Lesser-known French region has amazing wine and is cheap to stay in

''No joking…it IS him,” my friend insisted. But I wasn’t convinced. From where we were sitting we could see right into the kitchen and she was sure it was running the show.

And because we were in a two Michelin star restaurant Jy’s in Colmar, France, enjoying an exquisite seven-course meal paired with, it wasn’t beyond the realms of possibility that it could be the angry TV chef doing the cooking. But it turned out to be a chef called Jean-Yves Schillinger who was the spitting image of his Scottish counterpart. And when we spoke to him after our meal, he told us he is routinely mistaken for Ramsay.

He can certainly cook just as well. His restaurant is attached to the luxurious L’Esquisse Hotel and Spa in Colmar which is in the glorious Alsace region of France. Colmar is the start of the AlsaceTrail which was established as a tourist trail in 1953 and winds more than 170 miles from north to south passing through nearly 70 wine producing villages and more than 1,000 producers who open their doors to visitors. It is a handsome town compact enough to get around on foot.

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We started our day at the Art Museum, which houses the famous Isenheim Altarpiece. This 14th-century painting was moved to Colmar in 1793 and has undergone extensive restoration ever since. It is now on display in all its eye-popping glory. Other artistic treasures on display include works by Picasso and Renoir (Musee-unterlinden.com £10 per adult).

Starving after all this art and culture we headed to Wistub Brenner – a restaurant in the ‘Little Venice’ area of the town– for lunch. I had a nice view of the photogenic canals as I enjoyed my excellent braised beef and herbs.

After lunch we jumped on ‘The Little Train’ which trundled us tourists around the Colmar to get a good handle on the history of the place. We passed by the wine and chocolate museum and decided to investigate (Petit-train-colmar.fr £7 per adult). The wine area of the museum was amazingly comprehensive with an audio guide in English explaining the wine-making exhibits in an entertaining way.

One really nice touch is the ‘Et Retrouvez Les Aromes’ – an area where you get to test your nose and identify the aromas of various wines. My nose obviously isn’t that refined as I could only get vanilla and citrus ( £10.50 per adult).

A really cool fact about Colmar is its historic New York connection. Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, the designer of The Statue of Liberty was born here and the town has its own mini version of the lady with the torch.

We had started off our French adventure the previous day in Paris at the mouthful Domaine de la Reine Margot Paris-Issy MGallery Collection – a smart boutique hotel conveniently located in Issy-Les-Moulineaux just two Metro stops from the city centre.

From my balcony I had a magnificent view of the Eiffel Tower. The original hotel building dates back to 1606 when it was the residence of a French queen. It then passed into the hands of the Priests of Saint-Sulpice who added a chapel, now deconsecrated, that serves as a funky rum bar, with the hotel offering rum mixing and tasting sessions.

We went for the tasting and out of the selection I can report that the Santiago De Cuba goes down a treat (rum tasting, £83 per person).

The hotel has a really nice bar and restaurant. The chef cooks all the fresh herbs and vegetables which are grown in the huge hotel gardens. I had the special of Bouchees Marguerite, lobster and beetroot served with tarragon.

From Colmar we headed to the village of Mittelbergerheim to tour the Domaine Boeckel winery. Thomas Boeckel, a fifth generation winemaker, showed us around the cellars where huge oak barrels hold wine which takes between seven and 14 months to mature. The aroma there is divine.

Thomas explained that the area is such a rich one for wine-making because of the five different soil types found in Alsace. His winery produces 300,000 bottles a year – the stars being their Rieslings ( £17 per adult including tasting and tour). Thomas gave us a wine tasting at the end of the tour and the samples were so good I failed to spit them out! A very merry me left for our next stop, Barr.

We stopped at Elfin restaurant for lunch – another Michelin star gem – where we enjoyed a six-course fine dining lunch. The food couldn’t have been fresher. The beef I had melted in the mouth.

Swanky Barr is another village that looks straight out of a fairytale. Our hotel was the 5 Terres Hotel and Spa, a former 16th century meeting house where the winemakers used to gather and fix the prices. Now it’s been recently renovated to keep many of the original features of the old building.

The owner and designer, Jean-Daniel Seltz, is also a wine expert. His hotel has a huge cellar holding more than 10,000 bottles, with 60% of the stock being local wine from Alsace. A wine tasting is available to book from reception and we did just that, with Jean-Daniel there to guide us through the best of his stock. I did spit it out this time as I wanted to be sober enough to enjoy another fine dining dinner at the swanky hotel restaurant La Table du 5.

On our final day we travelled to Strasbourg – the capital of Alsace – to join a walking tour of the city (Strasbourg Original Private Tour £128 per group. Up to 10 people). Another picture postcard city, its most famous building is the majestic gothic cathedral, built in 1439, and now the second most visited cathedral in France after Notre-Dame.

It was for 227 years, from 1647 to 1874, the world’s tallest building and houses an astronomical animated clock, built between 1837 and 1842, which still works. There is no entry charge.

Fascinating facts on our Strasbourg stroll included learning that this is where Johannes Gutenberg invented the first printing press. The chic and touristy area ‘Little France’ is so called because it was the red light district where French troops hung out when the city was under German control.

Strasbourg was also the birthplace of the French national anthem La Marseillaise, written here in 1792 by Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle after France’s declaration of war against Austria. There is a plaque on the house where he lived to commemorate this momentous event.

Famished after all this walking and history we retired to the city’s oldest restaurant, Maison Kammerzell. A place that seems to have been visited by every politician and celebrity past and present with all the signed pictures on the walls.

The German influence is still strong here, and in tribute I ordered the three fish sauerkraut. It was very good indeed and the French Gordon would have approved. We only scratched the surface of the Alsace region during our short day but learned there is much to like in this historic and classy destination.

Book the holiday

• London to Paris with Eurostar starts at £39 one-way. .
• Paris to Colmar with TGV INOUI starts at around £23.50 one-way; Colmar to Strasbourg around £13; Strasbourg to Paris around £16. .
• Rooms at the Domaine de la Reine Margot Paris Issy - MGallery Collection hotel in Paris start at around £283 a night B&B.
• Rooms at the L'Esquisse Hotel & Spa Colmar - MGallery Collection in Colmar start at around £258 a night B&B.
• Rooms at the 5 Terres Hotel & Spa Barr - MGallery Collection in Barr, Alsace, start at around £198 a night B&B. . More info at visit.alsace