The fortified bridge at Kaysersberg

Kaysersberg sits where the Weiss comes out of its valley, and the sixteenth-century fortified bridge is the reason photographers stop here. It is a stone arch across the river with a small guardhouse and a chapel built onto the deck, so the crossing itself is a building — there is nothing else like it in the region.

The frames come from the riverbank rather than the bridge. Drop down to the water on either side and you get the arch, the guardhouse and half-timbered houses stacked behind it, with the ruined keep of the castle on the ridge above closing the top of the picture. From the bridge itself you look along the river between overhanging houses.

Water level and season change the picture completely: spring melt makes the Weiss loud and full, late summer leaves rocks and clear pools. Autumn puts colour on the vineyard slopes and the wooded ridge behind the castle.

Morning light comes down the valley from the east and reaches the bridge before it reaches the town. Kaysersberg is smaller and quieter than Riquewihr for most of the year, but it runs one of the busiest Christmas markets in Alsace — from late November, expect the centre to be full all day. The riverbank is uneven and can be slippery; watch footing near the water.