France’s favourite village boasts old-style houses

The news was announced yesterday during the popular TV show Le Village Préféré des Français, hosted by historian Stéphane Bern.

A typical village in Alsace

Hunspach is well-known for its timber-framed houses and was competing with 13 other French villages.

Tourism officer and municipal deputy of the village, Sylvie Heiby, told Connexion: “We did not expect to win. It was already an honour to be in the list of villages in competition but winning comes as a surprise. We are very happy and we will host new people visiting as we have always done.”

More places to visit in the region

This title will make the little village of 700 residents more famous but Mrs Heiby also hopes that new visitors coming will enjoy the region.

She said: “The village is beautiful with its traditional houses and geraniums but there is also a lot to see around, a lot of places to go to walk and there are beautiful sites to visit in the region.”

Hunspach was competing with Pierrefonds (Hauts-de-France), Giverny (Normandy), Batz-sur-Mer (Pays de la Loire), Chablis (Bourgogne-Franche-Comté), Cargèse (Corse), Montpeyroux (Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes), Pont-Aven (Bretagne), Trôo (Centre-Val de Loire), Montfort-l'Amaury (Île-de-France), Les Anses-d'Arlet (Martinique), Aubeterre-sur-Dronne (Nouvelle-Aquitaine), Saint-Bertrand-de-Comminges (Occitanie) and Ménerbes (Provence-Alpes-Côte-d’Azur).

Last year the village of Saint-Vaast-la-Hougue in Normandy was elected, and Cassel in Hauts-de-France was chosen in 2018.