Friday, December 5, 2014

Marché de Noël!


Last weekend, I took a bus to the Eastern edge of France to visit a town that's home to one of the oldest and most famous Christmas markets in Europe- Strasbourg! Two miles from the French/German border, the Christkindelmärik has been held there annually since 1570.
I visited Colmar as well, but our time there was so short that I hardly took any pictures! Of the two, Strasbourg by night was absolutely gorgeous but felt a little too mass produced. Certainly not all, but many of the chalets had the same, generic items. This definitely didn't take away from our good time (vin chaud being one of those mass produced, available everywhere items...) but, I didn't find nearly as many Christmas gifts as I'd hoped. We ended the night salsa dancing on a boat, so, you know, zero complaints there. Strasbourg is definitely on my list to revisit sometime.

Colmar's chalets had many more unique items and artisanal goodies. Before I was even gone I was already plotting another trip back before I go home to the U.S. for Christmas. So much to see with so little time- but I was able to scoop up a few Christmas gifts...and a Nutella+Banana crêpe of course.



Pictures below!



Just the typical gas station fare in Reims aka the Champagne region aka Paradise



Strasbourg

























These lights faded into all kinds of colors- I stuck around to catch the purple and gold for my LSU loving Dad ;)













Andddd night capping with Salsa.




We stayed in a chateau in Saverne, and visited Colmar the next day.
Saverne was very quiet, so we just wandered around a bit taking silly pictures before the bus took us to Colmar.

Also visited with Papa Noël



 Sleepy Sunday in Saverne.



 Taverne Katz. It wasn't open, so I'm just going to imagine that this is a cat themed pub.


Come on. Of course we were all going to take advantage of this photo opp.



Colmar



Yep, it was spinning. Apparently Hotel Monteleone is not the only one with a Carousel Bar !

Reminders of New Orleans popping up all over the place.






All in all, such a great experience to share with these two lovely gals.



It's Friday afternoon and I'm headed to the train station to zip over to Paris until Monday.
I'm still not over the fact that that's totally a thing I can just do now, whenever. I had a lot of time to think while on the bus to Strasbourg (like...a whooole lot) and reflect on the last year or so. 6 months ago, I never would have imagined myself here. Taking the steps to make such a huge life change is scary and risky and so unpredictable and I support it 100%- and am incredibly lucky to have loved ones who encouraged this adventure from the start.

Life is crazy and amazing and full of surprises and everyday I am so so thankful for all of it.

Dear me from 6 months ago: it all worked out just fine.


xo!


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