mmm-yoso!!!

Strasbourg - Scenes from the Christmas Markets

**** Not much food in this post. Quite a few photos from the always colorful Christmas Markets in Strasbourg though.

I did an earlier post on our visit to Strasbourg and walking around Petit France. We actually spent a good deal of time enjoying the Christmas Markets during our two evening and one day stay. I thought I'd just do a single post as more of a photolog.

We had really enjoyed our visit to Strasbourg way back in the winter of 2017. We especially loved the Christmas Markets, lively, with everyone in a joyful frame of mind, we found it to be a relaxing change of pace from Paris. And at night, the place looked so beautiful and enchanting. We found it no less so on this trip.

From the wonderfully decorated streets to what seems an endless supply of Christmas ornaments, the 13 Christmas Markets in Grande Île just bring out the kid in me.

And at night, the Grande Île comes alive.

Our first evening was spent enjoying the markets, especially the window displays. And of course we had to get the Missus Her Choucroute.

Sadly, all the photos of the food....I believe it was the lighting around the eating area, caused my photos to turn out looking like this!

As I detailed earlier, we spent the next morning checking out Petit France. Of course we passed thru several Christmas Markets along the way. Each market seemed to have a theme and several had folks "in character" to make things even more fun.

We stopped by a booth at Place du Temple Neuf and got some Truffle Risotto.

Then headed two blocks away to bustling Place Broglie.

And went back to the same stand as the night before.

Where the Missus got Spaetzles à la Choucroute et Aux Lardons, which She thoroughly enjoyed.

I got a Tarte Flambée from a nearby stand.

And as always, we enjoyed people watching.

We then headed back to hotel to rest up.

When evening arose, we headed back out.

Again enjoying the colors and booths.

We made our way via a now familiar route.

To colorful Place Kléber which is considered by many to be Strasbourg's central square. The Christmas tree in the square always garners your attention.

At this point, we had to decide on what to get for dinner. After two meals of choucroute, the Missus decided that some Asian food might be really good on this chilly evening, which is when we headed to Lamian.

Like on our previous visits; I've always loved the Christmas Markets in Strasbourg. Though there's much more to see. You can click on these links if you'd like to see and read about Strasbourg Cathedral and Petit France.

I'm sure we'll return if we are in France from the last week of November onward.

Thanks for stopping by and Happy Holidays!

Strasbourg - Exploring, Lamian Restaurant, and L'Atelier 116

One of the great things about being in Europe during the last of November until the end of the year are the Christmas Markets. We had really enjoyed the Christmas Markets in Strasbourg when we visited several years earlier. And the Missus just couldn't keep still for the two weeks we were in Paris, so I decided to book two nights in Strasbourg. It's less than a two hour train ride from Gare de l'Est. Because this was a rather last minute decision, I wasn't able to book anything on Grande Île. Instead, we stayed at the Hotel Tandem, which was quite comfortable right next to the train station.

It's quite convenient and just a short walk (or you take the tram) to the Grande Île. That first evening, we just wandered the Christmas Markets, which brought back wonderful memories and ate at the market. I'll do an out-of-sequence post on that when we get closer to Christmas.

The next morning, we had a light breakfast and coffee at the hotel and decided to do a bit of exploring. During our previous visit, we hadn't spent much time in the area known as "Petit France", a neighborhood which is a UNESCO World Heritage site, with lovely cobblestone streets and half timbered houses. You might be thinking "wait, but this is France, right?" Well, Alsace is right on the border of France and Germany and thus, has changed hands many times. The area named Petit France is not named after it's nationality, but as I mentioned in an earlier post:

"the name "Petit France" is not named for its architecture, but because of a 16th century hospital that treated "zum Franzosel" (the French disease), aka syphilis while still a free city in the Holy Roman Empire. Apparently, the citizens of Strasbourg believed the disease was the fault of the French. Basically, the idea was to isolate those with the disease in a structure in this district."

There was one structure we saw on our earlier trip that we didn't visit. On the River Ill stands the Barrage Vauban a dam and bridge.

That passageway on the bridge is the Passage Georges Frankhauser. There's a terrace and crossing above the passage with what looked like a nice view so we decided to cross into Petit France that way.

What I hadn't read was about the passage itself.

Lining the passageway were gates that almost looked like jail cells. And within the "cells" were various sculptures and castings.

And the view from the roof was quite nice.

From here we crossed the Ponts Couverts.

And we were in Petit France.....

Love the charming houses and streets......

And the canals.....

If we hadn't already done it on our previous visit, we would have taken the canal tour.

We wandered thru more Christmas Markets.

Before ending up at Place Gutenberg and familiar territory.....

We grabbed a light lunch at one of the Christmas Markets and headed on back to the room. We took the ever popular Grand'Rue back to the Canal du Faux-Rempart to get back to the hotel.

Along the way, we passed a Boulangerie I had on my "list". The Missus wanted to get something to have with Her afternoon tea, so we stopped in.

Man, the place was super busy, but the line moved quickly and the Missus got Her treats.

She enjoyed these and we decided to head on back for some croissant and coffee before catching our train the next morning.

L'Atelier 116
116 Grand'Rue
67000 Strasbourg, France

We relaxed then once the sun set, headed on out to check out the markets and lights.....

Soon enough, it was time for dinner. The Missus had already had Her fill of Alsatian Christmas Market cuisine and because our trip was made at the last minute, I wasn't able to make reservations at any of the places I as interested in.

So, we decided on......well, Chinese of course! There was a noodle soup shop I had on my "list" and while the Missus was highly suspicious of my choice She went along. The shop was also along Rue du Fossé-des-Tanneurs, on the way back from Place Kléber. The name; Lamian.

The place was pretty busy when we arrived, but there was no wait for a table. There was one of the chefs working the "lamian" action for all to see.

So yes, they made their own hand pulled noodles here. Of course, we had to order that.

We started with a nice cold beer and some Cacahuetes au Vinaigre Pimente (3,5€/$3.75US), basically boiled peanuts with vinegar and chilies.

As for our noodle soup, we got the Soupe de Nouilles au Boeuf Braise - Legerement Pimente (14,9€/$16.35US), basically Beef Noodle Soup, slightly spicy.

  No, this wasn't cheap, but the meat, while being a tad more chewy than I prefer was quite beefy, the broth had a nice beefiness, was decently rich, with good five-spice tones, not overly salty, with a mild spice to it.

The noodles, were slippery and stretchy and quite good as well.

The boiled egg was overcooked, the yolk hard and dry.

We got the Canard Laque (5,5€/$6 US) - literally translated to "Peking Duck". This was not quite Beijing Kaoya, but the skin was fairly crisp, the flesh on the dry side, but the flavoring wasn't too bad.

And for the equivalent of six bucks US, this was perfectly fine. The version of "duck sauce" was terrible though.

We also ordered some Jiaozi, the Raviolis au Bouef et Celeri (5,5€/$6 US).

 The dumplings were quite large; the wrappers too brittle and chewy. The filling for the jiaozi were very beefy, with nice celeri tones, seasoned quite well, but quite tough. We were surprised that the black vinegar-soy dipping sauce was not half bad. This was our least favorite dish of the meal.

Half the fun was watching all the customers; about one-fourth were Asian, the rest were not. We got a kick watching the woman on the table next to us eat Her noodle dish. She used a fork to twirl the noodles, like you'd do with Italian pasta. She was really enjoying her meal and seemed to relish her Tsingtao! She ordered a second one, but wasn't able to finish. And at the end, she went and made sure to take some photos of the noodle maker.

Adorable! We had fun watching French folks eating Asian food on this trip; whether it was Jiaozi, Ramen, A Sando, Sichuan, hot pot, or yes, Niu Rou Mian, they seemed up for it!

There was quite a line when we left.

After all, what better on a chilly winter evening but some noodle soup, right? Even in Strasbourg.

Lamian Restaurant
20 Rue du Fossé-des-Tanneurs
67000 Strasbourg, France

We headed back to the hotel and had a nice night of sleep. The next day, we awoke our train back to Paris wasn't scheduled to leave until 1044, so we headed back to L'Atelier 116 to get some espresso and a croissant Au Buerre.

The croissant was nothing to write home about; the exterior was decently flaky, but it needed more butter and was too doughy. 

As we were enjoying ourselves, an interesting thing happened, the Missus heard someone call Her name! Oh my, it was one of Her coworkers! She was visiting Strasbourg with her parents to check out the Christmas Markets. The woman's parents were so much fun; they had just come from....well, Paris of course! And loved France. We had such a great time talking to them that we had to force ourselves to leave in time to check out and catch our train. Such a fun coincidence; running into the Missus's coworker and her parents, at a random Boulangerie....in Strasbourg! 

Life is amazing, huh?

Thanks for stopping by!

Colmar - A Bit More Exploring and Dinner at La Fer Rouge

After a nice lunch back at the apartment we took a even nicer nap. After waking, the Missus made us some espresso and we headed out to the terrace and enjoy our favorite view in Colmar, the Pont de Rue de Turenne. Selfie time was in full swing.

It seemed like everyone needed a photo here.

Everyone...…..

And I really don't blame them at all....it was quite entertaining.

And we just loved watching all of this from our discrete perch.

We headed back out....there's a term I picked up in Paris; Flâneur or flânerie, to basically stroll or wander aimlessly, experiencing the urban surroundings, which the Missus (the female term is Flâneuse) and I always try to do, it's a very important part of our trips, the time to take in our surroundings and appreciate, in our most limited way our destination. And our last evening in Colmar was no different.

We wandered through the tourist trail...….

Where there were still interesting things to see; like this 2 Euro Store.

Which has quite a history.

Actually, being a tourist in France is not a bad thing at all; I read an article where author and reporter Anthony Peregrine was quoted something I've heard several times; “Of the 60 per cent of French people who go away on holiday, some 80 per cent stay within their own country". So, even the French, like to travel to.....France.

We did a circle around the area....

Ending up around Rue des Tetes, where we had been earlier in the day.

Where we got some gifts and confections.

And, ahem....did some "window shopping".....yea, that's right; window shopping. I was actually tempted to purchase (I almost typed "grab") a bottle of L'alsacienne Biere. But we had a bottle of liquid refreshment back at the apartment and I'm not quite sure what the meaning of culotte was in this context. Though based on the poster I could guess.....

By now it was getting close to dinner time. A few months before; I'd gotten a recommendation to try out the Baeckeoffe at a place called La Fer Rouge which was located almost across from the Koïfhus (the Customs House) and conveniently located on the way back to the apartment.

The restaurant is located in a lovely half-timbered structure and is quite charming. It's also a pretty busy restaurant, though we got there right before opening and got a table with no problem.

And there was indeed Baeckeoffe on the menu. The service was professional and courteous.

The Missus had a nice glass of wine and in anticipation of the Baeckeoffe being quite substantial, ordered as She did the night before. She just loved Choucroute and could not get enough of it.

She deemed this version as the second best She had; with Le Petit Venise still number one.

She also enjoyed my salad.....much welcomed with all the rather heavy food we'd been consuming. Crisp veggies, nice refreshing dressing.

As for my Baeckeoffe. Well, this one pot stew of mixed meat; here cooked in red wine was.....well, incinerated.

Those potatoes were burnt, bitter, with a texture like cardboard. The bottom was full of crusted burnt meat. The layer in the middle; was rather tasty, fairly rich and hearty. I had thought of returning this; but the place was just plain slammed....so, we ate what we could and cut our losses.

Le Fer Rouge
52 Grand rue
68000, Colmar, France

Plus, earlier we had decided to open up one of the bottles of Champagne we had purchased at Champagne Brugnon in Rilly La Montagne and enjoyed it in the warm comfort of the apartment.

If we're ever back; I need to do more in-depth research on places to eat.

The next morning we packed and headed out.

It was a nice crisp November morning and we enjoyed the walk to Gare de Colmar.

I really like the look of the train station; which opened in 1907.

And there's a really neat window scene in the train station that was done by Jean le Gac. It depicts a painter (of course) dashing from a train to rescue two damsels in distress. Not quite sure how this ties into Colmar and it looks kind of strange for a train station, but I liked it.

As for Colmar; well, we really enjoy Alsace and Colmar is a nice base for exploring the region. We loved the vibe and really enjoyed the apartment. I really think we'll be back.

But for now...….we were off to Lyon!

Thanks for stopping by!

Colmar - Dinner at Brassierie Heydel, a Morning Walk Around Colmar, and Some Self-Catering

We'd had a wonderful day visiting the colorful villages of Alsace. Christopher was an amazing guide and even called and made reservations for dinner when I mentioned a specific Alsatian dish called Fleischschnacka.

When we headed out for dinner; it was already fairly dark in Colmar. Looking out from our terrace; Pont de Rue de Turenne was nice and quiet.

The restaurant was centrally located, though not quite in the tourist center.

The folks working were quite friendly and the place was pretty quiet when we arrived. There just seemed to be few regular customers in the place.

Though it filled up pretty quickly as we were ending our meal.

The Missus just had to have Her favorite; the Choucroute and figured my dish was going to be pretty hefty. We also got the Foie Gras entre to start.

This was smooth, rather mild in offal tones, rich, and quite good.

The Missus enjoyed Her Choucroute.

Though She said it was not a crisp and refreshing as the version at Le Petit Venise.

And then there was my "snails of meat" - Fleischschnacka. Man, this was a pretty hefty dish.

Think of ground meat rolled in pasta; the two slices were a bit too much for me and fairly mild in flavor. I loved the potatoes and the green salad.

I'm not going into too much detail about Heydel; because, at least according to their Facebook page as of June 17th, the business is in the process of changing ownership.

Brasserie Heydel
45 rue des Clefs
68000, Colmar, France

As you can see; Colmar is quite stunning at night as well.

It was wonderful waking in the morning and taking your espresso on the terrace.

The next morning we decided to explore Colmar's Old Town. The Pont de Rue de Turenne was quiet at this time of the day. You can see our apartment's terrace at the upper left of this photo.

Things were being set-up for the Christmas Market which was going to start that weekend.

We used Rick Steves walk as a guide. We started at the Koïfhus; the Customs House. Trade made Colmar a wealthy city in the Middle Ages and the Customs House was the center of it all. Colmar had been granted Free Imperial City status by the Holy Roman Empire.

Above the door on the south side of the building is this door. The plaque above the door designates Colmar as being an Imperial City.

Above one of the portals you'll see this plaque.

Jean Rapp, one of Napoleon's chief consuls was born in Colmar; supposedly here in the Customs House where his dad was a janitor.

In the square in front of the Customs House is this fountain.

The fountain statue is of Lazarus von Schwendi. Who supposedly (it is considered a myth) brought the Tokaji (remember our dinner in Budapest) to Alsace. The statue was made by Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi who also created something known as the Statue of Liberty.

From here we walked down Rue des Tanneurs. There's a channel right across the street. As we had learned in Modena, you need a close running water source for tanning leather. This is where the tanner in Colmar used to reside.

From here we circled back a bit along the Marché Couvert.

And then up to Rue des Marchands ("Merchants Street").

Right up the street is one of the distinctive buildings in Colmar; Maison Pfister. Built in 1537 in Renaissance style, with biblical stories and figures painted into the walls. It's a beautiful and impressive building.

Right across the way is the carving that folks call the "Meter Man". It's the sign for a drape maker and he is holding the standard measure of length, Colmar's version of the meter. 

It's all quite entertaining...…..

As you can tell when looking at the photo of Maison Pfister....right past the structure is St Martin's Church, where we spent a few minutes lingering.

I'm always fascinated by clocks in these churches......

We wandered down Rue des Boulangers.....

And since this was the "street of bakers" spent a bit of time shopping for gifts.

From here we took a right on Rue des Tetes (street of heads) and came upon the façade of the Maison des Tetes ("House of Heads"). Now a luxury hotel; this structure was built in 1609 by a wine maker. Many heads, masks, and faces adorn the façade.

The most interesting one is found to the left of the entrance to the courtyard.

There you'll see what looks like a court jester; his belly sticking out, with hoofs in the place of feet. Go figure.....

It's quite a sight.....

Though I haven't spent time on it; I need to mention all the wonderful signs that adorn the buildings...….

From here we turned back and headed down the colorful streets of Colmar.

And back to the Marché Couvert. We were staying in such a lovely apartment that we decided to take advantage of it and do some self-catering.

And combined with the cheese we Riquewihr and the cookies that Christopher had given to us as a gift; we had a very nice meal.

There's much to love about Colmar and Alsace in general. Beautiful half-timbered buildings, history and charm; with some humor thrown in.

I thank you for stopping by and sharing this with us!

Alsace - The Four Wonders of Alsace Part 2. Riquewihr and Kaysersberg

Like my previous post yesterday, there's not much food in this one. But I hope you'll enjoy more of the wonderful sights of Alsace!

After leaving Ribeauvillé, we headed a short way south to the medieval town of Riquewihr.

Yet, another charming and beautiful village. During our drive time, we had a nice time chatting with Christopher. And he quickly picked up the fact that the Missus and I both enjoy food. So the first stop on that beautiful cobblestone street was this place.

Where Christopher and the really friendly young man working here plied us with cheese...….

And when we decided to buy; they made sure to give us another round of tastings to make sure we were getting what we wanted.

And what we wanted was Tomme….lots of Tomme; de Brebis (sheep), de Chevre (goat), and the Cave Aged Tomme. Man, it was good!

We'd end up having the cheese for lunch the following day back in Colmar.

Les Caves d'Affinage de Riquewihr
16 Rue du General de Gaulle
68340 Riquewihr, France

I mentioned earlier that Riquewihr is a medieval village. It was and basically still is a fortified town with ruins of the ramparts dating back to the 13th century still surrounding much of the town.

At the top of the main street is the "Dolder" (Belfry). We were told that the tower was originally built in 1291. The belfry was added in the 19th century and used to warn and inform the residents of approaching threats and groups.

There's actually a pretty little street outside the tower that runs along what is the ramparts of the town.

And here is the "Obertor" ("Tall Gate") which helped to protect the city.

You can see that there was once a drawbridge to keep intruders out. The moat area is now a wonderful grassy parklike area.

That statue of the woman riding on a horse; was, if I recall, "La Dame du Parc".

The area along the ramparts is quite photogenic and makes for a nice stroll.

We were really enjoying our time in Alsace.....

We were given some time to shop and perhaps grab some lunch in Riquewihr.

So we headed back down the main street; just taking our time...….

We weren't very hungry; so just stopped by a patisserie on Rue du Général de Gaulle, named Patisserie Chez Chloe and got our caffeine fix, a quiche (which was terrible), and some sweets for the Missus.

Patisserie Chez Chloe
24 Rue du Général de Gaulle
68340 Riquewihr, France

Well, at least the coffee perked me up! We then took to wandering some of the side streets and spent some time in the Christmas shop pictured near the top of this post; Féerie de Noël Käthe Wohlfahrt . Man, the buildings are so colorful here!

We even found a War Memorial down one of the side streets.

Riquewihr; like Ribeauvillé is on the Alsace wine trail. And just walking a block or two down a street; you'll come to a sight like this.

We then headed back up to the Obertor and met Christopher who took us outside the city for a view of the vineyards.

Speaking of wine; our next stop was a fun visit to Bott Frères Winery. We had such a great time that I pretty much forgot to take photos during the tour.

We ended up buying a case of wine and had it shipped back to San Diego. The Riesling Gran Cru was a favorite of the Missus's and also Frankie's Aunt Alle's Mom loved it as well!

While we were driving to our next stop Christopher asked us if we had heard of Kaysersberg. I said yes, and was asked what I knew about the city. I told him Nobel Prize winner Albert Schweitzer was from Kaysersberg. I'd taken quite a few Philosophy courses in college, you could say it was one of my "majors", though I really don't remember much about what I learned all these years later; I recall reading The Decay and the Restoration of Civilization and being quite affected by it. Christopher smiled and nodded; he then asked us if we had heard of Anthony Bourdain.....and then it came to me....I'd totally forgotten that he had committed suicide in Kaysersberg! You can read about the rest of the conversation at the end of this post.

We parked outside the village and strolled in.

The River Weiss runs through town, just adding to its beauty. No wonder Kaysersberg, like Eguisheim, won the Préféré des Français as favorite French Village this time 2017.

Christopher pointed out the details; like the platforms where women used to do the laundry in the river and details on the houses.....

Of course, I was just distracted by the ducks.....

The village is very charming and with Christmas around the corner at the time of our visit; there was a festive air to things.....

Even the Fontaine Constantin was ready for the holidays!

Christopher took us into the Eglise De l'Invention De La Sainte-Croix, Church of the Holy Cross.

The dramatic and impressive altarpiece dates back to the 16th century.

After our visit to the church we checked out some of the shops in the town.

First stopping at the workshop of a shop that made hand blown glass. And then next to a an amazing shop full of Cuckoo Clocks. The really sweet young lady proceeded to set all the clocks to go off while we stood and watched....talk about over stimulation! It was a wall of chaos! Hilarious.....

As we wandered the side streets it seemed that Kaysersberg was much more populous than the published number of less than 5,000!

Like the other villages; take a short stroll one or two blocks down a side street and you're out in the vineyards. In this case with a castle as a backdrop!

As we strolled thru town; Christopher asked us if we wanted to see the hotel where AB died; we instantly said "no", he seemed relieved....apparently many of his customers from the US make visiting the Chambard Hotel their primary goal when visiting Kaysersberg. I understand that Bourdain changed the way many look at travel, food, and culture......but.....

I can just imagine how this makes the residents of this beautiful village feel....most of whom had never heard of the man before his visit.

There's a magical and like I said before, almost fairy-tale like feel to visiting these villages in Alsace. You are transported light years away from the hustle and bustle of big city life. We really enjoyed having Christopher as our guide, he gave us some cookies as a gift, and as we were headed back across the River Weiss, we were discussing various dishes we'd tried or were looking to try in Alsace. Upon me mentioning Fleischschnacka, he smiled and said, "I know just the place for you...." And proceeded to call a restaurant and make reservations for us for dinner! I think that says it all......

Dreamy, fairytale like villages and warm, friendly, hospitable people. That's Alsace.

Thanks for stopping by! 

Alsace - The Four Wonders of Alsace Tour Part 1. Eguisheim and Ribeauvillé

Not much food in this, and my next post. But if you love fairy tale like streets and lovely half-timbered houses, you might enjoy this post.

I got up early on our first full day in Alsace. We'd really come to enjoy Alsace the previous winter when we visited Strasbourg. Though it was a week before the Christmas Markets opened in Colmar, we had enjoyed the previous evening. On this day we had arranged for a small group tour from Alsace Original Experiences called the Four Wonders of Alsace, which visited four different villages in Alsace.

But first, even though we were still satisfied from our rather large dinner the night before, we needed some sustenance. While the Missus woke up; I headed down Rue Turenne.

Of course, I had to walk over to the bridge and take a look at our wonderful balcony.

I had seen an Artisan Boulangerie on our street the night before, so I walked on over to Maison Alexandre.

And picked up two croissants for breakfast.

La Maison Alexandre
34 Rue Turenne
68000 Colmar, France

I got back to the apartment and the Missus popped a couple of pods in the Nespresso Machine and we had espresso and our croissants.

Unfortunately, these weren't very good; it lacked a nice crisp flakiness and butteriness. Oh well......

A short while later, we headed downstairs to be picked up for our small group tour. A few minutes later, our driver/guide arrived. We got really lucky as there were no other people on the tour for this day. So, we basically had our own private tour. And our guide, Christopher, was amazing!

The Missus and I felt like we had stepped into a Fairy Tale as we walked the cobblestone street of our first stop; Eguisheim.

The colorful half-timbered houses, the tiny streets, the charming décor just transported us. And, in fact, two of the villages wed visit on this tour, Ribeauvillé and Riquewihr was the inspiration for Belle's hometown in Beauty and the Beast! And while both of those villages were charming and lovely, it's Eguisheim that still stands out in our mind. In fact, in 2013, Eguisheim won the Préféré des Français and declared the "Favorite Village in France". And we could see why.

As we headed up the beautiful Rue du Remparts, Christopher pointed out a ton of little details to us. That cute skinny house in the middle of the photo above, now the home of a business, Le Pigeonnier, dates back to the 15th century.

Even in winter; the street bursts with color and adorable ornamentation.

Christopher went through small details on the structures and I took photos, though I should have taken notes so I'd have remembered what these small details told about the families, vocations, and social standing of the folks who once lived here.

Storks are symbols of fertility and good luck in Alsace. They are treasured and build their nests on top of roofs, steeples, and other high areas.

They were once threatened with extinction in Alsace, but a conservation program in the region has allowed for a rebound in mating pairs. And though they usually migrate South for the winter; Christopher pointed out a couple of stray "couples"(most White Storks are monogamous and share duties for raising their young) still hanging around in late November.

Christopher told us we were extremely lucky to see storks this time of the year and it must be a good omen.

As we made a circle back to the main road, we passed the rather hulking looking Church of Saint Peter and Paul.

Christopher took us in; there was something he wanted us to see.

Off on the "porch" to the side is a wooden Vierge Ourvante, an "Opening Virgin". Which dates back to the 13th or 14th Century.

This is a very rare artifact and is quite striking.

The center of this charming village is the Place du Château Saint-Léon, the former site of a castle. This area had been settled by first the Gauls, then the Romans.

Notice the statue and the church? Well, a former Pope and Saint; Leo IX was born in Eguisheim in, get this 1002! That chapel is named Chapelle Saint-Léon IX and was built and dedicated to Saint Leo in 1894.

It's a quaint, tiny chapel, which houses relics of the former Pope and Saint.

The frescoes in the chapel represent the seven scenes from the life of Saint Leo.

And though it was rather dark when we entered......

A coin in the machine changes that in an instant!

Our next stop on the tour was the charming, but bustling town of Ribeauvillé.

The old town is charming and as you'll quickly notice has quite a few "music" oriented statues, symbols, and icons.

Originally known as Rappoltsweiler, then becoming Rathaldovilare, in the 8th century, the village was passed on to the noble family of Rappoltstein. The Lord of Rappoltstein was the protector of the wandering minstrels of the land, who paid him a tax for protection. In fact, the minstrels had their own chapel in the village and even their own patron Saint! They used to celebrate at the chapel on September 8th and something similar still occurs on the first Sunday in September in Ribeauvillé; a festival called Pfifferdaj ("Fiddler's Festival"), which claims to be the oldest festival in Alsace.

Christopher lead along the main street making stops along the way to tell us stories about Ribeauvillé.

The main square is named Place de Mairie and a large gate and tower; named the Butcher's Tower (Tour des Bouchers), named after the slaughterhouse and butcher stalls that were located at its base.

The gate separates what was once the upper and lower towns of Ribeauvillé.

Speaking of butchers......this wonderful half timbered house......

Sits atop a very popular Boucherie named Siedel Hubert.

We ended up spending some time in the shop and purchasing some foie gras on the way back down.

Siedel Hubert
78 Grand'Rue
68150 Ribeauvillé, France

A bit further up the street was a beautiful square Place de la Sinne and the wonderful half-timbered houses.

Minstrels once used to gather around this fountain and in the inns that lined the square.

Christopher also pointed out various signs along the way......

And then asked us if we'd like to do some exploring and shopping on our own. So, after setting up our meeting place (the piper statue), we wondered around, did a bit of shopping.

And spent a good amount of time at Siedel Hubert, before meeting Christopher at the location designated.

We were charmed and taken in by these villages in Alsace.

And there were still several more stops to go! Stay tuned!

Thanks for stopping by!

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.

We're Back!

Well, as you can see by the photo above; it's kind of easy to tell where we've been....back to the Missus's favorite city.

And we revisited a couple of Her favorite sites as well.

And even ate at a few favorite places as well.

Though it wasn't all revisits as we had meals that went from the traditional....

To modern.....

To getting to know the city a bit better and trying out other places around the city.....some of which were excellent.

Our next stop was a region known.....well for this.....

And while we did sample our share of the "bubbly".....

We didn't realize the amount of history that took place in the city we stayed in.....

A cathedral where 29 kings of France were crowned.....

Where a young girl who received "angelic orders" rallied the French and "Le Dauphin" was crowned Charles VII.....

The land is beautiful; the bounty of the chalky soil is known around the world.....

Our meals here also went from traditional to modern.....

Our next stop was a city in a region we'd been to before. Yet, we probably enjoyed this city much more....it had charm in spades.

We had a charming apartment right in the middle of the picturesque old town. The food; like on our previous visit to the region was quite hearty; though we enjoyed it here much more.

The highlight of our stay; other than our apartment was a small group tour that turned into a private tour when we were the only two attendees for that day. We visited four amazing villages.

From one of the villages that inspired Beauty and the Beast.

To another that is the birthplace of a famous humanitarian; but is sadly now known for a tragic and sad event a few months ago. It has now made this beautiful little village a rather strange, somewhat macabre pilgrimage site for Americans. I'd totally forgotten about what happened here and chose to partake in the beauty and history instead.

Though we did find out from our guide about an odd coincidence we had the previous evening...…

The next stop was the third most populous city in the country; the entire city center is a UNESCO site.

But who were we kidding? We were there to eat!

From the traditional.....

To the Michelin starred.....

Now we know why they call this city the "Capital of Gastronomy".

And so, we ended up where we started; except for a short side trip....

We enjoyed our Thanksgiving meal.....

And as soon as things started....well, they ended.

Because of a couple of travel hiccups; it basically took us twenty-four hours from the time we left our hotel, to when we walked into our house.....

So this little piggy needs a bit of rest.

Thanks for stopping by!

Strasbourg - Market Day and More Eating at the Christmas Market (Place Broglie)

We awoke fairly early on our last day  in Strasbourg. Our short trip here just went by in a flash.

Since our train wouldn't be leaving until around 130; we asked the folks who managed the apartment if we could pack and leave our luggage there until it was time to head off to the train station at around noon. As with most folks who run these properties, it was no problem.

Even though we had managed to walk around much of the Grande Île and even did a boat tour, there's a lot that we missed. Like the Église protestante Saint-Pierre-le-Jeune, which was basically two blocks from where we were staying.

These places would just have to wait until next time......

On this brisk morning; there was a produce market going on....so we stopped by to check things out.

So, in addition to all the ornament and other stands; many of which were already open at 9am.....

There were folks pulling along wheeled shopping baskets......

We did one more "tour" of Grande Île, walking through Petit France, and taking time to take photos in front of the Christmas Tree at Place Kléber. Which apparently was the thing to do....

This is a statue of Jean-Baptiste Kléber ,the square's namesake; a Military General and Architect who was born in Strasbourg.

A lot of the fun was just wandering around and watching the folks out and about on this morning.

Soon enough; it was time to grab a bite to eat before grabbing our bags and heading back to Paris. You know what the Missus wanted, right?

So we got back to Place Broglie.....

And while the Missus went off in search of more Choucroute Garnie; I found this rather enticing sausage stand.

The guy working here was a hoot. After a good bonjour.....basically using up all the French I knew. I pointed to the great looking sausages with caramelized onions in the tray. He smile and asked me where I was from. I told him "America"; he then said, "good, you want zee hot dog?" He cracked me up! I ordered one; and he actually went ahead and made one up for me fresh. really nice. Before he handed the foot long sausage in a baguette to me he asked: "you want zee ket-chup?" I laughed and said "non merci monsieur - my friends from Chicago would kill me if I put ketchup on my hotdog!" He laughed and said; "so monsieur....you are purist?" And we both cracked up.....the sausage guy....and yours truly; the hot dog "purist"!

By the way; this was delicious; the forcemeat style sausage had an amazing snap, was perfectly seasoned. The mustard added a mild pungency and those onions were really sweet.

But the most amazing thing about this was the baguette; light, crusty, yeasty....oh man; even the Missus, who ate half of this by the way, in addition to what She got, enjoyed "zee hot dog!"

Of course She got more sausages and sauerkraut. Man, I can't believe how much of this stuff She can put away. Oh well, at least She was having a blast.

We finished up our early lunch, picked up our bags from the apartment, and headed off to Strasbourg Station.

We had really enjoyed our stay in joyous, colorful Strasbourg. I'm hoping to return one day.

Strasbourg - Place Kléber, the Aubette, Terres à Vin, and More Choucroute

After napping off our afternoon wanderings and vin chaud, we awoke and relaxed a bit. The Missus watched Netflix, I worked on a post. By the time we headed out it was dark. We decided to head back to Place Kléber considered to be the central square of Strasbourg. As the sun set, the city seemed to awaken, everyone put on their warm clothes, the lights came on, and Strasbourg came alive.

The Missus was enchanted with all of the wonderful window displays.

 

Just like the previous evening we stopped at Place Kléber to enjoy the Christmas Tree.

And the beautifully lit Aubette.

So strikingly beautiful. It just put you in the holiday mood......

And this really good street musician helped to set the tone.

It just made for a wonderful moment in time.

Wandering around the side streets we found a little courtyard and this wine bar.

Named Terres a Vin. We decided to step in and have some wine and a snack.

We both started with wines typical of the region; a Riesling for the Missus a Gewürztraminer for me. While sipping on our wine, we decided to stick around for a while. We ordered some fromage and had another glass.

It was another nice little stop on a day of many wonderful vignettes.

Terres a Vin
1 rue du Miroir
Strasbourg, France

As we headed back to the apartment; we decided to get something to eat. Guess what the Missus wanted?

Yep, more choucroute, this time with just some "knacks". That baguette was actually quite good. The Missus just couldn't get enough sauerkraut.

The Missus was in heaven.

There's a time for having things planned out when on vacation. But then again, sometimes it's great to not make plans at all. Not having to be anywhere made for a wonderful day, in a lovely city.

We were given a bottle of wine when we checked in. This evening made for the perfect moment to pop that cork.....

Move one of the chairs up to the window; throw back the curtains, and enjoy...….

Thanks for stopping by!