Monkeys on the Wine Route

SATURDAY WAS A beautiful day in this part of France and we spent a good part of it along the great Alsace Wine Route, but our objective not to find a great Reisling or Pinot Gris. No, our objective on this day was: monkeys.

Just above the village of Kintzheim you will find the Montagne des Singes, a natural habitat with hundreds of monkeys that roam free and eat popcorn out of your hand. The park was created to help preserve a particular species of monkeys that come from north Africa (Magot, I think?) It was truely an amazing site to see, particularly when you consider we were in the Vosges mountains, not some some north african forest.

The villages that are scattered along the Route de Vin are stunning and we will be sure to spent quite a bit more time there. Because of a book I am now reading called Wine & War: The French, The Nazis, and France's Greatest Treasure, I'm looking forward to more visits to some of these villages. (Click on the link to see the book at Amazon).

CJS