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Published: January 2nd 2007
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Christmas in Strasbourg!
ALL of the houses and shops were decorated from roof to doorstep with Christmas decorations...it was a magical atmosphere, especially at night! If you are going to be in France during December, it is worth your time to stop in Strasbourg, a picturesque city in the Alsace region...what a magical Christmas atmosphere! It deserves its reputation as the 'Christmas Capitol' of France. I just got back from a great 36-hour trip there (Saturday morning to Sunday evening) during which I stayed with my friend Stacy from Georgetown who is studying at Sciences Po Strasbourg. Everyone I had talked to told me I HAD to go there during the Christmas season, so I took their advice and went...tickets were only 70 euro round-trip, so not bad! I'm really glad I went...and fully into the Christmas spirit!
One word of advice...book a hotel well in advance, because every French/German person within a couple hundred miles descends on the city near Christmastime to soak in the festive atmosphere. ALL of the hotels are booked up! Fortunately Stacy let me stay with her host family, (who were really nice) in their apartment only 20 minutes walk away from the city center.
I got there around 11h00 on Saturday morning (EARLY morning...5 am wakeup!) and Stacy met me at the station. We took a stroll through
'Homme de fer'
This is the central tramway station- right in the center of town and a good meeting point for students looking for a night out. the city center to the Cathedrale (and Tourism Office) for an initiation to the city, and then rolled my luggage back to her house (making some use of the city tram, and stopping by the grocery store, where I bought a 'galette du roi' Christmas tart...for dessert!) She had some Japanese friends coming over to prepare a Japanese meal together, and I was invited to join...they were really nice! So I passed my first hours in German/French Alsace eating home-cooked (really good) Japanese food...not what I had anticipated, but fun! We had interesting conversation and the food (one dish was okonomiyaki???) was excellent. They kept insisting it was easy to cook, but I wasn't convinced- for me, the microwave is "simple cooking!" But that was a nice relaxed way to pass the early afternoon.
Around 15h00 I left them chatting away at the table and walked into central Strasbourg to get acquainted with the city. I quickly found the marchés de Noel (outdoor Christmas markets) which are numerous in Strasbourg and full of all kinds of foods, crafts, and gift stalls...everything you can imagine is on sale! They were absolutely PACKED with people, and the tantalizing smells of crèpes,
High School
Random high school; used to be a girls' school...I just liked the architecture! Very typical of Strasbourg and the whole north-eastern France region. pretzels (local specialty), roasted chestnuts, vin chaud (mulled wine), pain d'épices (gingerbread, another specialty), tarte flambées, macaroons, and more filled the air, mingling with the sounds of animated French, German, and English voices all enjoying the holiday atmosphere. It's impossible to walk through the marchés without snacking on all the yummy treats (which are sometimes offered free!) and buying a vin chaud...so I treated myself to some 'early-birthday' treats. Yummy! It was Christmas heaven, in the most materialistic but charming sense...especially once the sun set and all the Christmas lights came on, illuminating the entire city. I got to watch them come on from atop the Notre Dame Cathedrale (LOTS of steps, by the way) and I also got to visit the beautiful giant carved-wood crèche scene inside the cathedrale. It was so much fun just mingling with the crowd and browsing the stalls...I could have done it all weekend!
After passing a good couple hours visiting the different marchés (including the Romanian one, which offered different Romanian crafts and cuisine...like textiles, masks, and pottery) Stacy met me for an 20h30 choir & orchestra concert in the cathedrale. It was free AND really good...we heard a range of Christmas
Japanese Lunch!
In Stacy's kitchen with her four friends from university in Strasbourg- three of them were Japanese and made us a really yummy (Japanese) lunch. canticles and organ music, and the singers were great. I struck up a conversation with a nice older guy sitting next to me, and we discussed topics ranging from studying abroad, to immigration, to American attitudes vis-a-vis Europe, and music...we even got on the topic of M.A.S.H. somehow! That's the kind of random exchange that makes it so wonderful to be able to speak french. I may not be perfect, but I can hold my own chatting with strangers or French friends at Sciences Po alike...progress!!!
Stacy and I grabbed a drink in tropical-themed bar after the concert (it was a multi-cultural weekend!) and then heading home...to the kitten (Pilou) who lives in her apartment...one of the weekend highlights! He slept in my room part of the night, and I got to play with him...made me miss me own kitties! Luckily I will see them soon...but it was fun to have an animal around for a while! He is SO cute...black, with a bit of white on the chest...I should have taken a picture!
The next morning I woke up (or rather, Pilou woke me up) in time for me to walk into town for a 10h00 boat
View from the Cathedral
I climbed 200+ steps up to the observing deck of the Cathedrale de Notre Dame de Strasbourg and took pictures of the Christmas markets lighting up the streets below me. It was beautiful to watch the lights come alive street by street- Christmas energy was in the air! tour on the river Ill. The center of Strasbourg is actually a kind of 'Grand île' where the river splits in two and then rejoins itself, and the most historic and quaint part of it is called 'Petite France'. So we toured that (getting to go through 3 locks- a new experience for me!) and then went upriver a bit to where the European Union Institution buildings are located. The Parliament is required to meet at least 5? weeks a year in Strasbourg (a concession to French egocentrism?), which is at once cool (because the city is a symbol of harmony, having finally found peace after centuries of basculating back and forth between France and Germany) and an administrative nightmare (because it is a hassle to move all those E.U. deputies from Brussels!) But I took my pictures like a good tourist and you can see them below.
After my boat tour I took a walking tour of Petite France (more pictures!) and strolled through a couple markets. At 12h30 I went to the cathedrale to watch the famous astronomical clock ring out the hour and do its little show (Jesus, 12 apostles, Death, a couple angels, a wierd
The Descent
The marché de Noel that lies at the base of the cathedral was visible as I descended one of the eternally-spiralling staircaises so common in European. rooster corwing, etc) which was pretty cool. It doesn't actually last very long, but I think it's worth the 80 centimes it costs to enter!
After that, it was back to the markets and a stroll around the rest of the city for a couple hours. I visited the big Saturday flea market in the center square of the city (Place Kleber) which was selling (yet more) food, clothing, and Christmas trees. Tempting, and cheap, yet not necessary...I restrained myself. We had gorgeous weather all Sunday afternoon, so I enjoyed my walk. It really is a pretty city.
I finished up my afternoon by meeting Stacy back in the cathedrale square, where we went ice-skating!!! Fun fun fun. I love ice-skating. Brought to mind Heckert's pond and the Sculpture Garden...ah, reminiscence. After that we went to the Musée Alsacien, which was really cool. I think the building it was located in was almost better than the exhibits...a collection of old half-timber 'maisons alsaciennes' (think Tudor-England) interconnected by a maze of stairways and inner courtyards with heavy timber crosswalks and balconies. Really neat architecture! The museum also had a great collection of rooms showing typical scenes of daily Alsatian
A Market Stall
Just one of the hundreds of fascinating little stands in the marché de Noels that dot the city. This one was selling all kinds of Christmas-themed statuary and decorations, but there are DOZENS of different types of stalls...each as intersting as the previous one! life, such as agriculture, artwork, religious art, kitchen pottery, etc. I recommend it! (Ask for the audioguide though...it doesn't have many written explanations, and the ladies at the desk forgot to give us ours!) We figured it out, though, and finished up the weekend by taking one more stroll through the biggest and oldest market in front of the Opera House- the Christkindelsmarik. Needless to say, that was fun too, but then it was time to go catch my train. I had time to pick up my bag from her house and say my goodbyes to kitten & family, and then I was off to the gare...and home to Paris (4 1/2 hours later) by midnight. Not bad for a weekend! I went to bed and woke up 21 years old...wow! So that was my birthday present to myself... and a memorable one!
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