The first weekend of December, me and some fellow au pairs decided to kick the holiday season off right with—what else?—a trip to the Christmas markets of Strasbourg!
The only hang-up was location: Strasbourg is a good four-hour car ride from Geneva. So it was that I groaned as my alarm clock went off and we departed in the pitch black darkness of morning, watching the sun rise through the mountains as we zipped along the highway.
Although we were staying in France, the quickest route took us through small pieces of Switzerland and Germany. I was really excited because it was going to be my first time on the AUTOBAHN. Actually, the only thing I had heard about it beforehand was of its lack of speed limit. I was envisioning a special sort of highway, straight and flat, with all the cars flying down it at maximum speeds. Well, as it turns out, “autobahn” refers to all the highways in Germany, and so it was basically just like any other European auto route.
There also was the Black Forest, of which we passed through the edges. From what I saw, it wasn't as the name suggests. No density of trees, no particular darkness--just regularly spaced woods, with light filtering regularly throughout. Despite all the adjustments of previous conceptions, I liked watching the little villages of Germany pass by the car window: a ring of relatively homogeneous red-roofed houses encircling a tall church steeple.
I never knew it before coming here, but Christmas markets in Europe are a pretty big deal. Almost every place has at least a little something (even the small town where I live held a market over a weekend in December). But Strasbourg proclaims itself to be the “capital of Christmas” and boasts to have the best Christmas market in the world.
I cannot personally affirm that, but I will say I was impressed with its size and grandeur. Sprinkled throughout the streets of the city, there are conglomerations of petite wooden market stalls of artisans and merchants selling their goods of Christmas paraphernalia, ornaments and gifts and such. Plus the stalls of food, which sort of reminded me of what it is like to go to a fair in the US; think greasy fast food and popcorn. But there was also hot spiced wine, churros (a sort of fried dough which I had never seen before), waffles, crepes, and roasted chestnuts for sale. There was even a huge tent devoted entirely to gourmandises, with assortments of cookies and cakes. I’ve never seen so much pain d’epice in my life.
Yet for lunch we decided that we should take full advantage of our location and sit ourselves down to a proper Alsatian meal, with all of the delicacies of the region: choucroute (aka sauerkraut) and saucisse. After walking and down the quaint streets of Strasbourg, we finally settled on a cozy little establishment with dark wood paneling, red-and-white checkered curtains at the windows, and haphazardly-posed pictures on the walls. The restaurant was absolutely chock full and buzzing of other like-minded tourists, taking a pause amongst the Christmas markets. I was enjoying the warmth of the place after being in the windblown streets, but from the moment that we were greeted overly-curtly by our waitress, I couldn’t ignore just how bad the service was. Granted that in Europe the bar of what constitutes good service at a restaurant is considerably lower than it is in the States, it was absolutely dreadful at this place. In fact our waitress was almost a caricature--a short, fat woman with a thick German accent, whose idea of hospitality was so skewed that it ventured into downright rudeness. Basically it was a language barrier, and she had absolutely zero patience for a single question on the menu. I had never done it before, but after spending a half hour trying to place an order, we decided enough was enough, and got up and left the place. Continuing down the street we found another restaurant which had considerably less ambiance, but at least the waiter there didn’t insult us and call us names, thinking we wouldn’t understand because it was in French. I ended up ordering spaetzel (buttery noodle clumps) and coq au vin with a creamy mushroom Riesling sauce. Definitely not what I would consider light, and the helpings were generous to boot, but delicious and hearty nonetheless.
Granted, being in the Alsace Lorraine region of France, right next to Germany, I could definitely see the geographical influence in the architecture; it is a nice blend of the two.
The city is very charming during the day, but it is also lovely at night. Draped across the streets are grand light displays, with further flourishes of light hanging up on the lampposts to illuminate all the main roads.
Before departing, we went to the town square to see the big sapin de Noel (Christmas tree) all lit up, and to listen to a chorus perform Christmas carols—it was a very multicultural spectacle, with songs from around the world, and definitely put me in the Christmas spirit.
As for the city of Strasbourg, its big claim to fame (when it isn’t December) is its “Notre Dame” cathedral. But then again that is also true for virtually any city in France you could name! Yet this one I thought had particularly interesting architecture: very Gothic, very dark.
Similar to a wishing well or fountain, the church’s money-making scheme was a grate where you could throw down a coin. Here’s the action shot of me making my wish:
All in all, a very nice day.
