Sunday, July 3, 2011

Alsatian pottery anybody?

Looking to buy some beautiful cooking pottery that can also decorate your kitchen walls? Then Soufflenheim in the Alsace is definitely a place you want to head towards and this is exactly what we did on the 24 of June a lovely summers day. The attraction of this place is clearly beautiful and colorful pottery and my personal opinion some of the most beautiful colorful houses and window frames.




Some of the molds of the pottery found in Soufflenheim dates all the way back to 400 B.C. The origin of the name Soufflenhiem is believed to come from the Celtic root 'Sawell' which means furnace. Since the village is close to the forest of Haguenau the clay used for making the beautiful pottery is also got from the forest. We went directly to the tourist office there and asked where we could see the actual process of making the lovely pottery. The lady there was very friendly and gave us some recommendations. We first went to the Pottery Hausser where they had some of the most awesome looking traditional Alsatian pottery that you could imagine. But unfortunately you could not see the actual workers in action there. After that we checked out Poterie Richard Hausswirth and there we could see the artisans at work.


How much control the women had over their hands as they very effortlessly painted the beautiful pots with the very traditional designs. Little bunny was thrilled to see the whole process in action.






I was looking for the traditional Baeckeoffe but the huge number of choices that were available made it very tough for me to come to a decision. Yes  the array of colorful designs in multitude of shades like blue, green, red, yellow and all painted with the motifs of traditional flowers, birds and costumes.


You can walk through the main street and you have numerous pottery workshops you can visit.




If you are looking for a really nice place to have your afternoon meal then I can definitely recommend restaurant Au Boeuf. Next time around we plan to visit the twin pottery town of Betschdorf and maybe also go and check out the pottery festival coming up on the 4 September 2011.