COLMAR: Everything You NEED To Know About This French Fairytale Town 🇫🇷🍷 | Walking Tour & Full Guide

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We weren’t expecting this—Colmar felt like stepping into a real-life fairytale.

Days 49 and 50 of our 97-day backpacking trip brought us to Colmar, deep in France’s Alsace region. We’d seen photos of the canals and timbered houses—but walking those streets in person was surreal. It’s one of those places that feels frozen in time… until you stumble into a hidden speakeasy bar tucked behind a flower-covered alley.

This video takes you on a 4K cinematic walking tour through Colmar’s old town. You’ll see:

What to expect during the day vs night

Which streets and spots are actually worth your time

A local speakeasy we didn’t even plan to find

Honest thoughts on whether Colmar is overhyped—or totally worth it

If you’re planning a trip to France beyond Paris, exploring the Alsace Wine Route, or just chasing places that look as good in person as they do on Pinterest—Colmar should be on your radar.

💬 Let us know: Would you visit Colmar, or is another Alsace village calling your name?

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📍Timestamps:
0:00 Intro
1:03 Town Walkthrough
1:45 Colmar Overview
6:27 Town Walkthrough
8:58 Colmar Review
11:37 Le Shelby Speakeasy Bar
14:26 Town Walkthrough

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This vlog includes a full Colmar walking tour, what to do in Colmar at night, hidden gems in the Alsace region, canal towns in France, speakeasy bars in Colmar, best day trips in Alsace, where to go in France beyond Paris, and cinematic b-roll from the most charming town we’ve visited so far.

[Music] good morning from Kmar France 
got here yesterday pretty late in the day and we were just completely struggling 
to find food there are basically no grocery stores in Kmar i mean I think that there 
maybe are like two kind of legit grocery stores but nothing that we’re used to really 
small portions and a lot of the things that showed up as grocery stores were basically 
just like Italian meat shops where you know there was like cold cuts and like bread 
and homemade pasta that is expensive yeah [Music] [Music] yo $7 best bread ever welcome to Komar a remarkably 
preserved town in the Alysis region just 20 miles away from the German border now while it 
may look like a quiet town Komar is very much alive with buildings dating as far back 
as the 12th century still used as homes cafes and shops the town’s unique identity comes from 
centuries of bouncing between French and German control which is why the architecture here feels 
distinctly mixed french windows framed by German half-timbering wine sellers under pastel colored 
fake caves and Gothic churches sitting right next to Renaissance mansions one lesserknown fact is 
that Kmar is the hometown of Frederick Augusti Bartholi the sculptor behind the Statue of 
Liberty you can even visit a replica of Lady Liberty on the roundabout just outside the town 
center built to honor his [Music] legacy another cool surprise is Kmar’s canal district nicknamed 
Little Venice wasn’t just built for tourists it was a strategic route for transporting wine and 
produce throughout the town by flat bottom boats today you can still float on these same waters 
while hearing stories from medieval guilds and 15th century merchants beneath several of Kar’s 
oldest buildings are hidden wine sellers that survived untouched during World War II because 
the Nazis valued Alice wines so highly that they protected the vintages underground so yes this 
quiet little town has outlasted empires hidden treasures beneath its streets and sent 
one of the most iconic statues across the Atlantic kmar isn’t just a one-stop town though 
it’s another one of the Alyses wine route one of the oldest in France and a dream for anyone 
who lives for slow travel the entire region is dotted with medieval villages that feel frozen in 
time like Rebovier and Exahheim both just 15 to 25 minutes away by car or bus which we’ll be actually 
going to in about an hour these places are tiny some with under 2,000 residents but they’ve been 
voted amongst the most beautiful in France for their cobbled lanes flower drape balconies 
and ridiculously wellpreserved architecture kmar though is a perfect base because it’s way 
larger around 70,000 residents here and has way more restaurants museums and public transportation 
links than its neighbors along this whole wine region the Unter Linen Museum holds art pieces 
here that include works dating back all the way to the 1200s including the famous Eenheim 
alterpiece and if you’re visiting in the winter Kmar’s Christmas markets are often ranked even 
above Straburg if you’re visiting in the spring or summer you’ll see why painters and photographers 
obsess over the light here it’s usually way brighter due to the town’s location in a valley 
sheltered by the Zo Mountains which blocks heavy clouds from the west this is the kind of place 
where people just stroll for hours without an agenda kind of like us a little bit i mean we have 
an agenda but like this is a nice place because there isn’t too many landmarks that we have to 
stop at and speak about like am I really going to tell you about the history of this tree and yeah 
we can pick out like really specific houses or maybe there’s a cathedral or I guess we could talk 
about the museum or the Statue of Liberty here but overall ton of colorful houses and it’s just 
a lot of just nice footage nice scenery and we don’t have to stop every second to film all of 
the different little attractions so it’s very nice not having an agenda here but here in Kmar 
just discovering sellers courtyards viewpoints between villages is amazing this place is best 
for couples solo travelers photographers and wine lovers anyone who hates tourist traps and 
wants something slower more scenic and deeply rooted in history will feel at home here the only 
real tourist kind of scam kind of we’re seeing is like the little boat trips or all the locks on 
the bridges but other than that like you don’t have to buy the locks to put them on the bridges 
and you don’t have to buy a boat tour around the river like in our experience from Oxford and 
Cambridge when we did the punting tours that was something truly worth it it’s so fun being on 
those boats and being in the water that to me is not a scam whatsoever so Kar really peaceful 
definitely an older set of people here today so it’s just like calm it doesn’t really feel 
too touristy just again feels stuck in time [Music] yeah this place is actually perfect i can only 
imagine what it would look like in the summer i mean it’s actually pretty obvious to kind 
of figure out what it would look like in the summer because we do have good weather today 
but as far as just like the amount of people and no clouds shorts I mean just look at this 
section this is clearly like some type of city center and there are just seats everywhere there’s 
probably you know 500 just empty seats right here like imagine the summer like everybody’s out maybe 
like drinking wine drinking beer just like a nice summer day all the colorful houses everything 
is just reflecting off the sun it would be so nice and lively but here there’s just like not 
that many people but it’s still very gorgeous [Music] [Music] hello co hello co mama hello 
co m hello co mama hello co mama hello co m hello co mama [Music] there hasn’t really been much action there 
hasn’t really been much people so we’ve been kind of like just changing locations 
every day but we’ll see what happens today not exactly sure our recommendation though is 
just like come to the little Venice area and make a stop into Marvert marvert Market it’s 
also like a bus station with this weird short bus but this is like a main bus station too so 
you’ll probably get dropped off here anyway take a look inside it’s kind of like a grocery store 
yeah but there is like one good bakery store that we went to yesterday that we got that almond 
croissant thing that was really good yeah so let’s check out if there’s anything new inside 
so I guess we did a little carb splurging just to gain a lot of energy and it’s also stuff that 
I’ve been seeing that I want to try we got that brios almond sugar bread from yesterday and then 
today we got the lamb which I’ve been seeing i really want to try i mean it’s probably just like 
like a sweet bread with powdered sugar on top but it’s shaped in a lamb so I wanted to try it and 
then in French we got our croissant al chocolate i think we got chocolate croissant which is going 
to be really exciting to I guess compare to how we had it in Paris so yeah lot of carbed up food a 
lot of sugary food so going to be excited to try [Music] croissant nothing too special the chocolate 
wasn’t melted it was It was good solid like eight two now on to the tiny little lamb tiny 
little lamb is this a tourist trap i don’t know tell us in the comments i’m just going to have a 
tiny piece of it cuz All right tiny piece bread and powdered sugar yo listen this is This is 
really good all right put the scary music on it [Music] we are currently at LS Shelby which is one of the 
most unique cocktail bars in Kmar it opened up in 2020 by three friends Tristan Rybach Florence 
Stellar and Marian L clerk who wanted to create something Kmar didn’t have yet a proper speak 
easy it’s styled after secret bars during the prohibition era in the US where people had to 
sneak into hidden spots to have a drink france never had an alcohol band like that but the 
concept still caught on here hidden entrances low lighting jazz in the background but we don’t 
really hear much jazz and drinks that are way more creative than your average wine bar now when we 
get outside we will give you a hint as to where to get in but we want to kind of keep it as secret 
to keep that like speak easy vibe so to get into this bar you will go into an alleyway and right 
away you will see a restaurant lobby area that’s all lit up and from there you will see the first 
door that you will walk through which should be pretty easy to open up and then you’ll walk 
through that way and you’ll be greeted by a wall which is the door we’re not going to tell you 
how to actually open the door we’ll leave that up to you to decide how to open it but as Sophia was 
mentioning this bar is tucked behind an unmarked door near Plas Dea Cathedral as you can see can’t 
open it so you’re going to have to figure that out for yourself inside is the full 1920s setting bar 
with leather seating vintage decor and a really strong whiskey selection their cocktails rotate 
seasonally they use a lot of Alian ingredients think elderflower citrus and fresh herbs it’s not 
just a bar you drop into it’s one you go looking for which is a really cool experience it’s almost 
like one of those escape rooms where even in here like obviously the door doesn’t open so you need 
to figure that out yourself sadly me and Sophia were looking for this bar for around 30 minutes so 
at that point it was a little annoying and we were ready to give up but we had some help from a local 
French man who kind of just gave us the location but speak easys like this have started to pop 
up in other places of the Alysese region as well mostly in Straburg and Mole House but Le 
Shelby was the first to do it right in Kmar and the result is one of the most memorable nights you 
can have in the town we saw a great selection of locals in the bar it didn’t really look like 
there was any tourism going down there it was actually a very nice place clearly in shorts 
very underdressed it was cool we got a beer it looked like there was a food menu as well so that 
could definitely be a long night it is a Friday and there were barely any people down there 
but I’m sure it would be packed in the summer [Music] backpacking or I guess just adultting has 
some perks we have a beautiful dinner all by Sophia you know utilize grocery stores 
all we we at least we got some wine here i mean obviously in a vineyard region 
at least we finally got something like specific to the actual place definitely 
should be going to more restaurants but trying to save as much money as possible 
but check out this meal looks incredible wow o F