The paradox of Ottmarsheim
Located in a geologically poor area on barren land ...

Three hundred million years ago the Vosges and the Black Forest were one and the same mountain range covering what would later be known as the Fossé Rhénan.


During the tertiary era 50 million years ago, the tremendous pressure of the neighbouring folding of the Alps rocked this primitive range which rose up once more before collapsing in the middle. The Fossé Rhénan was formed between the Vosges and the Black Forest. The river Rhine found its bed along the valley and our rich and fertile Alsace region was born.

During his first journey to Alsace after our province was united with the French Realm, Louis XIV himself looked out over the plain and exclaimed “What a lovely garden!”.


This image of prosperity has to be put into context. Indeed, the Vosges foothills and their vineyards are very rich, the silt plain between the hills and the river Ill which is an affluent of the Rhine are very fertile.

But further towards the east, between the Ill and the Rhine, lies the Rhine strip between the Hardt Forest and the Rhine where in the alluvial sand and gravel deposits left by the waters of the Rhine, a dry forest has made its home leaving little room for a few narrow areas of cultivation on a thin layer of arable soil.