Strasbourg, a large city in the french region of Alsace, is dubbed the capital of Christmas. Not by chance I chose my time of visit it in december, I heard a lot of rumours about the splendor of alsatian christmas markets. I can promise you, you havent seen a christmas like that before.
In general, Alsace in an interesting region of eastern France. It used to belong to Germany until 1681 when the French seized Strasbourg and most of the region. Two countries were fighting over Alsace until the 2nd World War when its allegiance was to the French. Alsatian is a seperate germanic dialect that's spoken there, it is still taught in school but it's not mandatory.
Strasbourg lies right next to the German border, so the connection of this particular city to the German culture is quite understandable. There is even a tram connecting the centre to Kehl, a town on the German side. I actually flew to Stuttgart because there were no convinient flights, and took a direct bus from the airport to Strasbourg. The border crossing is essentially unnoticeable, I only acknowledged that I was in France was because the streetsigns changed their language.
This explains why Alsatian christmas traditions are so strong - just like in Germany. However in this region they take christmas very seriously. There is no messing around. There is no way of walking out of the wholesome christmas celebration. Strasbourg's historical quarter lies on an island Grande Ile surrounded by river Ill. The whole island is the area of the market, there are security checks on every bridge to prevent any potential attacks. The whole island was decorated abundantly, most of the storefronts or even the netire buildings are covered in twigs, plush toys, balls, chains, stars, stuffed animals, presents, fake snow, fairylights.
My friend is doing her Erasmus in Strasbourg, so she guided me through. Most of the time we spent wandering around the christmas market, drinking mulled wine and nibbing street food.
Petite France is a specially beautiful part of the old town, those are the timber-frame buildings dating back to the middle ages, with the river's cannal inbetween. Yes, a part of the market was here as well selling traditional alsatian lanterns, minature ceramic houses and festive foods.
The buildings have a timber-frame structure that is visible on the facade. The frames are filled with wattle and daub, bricks or stones. The infill was usually painted white while the timber was left in it's dark shade. Sometimes the infill was painted in pastel pink, blue, green, yellow, etc. I saw many colourful ones in Colmar, but in Strasbourg white elegance was prevailing.
Off to the streets! I tried to capture the festive spirit that I felt while wandering around.
Liban was invited to participate in the market this year, on one of the central squares libanese food and decorations could be purchaced.
They are crazy about decorations. I couldn't resist of capturing them.
As a break from christmassness the following day we saw Republique square with some monumental venues that stood next to it- National Theatre, National Library and Palais du Rhin. The square is a transit hub.
In front of Palais du Rhin lies a baroque-ish garden with fountains and marvelous old trees.
There's an enormous Notre-Dame Cathedral in the centre towering over Stasbourg. Resembling many cathedrals that were raised in the Middle-Ages, initially it was supposed to have two twin towers on the facades but only one was built. Today it's the sixth tallest church in the World reaching 142 meters. It has a pinkish hue thanks to the special type of sandstone mined in Vosges mountains. Its construction lasted from 1015 until 1439!
The photos of the cathedral are appearing through the whole post. It was hard to take all the good shots on one go, because of the migrating crowds of market-goers.
Around the river on the outer side there are a few nice things as well.
Starting from Saint Paul's Church. Its neogothic form stands tall between two parts of the river. This area is called Gallia. The church was not open, so we could not peak inside.
Strasbourg is home to European Parliment facilities too.
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