Alsace, the region around Strasbourg, has changed hands between France and Germany so many times throughout history that the culture there is nearly as German as it is French.
It certainly looks like a German city because most of its current buildings are from periods when it belonged to Germany. Those buildings, by the way, are very old, charming and quirky.
A lot of Strasbourg's appeal to tourists, aside from the French/German mixture, is its very medieval feel; the streets and buildings have mostly kept their medieval layouts, and the whole city is dominated by a huge Gothic cathedral. Across the river, however, are EU Parliament buildings that are super modern.
I didn't have too much in particular I wanted to do except look at some sites and museums, and the two girls I went with also had little on their agendas: one wanted to see the EU and the other mostly wanted to eat food. We arrived around 9:20am so most things were closed as we looked for breakfast. We wound up going to a boulangerie and splitting a small loaf of this yummy-looking bread that was sort of like glazed brioche. We don't have it in Paris, I'm not sure what it is. It was so good we looked around for more (all bread-type things are glazed there, mmm) and got it in a different form that reminded me of challah.
After just walking around the streets for a while we took the tram to the EU. The tram was an interesting experience: there's nothing stopping anyone from simply getting on and before every stop it plays very interesting music, all kinds of things from bits of symphonies to almost Jaws-like ominous phrases. It was borderline ridiculous for such a small and informal setup.
For lunch we made our way back down to the center of the city, right outside the most medieval part. We had gotten recommendations online and from guide books and chose one that seemed very authentic; like I said, one of the girls really wanted to eat Alsatian food. It was this tiny place with maybe 7 or so tables, had toy witches hanging all around the ceiling, and seemed to be run just by this one guy.
Alsace has a few particular specialties we wanted to try, so we wound up splitting a choucrute (sauerkraut), a tarte flambee ("a thin-crust pizza with a cream sauce base for toppings) with onion, ham, chevre and gruyere, and a potatoey dish with Munster cheese. I got creme brulee for dessert and it was delicious. In fact, our whole lunch was pretty good - we ate soo much. I guess before coming to France I wasn't quite clear on what sauerkraut is. It's not my favorite thing but it was decent, and seemed very authentic. (Pardon the weird light in this picture, the restaurant was very dark.)
Then we split off for a while to do our own things, and I went to the cathedral and climbed to the top, went to a museum, and then back to the medieval area. By the time I got out of the museum - around 6:00pm - everything started closing. It was really strange; all kinds of shops, even touristy ones, were closed by 7. There were just a few fast food joints open by the time we walked back to the train station.
Our train back was delayed 10 minutes, but that turned into 45 by the time we got back. TGV, though, will give partial refunds (or possibly credit? I'm not sure) if one's journey is delayed more than a half hour, so that's interesting.
I sat behind a little girl, probably 6 years old, and I couldn't figure out whether she was French or German, but she really epitomized the Alsatian confusion: talking to her grandmother she'd constantly switch back and forth between German and French, sometimes in the middle of sentences, just using whichever language she felt like. I found out she had come from Germany (she told me the train from Germany was delayed 2 hours because trees fell on the tracks) but her French did not have a German accent. Alsatians do have a distinct accent, but German accents are much different. I'm no German expert, but that didn't seem to have much of an accent, either. Her grandmother did the same thing. When the train was stopped and the girl turned around to talk to me she was perplexed by my inability to understand the German she used, but she was pleased to meet an American.
More later on some of the things we saw.
No comments:
Post a Comment