Seven days in Alsace

I’ve finally found a bit of time to scan all the sketchbook pages from my July teaching trip in Alsace. (And yes, my trusty scanner is back at work, thanks to a new adaptor cord.)

Despite several trips to Strasbourg over the past decade (a good friend lives there), I had never had the opportunity to explore the Alsatian villages along La Route des Vins. Well, let me tell you it’s an extraordinary area. Vineyards as far as the eye can see! And, as if created just for sketchers, these vineyards are often steeply banked so they form a dramatic backdrop to nearly every village we visited.

Our visit coincided with La Fête Nationale (Bastille Day)—the biggest holiday on the French calendar. Sadly, though, it was too dangerously dry for the traditional fireworks, but folks were having fun anyway. In the village of Riquewihr (above), they were busily packing up tables and chairs from last night’s party.

With their timbered houses and cobbled streets, each village we visited in Alsace vied with its neighbour for charm and grace. In Bergheim, we sketched a backlit street scene and reflections in windows.

When we’d had our fill of half-timbered houses, we turned to gardens and to families of giant storks whose nests adorn many chimney tops throughout Alsace.

One day, we ventured to the Ecomusée d’Alsace, which offers a wealth of old buildings and artefacts from rural life—all of them ideal sketching subjects. In fact, when it rained in the afternoon and we had to take shelter in some of the historic buildings, including a blacksmith’s and a pharmacy, we just kept on sketching.

In the shelter of the museum gift shop, I did an ink drawing of this little stone building and the lush flower pots in front, and added colour later.

I was lucky to visit the village of Ribeauvillé twice—once with the group from the Rhine Cruise and once with my Alsace group. The spread above combines two demos from different days. I started with the fountain and window on the right, and then extended the panorama with a row of houses the following week.

Of course, it was absolutely necessary to add grapevines to our sketchbooks, alongside little stone and buildings and a belfry.

My favourite view (see below) was from the vineyards high above the town. You get a real sense of the hilly landscape in Alsace, where so much land is given over to growing grapes.

On our final days in Alsace, we took a day trip to Strasbourg, where we sat along the canal and drew the large timbered houses of La Petite France.

As it turns out, you can get an awful lot of sketching in when you do it every day for a week. I think we captured pretty much everything: The near and far; homes, steeples and shops; birds and plants; quite of few villagers—and lots and lots of history. The only thing is missing is the food, but I am not really a food sketcher (I’d rather eat what’s in front of me than let it get cold).

As always, my heartfelt thanks to French Escapade for taking us to such great places, and of course to the wonderful students in the group. We had so much fun together, didn’t we?