Other than the freezing cold weather, it was actually really sunny and beautiful up in Alsace. The Alsace region has switched hands so many times between the French and the Germans that it has a distinctly Germanic feel to the French towns. The storybook towns boast quaint cobblestone streets lined with German stone timber houses. Each town has a river or two going through it so there are many beautiful bridges decorated with flowers overhanging the sides. On any regular day these towns are magically beautiful, so we were so excited to see them all decked out for Christmas.
And we weren’t disappointed. The towns had been decorated with all of their French and German finery and had a very old world feel to them all. There were lights everywhere. The streets were laced with lights from roof to roof, and there were often even “candle” chandeliers hanging from the strings of lights. All the buildings dripped with pine boughs, red bows, and oversized ornaments. Everywhere we turned it was a true feast for the eyes. Dave laughed often as he’d look at me and I’d be standing there wide-eyed with my mouth hanging open completely taken by another gorgeously decorated house.
A picture of when we first arrived. Even without the lights it's so charming!
One of the decked out houses...
Although the decorations were magnificent, the real draw for us to go to Alsace were the Christmas markets we had heard so much about. We have a friend who lives in Germany and she told us that she always goes up to Strasbourg, Alsace, to shop at the Christmas markets. As the holidays approached, I did some research on the best Christmas markets in the world, and found that Germany actually won as far as having the biggest and oldest Christmas markets in the world. But, Strasbourg has the oldest Christmas market in France. It’s huge and very charming because of the mix of German and French influences. We debated flying to Stutgartt Germany to see the oldest market in the world, and then decided to go to Alsace instead. As we read about the Strasbourg maket, we also saw pictures of the Colmar ones, so we decided to go to both towns.
And in the evenings just felt like it was a Christmas wonderland.
Before we went to Alsace, we did visit our very own Christmas market in Lyon. It is actually very large and very cute, in compared to the markets in the US. But, it wasn’t what we expected. It was very commercial, with lots of “stuff” vendors, just like what you would expect in our part of the world. The Alsacian markets were much closer to what we were hoping to see. The vendors were mostly selling goods that were home-made. There were handknit scarves and hats, hand chisselled wooden boxes and carvings, hand painted pictures and picture frames. There were turned wood toys, adorable marionettes, and more different kinds of soaps, candles, and jewelry than you could imagine. But my favorite things of all, were all the home-cooked products. From liqueurs to gingerbread houses to red candy covered apples. I just couldn’t believe that there was all these fresh breads, fresh cookies, and unbelievable edible delights everywhere I turned. I kept spinning around to look at yet another colorful display of clear wrapped goodies.
Gingerbread hearts....
and good old-fashioned Christmas treats.
And with all that temptation, we couldn’t not eat! We found ourselves constantly picking up another little taste of this or that. On each street corner you’d see a little “train” with someone selling roasted chestnuts and the smell would waft past you as you walked by. Then you’d hear some sweet ladies voice “singing” vin chaud, chocolat chaud! Mulled wine, hot chocolate. We were so cold that we always had a glass of one or the other of these in our hands to keep us warm. And as we strolled around sipping our warm tasty drinks we’d pick up little somethings to complement them such as breaded pretzels,, chocolate dipped churos, gingerbread cookies, or my absolute favorite, chocolate covered fruit kabobs! I’m not kidding! They would cover pieces of pear, strawberry, kiwi, banana, etc with chocolate, dark, white, or milk, and then skewer them. So, you’d be walking along with a hot drink in one hand, turning your head sideways, holding a stick up to your face, trying to bite off a piece of chocolate covered fruit from your skewer while not spilling your drink. Dave and I were both so absorbed in this eating frenzie, we forgot to take pictures of each other looking like crazy kids. Oh, but you should have tasted these. The pears were so insanely juicy. And the strawberries! Oh my, how did they get such sweet strawberries this time of year?
Our very first exposure to the Colmar market on our first night.
This was the entrance to the huge Strasbourg market.
The booths at the markets were so quaint and well done.
By the end of our first night at Colmar, Dave and I decided that this was the place to be on the cold winter nights before Noel. In a magical storybook town, walking amongst the gorgeous lights, drinking mulled wine or hot chocolate, eating homemade tasty treats, and then slipping into a hot bubble bath afterwards to warm up our chilled bodies. The next several days and nights were more of the same. Colmar was a smaller town, so it was more quaint. But Strasboug had a reputation to uphold so they had huge markets and decorated magnificently. This weekend alone, will make this a forever in our minds…a Christmas to remember.
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