Alsace - Exploring Colmar, Dinner at Winstub de la Petit Venise, and a Kinda Creepy Coincidence

While planning our trip to France, I told the Missus that I really wanted to head back to Alsace. I had really enjoyed our time in Strasbourg the year before. And though we'd be a week early for the Christmas Market, I thought having a short break in Colmar would be great! And so, we headed from Reims to Colmar, arriving at around 330 in the afternoon. As we headed to our apartment crossing Rue Turenne we understood why this area was called "Le Petit Venise"; not that it looked anything like Venice, not by a long shot.

But there are lovely little canals and wonderful half-timbered houses, and lovely bridges, like the Pont de Rue de Turenne. Which someone told me was called the "fanny bridge" because at certain times of the day folks would be lining up for photos and selfies with their backs against the railing, so looking from along the way, all you saw was a line of folk's backs and backsides lining the railing!

And to make things even better; we had a wonderful apartment with a balcony that overlooked the bridge. We'd entertain ourselves by heading out onto the balcony several times of the day just to watch folks on the bridge....or even just watch the water flowing by.

This was our view.

More on the apartment later on.

Of course we unpacked, freshened up, and headed right on out.

We headed down the charming alleyway of Rue de la Poissonnerie, to the lovely Quai de la Poissonnerie where some of the most beautiful houses are. Many were built between the 14th and 18th century are very brightly colored.

It's like you walked down the street into the middle of some fairy tale.

Right across the bridge is the Covered Market; the Marché Couvert. Even though we were somewhat familiar with what is available during this time of the year in the region, we went in to take a look. And as you can see; it was getting close to the holiday shopping season!

We strolled around a bit.....took a mental inventory of the shops and what was available.

And then headed out. We'd return a bit later to do some self catering.

Marché Couvert
13 Rue des Écoles
68000 Colmar, France

We walked out the other side of the market onto Rue des Tanneurs. I'm guessing from all the canals (which we learned in Modena) that the leather shops were probably located here. This shop made wonder if it was Valentine's Day or Christmas?

We wound our way thru the charming medieval streets of Colmar.

The Missus was enjoying the window displays.

Eventually popping out at Saint Martin's Church.

It was getting a bit chilly; so before heading back to the apartment we stopped for...ahem, "a spot of tea".

Kind of pricy, though it was right across the street from the Cathedral.

Pâtisserie Salon deThé J-C Clergue
21 Place de la Cathédrale
68000 Colmar, France

We headed back to the apartment; which we loved!

Along with the wonderful balcony; the place was stocked with water - both still and sparkling, Nespresso pods, a gratis bottle of Alsacian wine, Regular and Coke Zero.

It was warm and welcoming! As was Marie, who I believe manages the apartments here. If you're ever interested it's Reflects Sur La Lauch. I had booked our trip quite a bit in advance, so I had no problem getting the apartment with balcony.

I hadn't made reservations for dinner; it was a Thursday night, I thought all the day-trippers would be gone, and the Christmas Market wasn't starting until the following weekend. The place I had on my list was Winstub Brenner. But, when we walked over it was closed. Apparently undergoing some renovation and prep before the busy Christmas season. So we headed one building over to Winstub Le Petit Venise, a charming two story restaurant.

We were seated upstairs amongst the charming, vintage appliances and décor.

The staff were professional and very helpful. The Missus already knew what She wanted, as did I based on our visit to Strasbourg. It's all about the Choucroute Garnie for the Missus...man does She love Choucroute (sauerkraut).

And the Missus claimed that the Choucroute here was better than anything She'd had in Strasbourg last year! It was nicely flavored, sour, but not over-powering, the texture slightly crisp.

And all of those meats! The sausage did have a nice "snap" to it. Quite a nice albeit, heavy plate of food.

Not like my very light Jambonneau…...right?

This, in case you didn't know is Jambonneau = Pork Knuckle. This was quite good, great texture, wonderful smokiness, whatever was used for basting really developed a wonderful lacquer coating. I loved the veggies mixed with a nice sinus clearing horse radish. The potatoes were buttery, but not overly so and studded with bacon....like I was in need of more pork, right?

We had a couple of glasses of wine and called it a night.

Wistub de la Petite Venise
4 Rue de la Poissonnerie
68000 Colmar, France

Nice dinner, right?

Well, so here's the Epilogue.

The next day, as I mentioned in a previous post, we went on a tour of several villages in Alsace. It was supposed to be a small group tour, but we ended up being the only two who signed up for the tour for that day. It was a wonderful time. It was inevitable that during that day, the subject of Anthony Bourdain came up. By this time, I'd actually forgotten that Mr Bourdain had committed suicide in Kaysersberg. Christopher, our guide, mentioned some of the previous requests from folks on the tour. People seemed to be on a pilgrimage and wanted see all the places AB visited. I thought it kind of strange and sort of creepy. And while I understand what he meant to a lot of people, I mean let the man and whatever demons he may have had rest in peace. I really wasn't up-to-date on AB, I used to watch No Reservations diligently. But for some reason, by the time Parts Unknown came along....well, I've only seen about half of those episodes to this day. During our conversation Christopher asked us where we had eaten dinner. I told him we had really wanted to eat at Winstub Brenner, but it was closed so we went to Winstub Petit Venise instead. He asked us what we had...we showed him the photos. He looked at us and asked us if we saw Anthony Bourdain's Instagram. I told him I don't do Instagram; I don't even have an account, but the Missus does. Christopher mentioned that Anthony Bourdain's last meal was eaten at Petit Venise! Yikes! And now folks were making reservations requesting stuff like wanting to eat at the same table he had his last recorded meal at. That just felt a bit creepy and weird. He told us to look at the last photo posted by Anthony Bourdain. We got Instagram booted up on the Missus's phone when we got back to the apartment after dinner that evening. Good lord.......the Missus had ordered what was the man's last documented meal......

I needed to go for a walk.

Man, what a bummer. I'd much rather have ended this post with something like this.

Comments

[Dereck]

Wow. That must have been quite the emotional hit. I even feel it in my stomach.

[caninecologne]

The town you visited really does look like it came from a fairy tale/story book. Quite charming! Man, I just got the chills when I read about the "coincidence".

[Kenneth Bonus]

Cue the Twilight Zone music.....

[Jason]

Whatever demons AB had, he sure knew his food and obviously chose a good place for what ended up being his final meal. While I obviously don't know him, I would like to think that he would have appreciated the Mrs enjoying that meal without knowing any of the background behind it.

[kat]

wow, eerie

[James]

That is spooky indeed - but how comforting to know what great food instincts the Missus has!

[Kirk]

It was really creepy Dereck.

Colmar and Alsace as a whole is very colorful and charming CC! And it was such a weird coincidence.

Lol Ken.......cue up the "do-do-do-do, do-do-do-do”

That's an interesting take Jason.....I would hope he'd approve.

Very weird Kat!

She does love Her Choucroute Garnie James.

[Soo]

The buildings sure are cute.

[Kirk]

Petite Venise is full of colorful; half-timbered buildings Soo!

[Junichi]

I was stunned when I heard AB's passing. It literally felt like I lost a close friend so I can somewhat relate to those who want to retrace his final footsteps.

[Kirk]

I know AB was much admired and beloved Junichi. But man, some of those requests by folks were a bit much.....I'll write about those in a future post. I know I felt quite shocked and surprised myself.