-
er to son. While the traditional function of the gourmet died out in the 1930s, the concept
of the person with the best food in town—the gourmet—survives to this day.
Wander through the gourmet's courtyards. Notice the nails on timbers designed to
hold stucco. In the 18th and 19th centuries, half-timbered houses were considered “low
class,” so owners stuccoed over the wood to make it look like a stone home. Follow the
gangly wooden structures to the roofline in back to see a stone wall protruding above the
rooftiles—built tostopfires. Back whenroofswere made with woodshingles (rather than
today's safer terra-cotta), fire was a common problem.
At the top of town stands one of the most impressive guard towers in Alsace (Le
Dolder, from 1291). The Dolder Museum, inside the tower, has small rooms covering its
history—but doesn't merit the climb or €3 entry fee. Look for the engraving of 13th-cen-
tury Riquewihr by the fountain opposite the tower's entry.
Oldertownswerefortifiedwith walls builttowithstandarrows.Whentheygrewbig-
ger—and war technology advanced to include gunpowder and cannon, the townspeople
built a stouter wall outside the original wall. In this case, it left an area in the middle for
“newer” 18th-century houses. Notice how homes were built right into the defensive walls.