Alsace is one of those places that feels like it shouldn’t be real. Half-timbered villages with window boxes full of geraniums, storks nesting on the rooftops, and vineyards climbing every slope. It’s also about five hours from Calais, which makes it one of the easiest European road trips you can do from the UK. You’re there by late afternoon, checked in, and sitting in a winstub with a glass of Riesling and a plate of choucroute before the sun goes down.

The driving splits into three: the Vosges passes on one side — the Route des Crêtes, the Grand Ballon, the Col de la Schlucht — which are tight, forested mountain roads with views that open up at every summit. The Alsace Wine Route through the middle, which is gentler and more about the villages than the bends. And then the Black Forest across the Rhine in Germany — dense, dark, absolutely brilliant driving roads that feel completely different to the French side. Same mountains, different character entirely.

Four nights is enough to do all three without rushing. The food and wine are exceptional on both sides of the border, and the whole trip has a cosy, unhurried quality that’s hard to find on the bigger Alpine trips.