Cyclist Paul's Travels: Niedermorschwihr (home of the Jam Fairy) and Kaysersberg, France

Back in 2013 the New York Times had a fascinating half-page article on Christine Ferber, known as the "Jam Fairy"or "Queen of Jam". From her rural village of Niedermorschwihr (population 550) in the Alsace region she has managed to create an empire known around the world. Famous French chiefs as well as five-star hotels such as the Crillon and George V in Paris, Four Seasons in Hong Kong and the Connaught in London buy her wares. Ferber makes over 200 varieties of jam and sells over 200,000 jars a year. Jeez, could her jam really be that good? I mean, over the years I've had many, many homemade jams that were absolutely fantastic! What's the big deal? So, I've had her on my bucket list.

I'm about eight miles from Colmar in the foothills of the Vosges Mountains. This is spectacular wine growing country that goes on for about 100 miles long and a dozen miles wide. My favorite champagne is from this area. Whoops! correction--you can't call it champagne unless it's from the Champagne region of France. I meant to say--my favorite sparkling wine is from this area.

I've checked Christine Ferber's website and found they close from 12:30 to 2:00 PM. It's now 12:15 and I sure as heck don't want to show up to find it's closed and have to hang around until 2:00 PM (Yes, I admit I have no patience and even though she's on my bucket list I ain't waiting around!)

I arrive in the village and assume Christine Ferber would have a well-marked location on the main drag. Jeez, I can't find it. Usually every village no matter how small will have a restaurant. Nope, nothing here. I see this village market shop and walk in with the New York Times article thinking if I show her picture to someone they'll direct me to the store. It's a busy little place and neither of the two women manning the counter speak English. My French, on a scale of 1-10 is a 2. I show the NY Times article and one of the women says "sister" and motions me to wait.

While waiting I look to my left and spot this table and a shelf behind it stocked with--you guessed it--jars of jams. Whoa, this must be the place. On the table are a couple of open jam jars with spoons for sampling. I do a taste test. Oh my god, dangerously good! It's syrupy similar to thick honey.

There's a display case with pastries but to tell you the truth, nothing in it looked anything special. I wanted to take a few more pictures of the store's interior but couldn't as people were in the way. Christine's sister steps out from the back of the store and I ask if she speaks English. "yes", she answers. I show her the NY Times article and ask if her sister is around. "No, she's at the laboratory," answers the sister. The conversation goes no where as I gather Christine's sister has dealt with visitors like me thousands of times.

I buy a jar of a jam sampled (its ingredients include bananas, orange, rhubarb and strawberries). It's lunchtime and I have a sandwich with me that I picked up passing through another village and figured I should at least buy one of the pastries in the display to quench my sweet tooth so I opt for a slice of an apricot pastry--even though I'm not of fan of apricots. I leave the store and head around the corner to a bench. The apricot pastry is fantastic! I hurriedly dash back to the store for a second serving and also to snap a photo of the sweet but alas, I'm too late as the front store door is locked for lunch.

Niedermorschwihr has several fountains such as the one pictured here but, were all turned off. The sister said Christine was at the laboratory so I figured it has to be nearby. I did spot a new unmarked modernistic building two blocks away and I'm 100% sure it's the place. But I'm sure it's unmarked on purpose to keep lookie-loos like me from bothering her.

Go to Wikipedia and type in her name. At the end of the article there's a link to a video of her new laboratory. Also there's the story about Brad Pitt being obsessed with her jams and visiting the place just like I did. Christine Ferber denies Brad Pitt ever came to the shop. Then again, what if Brad Pitt really had shown up and the two women in the store weren't very worldly and had no clue who he was? Maybe Brad should have said "do you know who I am?"