Activities & Attractions

The stop that cuts the three-lakes loop in half. A marcaire meal, cheese made on the farm, and a glacial cirque for a dining room. Open from May to November.

• Soultzeren, on the shore of Lac du Forlet
• About 2h at the table
• 1 May to 1 November

A rustic dining room, local produce, and the iconic Vosges plate. Twenty minutes by car from the gite.

• Orbey, 331 Pré Bracot
• About 2h at the table
• Year-round (closed in January)

A ninety-minute tour of Munster AOP cheese, from the cow to the ripening cellar, with a shop and a restaurant on site. In Gunsbach, forty minutes from Orbey.

• Gunsbach (40 min from Orbey)
• About 1h30
• February to early January

A figure-of-eight route you can split in half. The boulder field of the Grand Hohnack, then the castle ruins, fifteen minutes' drive from Orbey.

• Start: Parking de la Trinque, Labaroche
• 2 h 30
• All year

A 1,220 m summit the front line ran straight across. Trenches, concrete shelters and the Carrefour Duchesne war cemetery under the firs.

• Start: Col du Calvaire, Orbey
• 2 h 30
• March to November

Ledges cut into the rock, walkways and stairs along the cliffs of the Schlucht cirque. Strenuous and exposed, for experienced hikers.

• Start: Col de la Schlucht
• 4 to 5 hours
• May to October

Lac Blanc, Lac Noir, Lac du Forlet. A high-altitude loop starting near Orbey, a classic that never gets old.

• Start: Col du Calvaire, Orbey
• 4 to 4.5 hours
• 1 March to 15 November

A day in town: half-timbered houses along the Lauch, the covered market, and the altarpiece Grünewald painted between 1512 and 1516.

• Colmar (25 to 30 min from Orbey)
• Half a day to a full day
• Year-round

France's largest open-air museum: 80 half-timbered houses saved from demolition and rebuilt beam by beam around a village square.

• Ungersheim (about 1 hour from Orbey)
• A full day
• April to early January

A 12th-century fortress, fully restored in the early 1900s, with sweeping views across the Alsatian plain.

• Orschwiller (45 min from Orbey)
• 1.5 to 2 hours
• Year-round

A ruined fortress, looked after by volunteers, with a wide view over the Munster and Kaysersberg valleys.

• Labaroche (Pays Welche)
• 1 to 2 hours on site
• All year

A medieval town wedged between the Weiss and the vineyards, under the round keep of the Schlossberg. Voted France's favourite village in 2017, and Albert Schweitzer's birthplace.

• Kaysersberg Vignoble (15 min from Orbey)
• 2 to 3 hours
• Year-round

The major historic site in Orbey itself. German concrete on one side of the path; on the other, a few metres away, what is left of the French trenches.

• Orbey, Collet du Linge (14 km from the gîte)
• 2 to 3 hours
• Mid-April to mid-November

Where the Pays Welche stops being an abstraction. Two-hour guided tour, online booking required, open four days a week.

• Fréland (11 km from the gîte)
• 2-hour guided tour
• Mid-April to mid-October

Open every single day of the year, free to enter, with a tasting at the end. The best thing to do around here when it rains.

• Lapoutroie (9 km from the gîte)
• Self-guided, at your own pace
• Year-round

In Labaroche, a museum built by volunteers: the clog maker's shop, the wheelwright, the forge, an 1896 steam engine and close to a thousand wooden toys. Guided visit, two hours.

• Labaroche (pays welche)
• About 2h
• April to early November

Nine marked tracks from green to black, detachable chairlift, on-site gear rental. 25 min from Orbey.

• Lac Blanc resort, Le Bonhomme
• Half-day to full day
• April to October

Orbey's treetop adventure park, open 1 May to 27 September. One course from age 3 on a continuous lifeline, then junior and adult packs up to the black course. Twenty minutes from the gite.

• Lac Blanc 1200, Orbey
• 1h30 to 3h30 depending on the pack
• 1 May to 27 September

Over 200 macaques roaming free across 24 hectares of forest, and a few hundred metres away, birds of prey flying loose above a medieval castle.

• Kintzheim (45 min from Orbey)
• About 2 hours per park
• Late March to mid-November