In the town of Colmar, northern France

 Colmar was apparently the inspiration for the village in the Disney film, Beauty and the Beast, and walking through its streets today is a bit like imagining childhood fairytales come to life. Here, there’s a wooden turret that would be perfect for Rapunzel (to let her hair down from), tiny cottages that would make the ideal home for seven dwarfs, and a candy-colored bakery that Hansel and Gretel would surely want to frequent.

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(in northeastern France) The town of Colmar, in the cultural region of Alsace, is located 42 miles (~67 km) southwest of Strasbourg, and 10 miles (16 km) west of the Rhine River; it borders the German frontier, a few miles east of the foothills of the Vosges Mountains. The first mention of Colmar is found in a chronicle of the Saxon wars of Charlemagne, emperor of the West (from 800–814). In 1226 Colmar was elevated to the status of an imperial town by the Holy Roman emperor Frederick II, and was surrounded by defensive walls. Civil rights were granted to it by Rudolf of Habsburg in 1278. In 1632, during the Thirty Years’ War, it was occupied by Sweden. Louis XIII of France took the town under his protection in 1635; it was later conquered by France under King Louis XIV in 1673 and officially ceded by the 1679 Treaties of Nijmegen. In 1854, a cholera epidemic killed many in the city. With the rest of Alsace, Colmar was annexed by the newly formed German Empire in 1871 as a result of the Franco-Prussian War and incorporated into the Alsace-Lorraine province. It was returned to France after World War 1, pursuant to the 1919 Treaty of Versailles, but was annexed by Nazi Germany in 1940, and then reverted to French control after the battle of the "Colmar Pocket" in 1945.

+ Colmar’s many fountains, ancient churches, and Alsatian Renaissance houses have made it a center of tourism. The Musée d’Unterlinden, formerly a convent, houses the 16th-century Isenheim Altarpiece, the masterwork of the German religious painter Matthias Grünewald. The home of the sculptor of New York City’s Statue of Liberty, Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi (who was born in Colmar in 1834), is a local museum.

+ Colmar is the quintessential Alsatian town, brimming with traditional restaurants and surrounded by vineyards and medieval castles. Officially launched as a tourist trail in 1953, the Alsace Wine Route winds its way lovingly through 170 km of hills and vineyards from the north to the south of the region. It passes through almost 70 winegrowing villages (including the town of Colamar), where some 1,000 wine producers look forward to welcoming you to share their passion for wine. As you make your way through the vineyards, and stroll around charming villages, scramble over castle walls, meet winegrowers (and learn about their skills), taste the wines of Alsace at a sensory workshop, or bask in the luxury of a spa with views over the vines -- you can surely to make your stay tin the area quite a memorable one indeed!