I spent half of last week in the top right hand corner of l'hexagone (France)-Alsace. Here is what I got up to.
So we left Brussels at about 1PM on the Wednesday afternoon after Clément and Louise had finished school. Bags all packed and off we went on the 4 hour journey to Alsace where both Marie-France and Renaud's parents live. The journey took in various sights of Belgium (nothing too special) followed by passing through a snowy Luxembourg before arriving early evening at Marie-France's grandparents house in the Alsacian countryside. After a hearty dinner with the first of many sampling of Alsace beer we then called it a day as Thursday was a busy one.
I woke up at about 9AM the next day then while the rest of the family spent the day working or shopping I went to visit the town of Colmar, a town 1 hour south of Strasbourg by train. Colmar is very traditionally for a town in Alsace with many traditional style buildings taking in both the influences of French and nearby German culture making it quite picturesque. Needless to say, I took lots of photos. I'd say if you were planning to visit Colmar based on the previous comments then I recommend you come any other time of year but January as most of the museums were closed and as it is not that big a place I ended up spending the best part of an hour browsing the FNAC shop for new music to kill time before catching the train back to Strasbourg. That evening, we all went out to a restaurant for dinner and ate Tarte Flambée, a traditional Alsacian food. In Mallorca I had coca which is essentially Pizza without the cheese but this time I was eating Tarte Flambée which is essentially Pizza but without the tomatoes. A great dish which we ordered several times over before an excellent Dame Noire ice cream for dessert.
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| Getting stuck into a Pretzel |
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| Manneken Pis.2? |
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| FOOD OF THE WEEK: Tarte Flambée |
On Friday, I took the bus into the centre of Strasbourg to have an amble around for the day. I'll be honest, before coming to Alsace all I'd really known about the area was that it contains a large percentage of French industry (no wonder the Germans wanted it so much) so I was expecting a city similar to the city of Mulhouse an hour or two south, nicknamed the 'Manchester of France'. I couldn't have been more wrong. Strasbourg is a vibrant city filled with many shops, nice buildings, plenty of museums, a massive cathedral and a particularly lovely walk along the banks of the Ill River. Interestingly for me, Strasbourg is also the seat of the European Parliament and the location for the International Institution of Human Rights so my main purpose for the trip was to do part 2 of my tour of the European Union having done the first part in Brussels. I took the 25 minute walk out of the centre to the Parliament buildings and had a good look around what is a more modern area of the city. The buildings weren't open for visits but I made sure to take some photographic evidence of my visit, just need to go to Luxembourg rather than driving through it to complete the set. I can now understand why Strasbourg was chosen as one of the host cities for the European Parliament. Brussels represents the more corporate, international side of Europe whereas Strasbourg represent the more romantic and poetic side of Europe as well as being quite centrally located within the continent.
Saturday was a surprisingly chilled day which I spent much of the day either teaching Clément English or frantically doing travel research on my laptop (keeps your eyes pealed for future announcements) but Saturday meant only one thing for me-the start of the Six Nations. Rugby fans like myself wait all year for this tournament and this year England were kicking off their fixture list with 'Le Crunch' against France in Paris. Having previously experienced the frosty atmosphere of watching an England vs France match with French people while in Bordeaux 2 years ago, I didn't fancy a repeat so instead I headed back into Strasbourg to a fully Irish pub, hoping for a less hostile atmosphere. The pub was as Irish as I hoped it would be meaning the many French men and women that filled it stayed largely anonymous for the whole match while I sat with a small cluster of English and Irish fans (one of the drunker fans insisted that I look like England Fly Half Owen Farrell) as well as a smug Welshman drinking Guinness, having a good chat with likeminded Rugby fans and enjoying what was a very exciting game, for the neutral. Barely a minute had gone before France scored the game's first try after some woeful English defence and the French majority roared with delight. Another sloppy try conceded to the French not long after that and it looked like curtains at 16-3 down before a hard fought second half comeback from England to lead 24-19 only for France to score a suckerpunch of a try in the last 5 minutes of the match to win what was a very narrow game 26-24. Understandably I was pretty gutted after watching England lose in such a way after what was a very impressive second half and this was compounded when I arrived back at the house as a jubilant and gloating Clément greeted me on arrival having watched the game there. Think I made a good choice to go out plus I received a free mini Rugby ball with my Guinness!
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| Post game depression |
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| Do I really look anything like Owen Farrell? I don't see to be honest! |
The next day after a succulent Sunday lunch, we returned to Brussels. It was an enjoyable half week in North East France and a nice and much needed change of scene from Brussels. Several more posts coming in quick succession within the next week or so and plenty to be excited about.
FP
#FraserOnTour
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| Putting the ass in Alsace |
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