Christmas markets in Alsace: three days of castle-hopping from Saverne to Sélestat

In five weeks, the wooden chalets will reclaim Alsace’s squares, bringing mulled wine, bredele and Saturday afternoon crowds. But there’s another way: start at the castles that overlook or encircle these towns, and descend to the markets as the fairy lights flicker on. This three-day route follows the Bas-Rhin from north to south. It begins in the northern Vosges, on a crag topped by a castle that has known three lives, spends the night behind the moat of a château inhabited by the same family since 1817, then heads to Sélestat, the town that claims the earliest written mention of the Christmas tree. It ends at Haut-Koenigsbourg, where puppets will be telling an Advent tale this winter, and on the wooded ridge of Frankenbourg, one of Alsace’s rare round keeps.