La Capitale de Noël

A couple of weeks ago, Helena and I came up with another fabulous idea,  we would go on one day trip every month, and we were going to start with Strasbourg, known as the Capitale de Noël  (the Christmas Capital - sticking with our xmas theme as it is December). Though, I'm not sure what I was thinking when I came up with the brilliant idea to catch the 6:55 train to Strasbourg the day after Dana left.  Seriously! I hardly sleep at night.  

 

With maybe 4hrs of sleep, I was on my way to Strasbourg.  I wasn't the only one moving at a snails pace, as the metro at 6AM is freaking slow! This caused a couple minutes of anxiety, as I have a mother that drops me off at the airport 2hrs in advance for domestic flights, so I was a little concerned that I may be sprinting to catch the train.  I arrived at Gare de l'Est ten minutes before the train's departure :) phew! 

Once on the train, cup of coffee in hand, Helena and I discussed our plan for attacking Strasbourg, and then I threw my fleece over my head and took a power nap.  We arrived in Strasbourg a little before 10:00.  When we first arrived it was quite chilly and windy which is probably not a major issue for any normal person, but I've been avoiding wearing my winter coat and been sporting only my fleece; it is just so much more convenient.  [Winter finally arrived in Paris this weekend when the high was 0 degrees Celsius this Saturday and a -2 this morning.  Sadly, I went straight to the puffy coat :( and bypassed the wool coat completely.]  I'm pretty resourceful, I solved the problem of being cold by having some vin chaud (hot mulled wine) and believe it or not, I was not the only one drinking at 10:00 in the morning. 

We visited the Marchés de Noël, the Cathédrale Notre Dame (I think there's a Notre Dame in every city in France), and then headed out to the European Parliament.  We tried to sneak into a tour group of gray haired Nordics but it didn't work… I guess the Brazilian and American brunettes stood out.  Probably not the smartest thing to do … tee hee … but I went on the tour in Brussels so figured I could translate for Helena :)  We were just a couple hours in advance, individual tours started at 15:00, so we decided to venture back into town and skip the tour.  

Strasbourg has been holding their Marchés de Noël since 1570 and has the reputation of being the best markets in France.  Each year, they honor a country, and dedicate one of the markets to that countries local products and crafts.  This year it was Switzerland.  More fondue and raclette for me! 

Personally, I was a little unimpressed with the markets.  I was expecting more of a German Christmas market ambiance.  Instead, they were a lot smaller, even the ones in Paris are bigger.  Now maybe they sell better crap but I think it's all junk and the only thing I've ever purchased at a Christmas market besides food and alcohol was cute little lamb slippers in Cologne, Germany (Yes, I know I'm too old to walk around in slippers that look like stuffed animals but they're warm and really cute!).  I don't think anyone goes to the Christmas markets for shopping anyways ... it's all about the vin chaud ;o) and I think the Germans have it mastered. 

Don't get me wrong, we still had a fun time venturing around the town and visiting the markets.  Plus we ate plenty, we tried the brädeles (xmas cookies), choucroute (sauerkraut), and a baguette version of the flammeküche (an Alsatian pizza), and of course drank the vin chaud.