Selestat, an important town for centuries throughout the Middle Ages, has numerous attractions for visitors, both viticultural and historical. The Velo Route du Vignoble d’Alsace (the Alsace Vineyard Bike Trail) first brought me here. (See the Nutshell). The trail’s northern half is somewhat hilly. So, by the time I got to the villages in the foothills just outside Selestat, between Dambach-la-Ville’s Grand Cru Frankstein vineyard and Kintzheim’s Grand Cru Praelatenberg vineyard, I was delighted with the flat stretch through vineyards overlooked by castle-topped mountains. I decided then to return to hike the area someday.
After years of remodeling, Selestat’s Bibliotheque Humaniste (Humanist Library) finally reopened, and I began researching local wine-themed trails. I first found the Vignoble de Selestat trail. (Online, the Circuit de Piemont and the Circuit du Vignoble refer to the same itinerary.) So, after visiting the library in the morning to see Merovingian and Carolingian manuscripts, I headed a mile away to the trailhead in Chatenois.
Trail Name: Circuit du Vignoble (Bike), Circuit de Piémont (Hike)
Trail Type: Mid-distance circuit trail; well-maintained, with almost exclusively paved or hard-packed surfaces throughout, marking on the trail not always easily discerned
Length: 10.1 kilometers/6 miles
Convenient to: Selestat, Alsace, France
Marking:
Green circle outline on a white background (hike); Yellow (or orange) triangle (pointing to direction of travel) with two yellow (or orange) wheels, indicates a bike-able trail itinerary, though not clear whether this one or not. Note too, this sign indicates villages and distances to them. With so many trails (and signs) in this area, the issue is finding consistent marking to follow for a specific trail.
