The Eastern Borders: Mountains and Vineyards

The eastern regions of France offer dramatic contrasts. In Alsace, the landscape rises from the Rhine plain through vine-covered hills to the forested peaks of the Vosges Mountains. The villages here, with their distinctive Germanic architectural influence, bright painted shutters, and flower-bedecked balconies, seem to belong to a fairy tale. Yet they are working communities, where viticulture remains central to both economy and identity.

The Jura Mountains present another face of rural montane life. Here, small farms practice a form of agriculture adapted to harsh winters and steep slopes. The production of Comté cheese follows cooperative traditions that date back to the Middle Ages, when villagers pooled their milk to create large wheels of cheese that could sustain communities through the long winters.

Further south, the Alps proper begin their rise toward the sky. In the high valleys of Savoie and Haute-Savoie, villages cling to mountainsides, their wooden chalets designed to shed heavy snow loads. Traditional agriculture here has always been marginal, supplemented by forestry and, increasingly, tourism. Yet even as ski lifts spider across the peaks, many communities maintain summer pastoral traditions, moving cattle to high alpine meadows in a practice known as transhumance.