Strasbourg isn't the only Christmas paradise in France. Actually, there's a city named Colmar very close to the region's capital that is equally magical when it comes to the yule spirit. But it's not only a Christmas destination, of course, the town itself is outstandingly picturesque, straight out of a Disney film.
Colmar is quite small, having merely 70000 habitants. The climate is very convenient for wine production, so it's the capital of Alsatian wines. It's an hour away from Strasbourg by bus, so it is a great opportunity for a daytrip at any time of the year. It has a similar history as the rest of alsatian cities - initially it was established in Germany around 1226 but then through the centuries it was passed between Germany and France to become permanently french after 1945.
Colmar was a rural-french-village paradise. Beautifully preserved medieval facades in pastel shades of pink, ivory, violet, blue with steep slanted roofs spread all over the old part of the city. Just walking around you go through adorable squares, churches etc. I didn't really pay much attention to specific buildings, so i won't make a lot of descriptions. It has a riverside part called Little Venice.
The market was quite similar to the one in Strasbourg, most of the stalls offered the same range of products (although the cups for mulled wine had a totally different design!). The wholesome decor was made in the same manner as in Strasbourg too, plushies, twigs, presents, sledges, lights, stars, fake snow on the facades and basically everywhere possible. The market spreads through the whole old town and splits into a few smaller ones on city squares. It is actually very popular at christmas, and since we travelled on a Sunday it was very crowdy. In the most popular passages it was actually hard to walk. But it was a situation very easy to predict.
So... we basically walked in circles just to enjoy this magical environment.
Honestly, with all the charm of this city my absolutely favourite thing in Colmar was... one particular cafe. It was called L'Artemise and was located in a beautiful pink old building by one of the bridges leeading to the old quarters.
We stumbled upon it by accident, when I said to my friend "ok this is cool but I need to drink a coffee right now" and we enterned the first coffeehouse that was on our way. Just scroll down to see how it looked on the inside. It had two storeys, we sat on the upper one. Every piece furniture, the tapestry on the walls, the cups, the pots and teaspoons - everything was matching in a vintage style. I ordered a marzipan latte and it was the most delicious coffee I ever had in my life - tasting as if it was brewed with marzipan already.
The other favourite thing was... a BAROUSEL. Okay, it was named the Carousel Bar, but we dubbed it The Barousel because it was literally a bar on a carousel. It moved slow enough not to feel dizzy while drinking. At least that is what we assumed, we didn't have enough time to sit down and enjoy a beverage.
But aside the funy carrousels, we also found a carrousel that was conctructed in 1901. It was truly beautiful with its oldschool figures of animals, cars, trams, planes... I couldn't stop staring at it.
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