Fancy France

After a lovely weekend in Paris, the McCracken and Ward clans headed east towards Germany. On our way, we spent two days and a night exploring the beautiful Alsace region of France. Alsace (along with Lorraine) is unique to France because of its strong German influence. The Alsace region has been handed back and forth between France and Germany a few times and has a culture representative of both (read: wine AND beer). It is home to many wonderful things, such as sauerkraut, German Shepherds (also known as Alsatians), and the picturesque towns of Colmar and Strasbourg.

After driving through the French countryside and winding through forests on hilly roads, we came upon the town of Colmar. Colmar is home to Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, more commonly known as that French guy who sculpted the Statue of Liberty. Colmar also has an area know as Le Petit Venice, which is about as big as a minute. The canal just barely meets the requirements of water deep enough to drown in (30 mm), but we still saw one little “gondola” go by (maybe the water was a bit deeper where we saw the gondola). Besides a few waterways, Colmar also had lots of cute half-timbered buildings and inviting shops. We were even lured into a macaroon shop with free samples. We got hooked and walked away with a bag of very tasty and very pricey macaroons.

Though Colmar looked like Germany, we were definitely in France. This was reaffirmed when Barbara used her high school French to order and managed to delight our waitress by saying “Je suis chocolat chaud” (I am hot chocolate, for you non French speakers like moi). Fortunately, we managed to correctly order this tasty blueberry tart which is a specialty of the region.

Justin and I decided to end the visit to Colmar on a high note by taking a picture of his underarm on his mom’s camera and not telling her. This provided Justin and I with about half-an-hour of belly laughs and hours of stifled giggles. Upon discovering the picture yesterday, Barbara was not so impressed with our comic genius. Maybe we’re not grownups after all.

After leaving sleepy Colmar, we drove 45 minutes north to Strasbourg. Justin and I visited Strasbourg five years ago and had a wonderful time in this romantic little city. Strasbourg lies on the Rhine (the same river we live near) and has a wonderful walking district. The walking district is an island that is jam packed with leaning half-timbered houses, inviting eating establishments, and tempting shops. It is also home to a massive cathedral that houses an astronomical clock.

While in Strasbourg, we stayed in the same hotel Justin and I stayed in five years ago, spent way too much time in an accessories shop (Barbara and I were trying to support the local economy), ate sauerkraut, ate croissants, looked at churches, bought cookies, ate said cookies, searched for elusive (and locked) public toilets, spent too much time in home accessories shops (Barbara and I were serious about supporting the local economy), ate flam kuchen (German pizza), ate crepes, and commented on the perfection of nearly every road we turned down. It was a nice (though filling) day.




That afternoon we bid au revoir to France and came back to Wiesbaden. Our wonderful time in France will not be forgotten, at least not as long as our car reeks of the stinky Brie cheese we picked up in Paris.