Highlights August 2014
Welcome to High Point Holidays' August edition of Highlights. Our latest blog is a review of Monty Don's The Road to Tholonet. The English TV presenter was born in Germany, so I thought we'd focus on the most Germanic of French regions, Alsace, an ideal autumn walking destination. And for those that want to understand the French culture better, we have copies of Speak the Culture: France to give away in our new competition.
Best Wishes
Mark Armstrong |
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Focus on the Alsace
Alsace is a distinct region of France with an important cultural and historic heritage, picturesque countryside and fine wines. It is a culturally distinct experience from most other parts of France due its German links; over recent centuries, Alsace has passed between the hands of France and Germany, after a period of independent rule.
The Alsace is an ideal late spring and autumn destination with its semi-continental climate; the Vosges hills protect the Rhine Valley to the east, giving the region a dry and sunny micro-climate.
Our self guided walking holiday in the Alsace explores two distinct areas: the famous Alsace vineyards and the Vosges hills and valleys that border them.
The Alsace vines are famous for producing world renowned dry riesling white wines and the area has a rich architectural and historical heritage. You'll get the chance to explore a number of medieval castles atop striking outposts and pretty unspolit villages decorated with beautiful floral displays and cobbled alleyways lined with typical Alsace houses. All this set in a perfect decor of timeless valleys covered in vines, orchards and woods.
Alsace: Vineyards & Mountains Self-guided Walking Holiday
1 April - 31 October
- £725 P/P based on 2 sharing (single supplement £170)
- 6 nights - 5 day's self-guided walking moving between guest houses
- Optional extra night at Kaysersberg giving you more time to visit this historic town or to walk to Riquewihr, one of the prettiest historic villages in the region
Other French Walking Destinations
Other Self Guided Walking Holidays |
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Walking Holiday Updates
New Confirmed Guided Walking Holidays:
Burgundy: Historical Walks in Chardonnay Country
19th - 25th October 2014
SPACES AVAILABLE
This is a 6 nights, 5 days walking version of this holiday. It is single centre based and the price of £655 includes all breakfasts, 5 lunches and 4 evening meals. Accommodation is at Cote Vigne. Cote Vigne provides high quality accommodation, a great personal welcome and fantastic food.
High Point Holidays' 2014 Walking & Cycling Holidays Brochures
If you would like one please e-mail us and let us know.
Please note the brochure is also available online on our website.
New Independent/Self Guided Walking Holidays for 2014:
Beaujolais Wine Trail: Chateaux & Medieval Villages
This walking holiday follows on from our Grand Crus wine trail & traverses a number of pretty valleys harbouring pretty chateaux and quaint villages.
Les Ecrins: Panoramic Alpine Trail
This spectacular trail takes you past high alpine lakes, through stunning valleys and along beautiful balcony paths following one of the best sections of the Tour of the Ecrins.
Tour of Ardeche: Rustic Trails
This walking tour is located in the heart of the Ardeche Regional Park & includes wonderful heather-clad moutains with great panoramic views; pretty chestnut forests; beautiful rivers and sun parched, vine covered slopes.
Please don't hesitate to contact us if you have any queries on any of our holidays.
Ever disappointed that we do not do walking holidays in a particular country or region, then why not send us your suggestions to contact@highpointholidays.co.uk
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 Latest Competition
Win a copy of Speak the Culture: France
Speak the Culture: France covers the broad spectrum of French culture, from history and language to the creative arts and the habits of everyday life: there's all those artists (Monet, Rodin, Renoir), philosophers (from Descartes to Sartre) and filmmakers (Truffaut, Chabrol and Kassovitz). And then there’s the everyday culture - the food, the wine, the strikes, the shrugs, the quirky driving...
Plus you can still win a copy of Simon Jenkins book ENGLAND'S 100 Best Views.
Bestselling author Simon Jenkins picks one hundred of England's best views and explores the rich architecture, history, botany and geology that lies behind them.
There are many that feature on our Jurrasic Coast and Cornwall Coast Walking Holidays including the view of Chesil Beach from Abbotsbury as well as on our Wessex Walking Holiday, such as the view down Gold Hill in Shaftesbury.
For more information on how to enter either competitions please visit our competition page. |
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Turckheim
Turckheim is a village located in Alsace, west of Colmar on the eastern slopes of the Vosges mountains.
Turckheim is well known for its Gewurtztraminer wines and Alsatian cuisine as well as its scenery, as the village is surrounded by the stunning soft green hills of the Vosges, topped by castles and fortifications. Turckheim also lies amid some dramatic and colourful vineyards, which produce the regions famous white wines.
Few of its early Renaissance buildings were destroyed in the numerous wars which swept through Alsace, therefore there are plenty of buildings in the Alsatian style typified by half-timbered homes. It's also well known for its surrounding medieval wall. The wall has three doors: The Munster Door, opening into the Munster Valley; The Door of the Brand, which begins the Route des Vins; and the Door of France, through which is the railway station and roads to Colmar.
Turckheim has a Night Watchman, a traditionally dressed Turckheim native who makes the rounds at 10pm each night from May to October... MORE
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The Road to Tholonet by Monty Don
In his book, Monty meanders through his own memories of visits to France when he was young and his accounts of French gardens are intermingled with historical background as well as his own views on rural France and French culture.
Monty is a regular visitor to France and each visit reminds him of how big the country is. "The range of landscapes is astonishing and ....... there are still vast tranches of the country that are unspoilt, sparsely populated and staggeringly beautiful."
On walking Monty remarks: "Walking through any landscape, feeling its stones and slips beneath your feet and the meaning of gradient in your weary legs tells you so much more than any map or scrutiny from a car window can ever do."
His nostalgic look back causes him to reflect that: "There is an innocence in this, a sense of a pure past that is now unreclaimable and I suspect, increasingly hunts you down with the ache of loss as the years pass, but which is for me irrevocably associated with that corner of France."..
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