The Christmas market at Strasbourg

As we came out of the station in Strasbourg, we saw our first Christmas kiosks on our way to the hotel only 100 yards away.  Having dropped our cases off, we were soon out again in search of the Christmas tree.

Around the base there was a platform for groups to have a photo and a couple of 'villages'.

Rather than one large Christmas market, there are several sites. Around the Christmas tree, most stalls are in support of charity.  Others sites are selling Christmas decorations, tasteful (and not so tasteful) gifts, sweets and chocolates and, naturally, mulled wine.

After a traditional Alsaicien lunch (choucroute for Pat), we went back to the hotel until dark. Christmas decorations were everywhere.

Son et Luminere was in progress on the walls of the Apple store.  Below, the entrance to one of the sites of the market. 

  

The tree at night. 

Finally, some photos of Strasbourg by night. 

Now we are back home and preparing for Christmas with the family.

Pat and John on tour

Pat and John on tour

Pat and John on tour

Andlau

Usually when we are in this area we take a picnic and walk through the vineyards and woods to the top of the hills.  It was very dull on Wednesday and so we looked at taking the train from Barr to Colmar, a larger town to the south of Andlau where we were staying. All but one train would leave us waiting on the station platform at Sélestat for an hour, and as we had an appointment for a wine tasting at 5pm, this would give us little time in Colmar.  A wander around Andlau and lunch was therefore on the cards.  We found ourselves at the large church in the centre of Andlau which we had not visited before and amazingly it was open.

The church is on one of the routes to St Jacques de Compostella - still a far way to go from here.

Andlau abbey was founded by St Richardis (the local saint) in the late 9th century.  Part of the current building was consecrated in the 11th century and there have been several rebuildings since.  

One of many interesting carvings in the west porch dating from the 12th Century.

The nave to the left and Ste Richarde below. 

The crypt, which is 11th century, is full of very old statues; this pieta is 13th century. 

Our next stop was the local museum. The building was once the large house of a seigneur in the centre of the village.  Over the years that we have visited Andlau, we have seen it being restored.  The house is traditionally built and displays show how the traditional Alsacian house has evolved over the years, the building skills and the stone mason's signs carved on stones which make the house.  

The basic structure of an Alsacian house is a solid base and a wooden structure above.  There were 'kits' that you can try to put together, demonstrating just how intricate the design is.

After lunch in front of a fire in a restaurant in front of the museum and a rest in our hotel, we set out for a wine tasting with a vigneron we have bought from for almost 25 years.  An order will be going in when we get back home and the wine will be shipped to us.  Here are some views of the tasting room.

Then we returned to the hotel for dinner and packed ready to move on to Strasbourg the next day.

Pat and John on tour

Alsace and Strasbourg Christmas market

Strasbourg Christmas market has been on our list for a while, but, so far, it's been difficult to fit in. As we are spending Christmas in France this year, we have taken the opportunity to spend a few days in Alsace and Strasbourg.
We are travelling by train; from Beziers to Montpellier (30 mins) and then a train direct from there to Strasbourg (6 hours) and the final leg is a local train to the nearest town to our winemaker town (Barr, 30 mins). 
There has been a lot of rain in the Languedoc in the last week, but the temperature has been around 15 degrees.  By contrast, we are expecting temperatures only just above zero in the north east of France and there is a possibility of seeing snow.
As we travelled along the Mediterranean coast and through Montpellier, we saw plenty of flooded winefields. Our route from Montpellier takes us through Nîmes, the up the Rhone valley to Lyon, Macon in Burgundy, across to Chalons in the Champagne region, Besançon, Belfort, Mulhouse, near the Swiss German border and Strasbourg on the German border.  
We reached Beziers at 07:30 this morning via the school bus.  It was still dark, so we had a good view of the Christmas decorations. We thought that Santa was quite cute.
Our train trip went smoothly and so by evening, we were in our usual hotel which is now under new management.





Andlau, where we are staying is decked out for Christmas.  Many lamp posts are decorated with Christmas tree, making walking on the pavement hazardous.







On Tuesday, we walked to the next village to visit our winemaker, Jean-Pierre.  On the way, we spotted a foal with its mother.  We had seen and photographed the same foal just after it was born in May, so it was lovely to see it again, still with mum.
We met Jean-Pierre's father, Pierre en route, pruning the vines.  We were sad to hear that, Doris, Pierre's wife, had died very recently.  We knew her well, after 20 years of buying wine from the same domaine (below).







After arranging a tasting for the following day, we walked on to the next village, Barr, where we stopped for a cup of tea and a cake with Father Christmas at a cafe all decked out for Christmas.  Barr has its own small Christmas market which begins on Saturday.







This is where the local Christmas market will take place. 

All around the village are display boards recording the events of 70 years ago when France was liberated.  Although the Normandy landings anniversary were commemorated in June, Barr was liberated only in late November, 1944. At this point an American tank was destroyed by the Germans.




The wine fields on our way back to the hotel with low cloud and 2 degrees Celsius.


In the evening, we walked across to Mittelbergheim again to eat in a good restaurant where all the wines are from the village.  This is another Mittlebegheim domaine.


Pat and John on tour

Another visit to see Ernie

We are now on our way back to France from a visit to Broadstairs to see Helen, Nick and Ernie. We arrived on Bonfire night and could see fireworks from the plane as we came in to land.  While we were there, Helen took advantage of the built in babysitters to fit in some freelance work. 

Ernie is very keen on trains and especially the Javelins, which use the high speed line between St Pancras and Ashford. We visited Canterbury one afternoon, taking the train from Broadstairs to Canterbury.

One tea shop had some lovely vintage toy cars, which were of great interest.  These are not really toys, but Ernie was determined to get to the Citröen on the left, to the concern of the tea shop staff.

Ernie indulged himself in a favourite pastime, running through puddles!  It is amazing just how many passing people smile and comment on the joy of puddles!

On Friday, Pat was at a funeral in Norfolk so John took Ernie on the 'Loop', a bus that travels round the Isle of Thanet clockwork or anti clockwise, taking in Broadstairs, Ramsgate and Margate. One stop on the Loop is the Hornby visitor centre where Ernie enjoyed seeing the train layouts.  

When they stopped off at Ramsgate station on their way round the loop, Ernie insisted on waiting for almost an hour until he saw a Javelin.  They also stopped at Margate to play in the hide and seek exhibit outside the Turner Contemorary Gallery, but the exhibit had been removed and so all they had was a blank space.

A long trip on the Javelin was therefore a must and so we decided on a trip to London.   

Ernie was very excited about the 'Blue train' especially as ours came into the station.  There were two trains joined together and he insisted on sitting in the second. He enjoyed seeing other 'blue trains' as well as white ones and Eurostars, train washes and engine sheds, giving a running commentary throughout. He listened to and learnt the names of the stations that we would stop at.  

 

When we reached St Pancras, he was in a great hurry to get on the tube where, again, much to the amusement of our fellow passengers, he gave a running commentary throughout 'doors open, people on, people off', doors close, followed by Ernie's (accurate) version of the sound that the tube makes as it starts off and gets up to speed.  

Our only stop in London was Hamley's toy shop where Ernie had a great time seeing and playing with all the toys.  This is not on his Christmas list!

Here we are on the way back, playing with his new Thomas train. 

Helen had been in London too and by chance, we found ourselves on the same train on the way home.

Ernie loves hide and seek and we spent a lot of time playing this at home.  Usually, he would hide behind doors or underneath the duvet on our bed, but he has a new hiding place now - in the washing basket.

o

Of course, we were out and about in Broadstairs, shopping, walking, visits to the park etc. 

The a Royal Albion Hotel 

The clock tower

Viking bay where the sea was often choppy. 

 

We left Broadstairs on Wednesday for the return trip to Beziers with Helen and Ernie who were on their way to Stratford in East London to meet Ernie's former childminder and son Alex from Crouch End. Ernie was very excited about seeing Alex again.

Pat and John on tour

Catalonia

Last year, at about this time, we went to Girona with friends Sile and Martin in order to eat at El Cellar can Roca. We all enjoyed it so much, that we decided to repeat the trip and this year's destination was Corça, a small village not far from Girona and the restaurant was Bo.Tic. Bo. Tic had been recommended to us a few years ago when we were eating tapas in Callella de Palafugell. We found a very good B&B close by, Mas Vilosa which was enormous - it is a very interesting large house with an extensive garden with a swimming pool. Sadly, the water wasn't quite warm enough to swim.

Our hosts gave us plenty of information about the region which was useful for the following day, but for now, we went out to walk around the village of Corça.

We saw yellow ribbons all over the region, indicating support for the Catalan separatist movement.

Our hosts were kind enough to drop us off at Bo. Tic where we enjoyed a top quality meal - it really should have more than one Michelin star. See my photo journals for more photos of the exquisite dishes! Here we are with the chef.

On Thursday, after and excellent Catalan breakfast of tomato topped bread, cheeses and ham on the terrace, we set off to see nearby villages, suggested by our hosts.

We had visited other villages in the region earlier in the year and while very interesting, there had been many tourists. This time, our first stop was Monelles with its lovely arches. It is not unlike Peralata, which we saw in September, but very much less touristy.

The next stop was Púbol where Salvador Dali bought a castle for his wife, Gala in 1968. Púbol was busier than Monelles, with bus loads of teenage schoolchildren on a day out to the Dali museum. This is the church.

We had decided that our last stop would be L'Escale, but we passed Rupia on the way, where we saw we saw intricately decorated walls.

Some were decidedly past their best.

A river flows under the village

We Iunched at L'Escala in a busy restaurant in the town, then went down to the see front to see the band who were all wearing their yellow ties.

After a short walk along the sea

We set off for home but as soon as we got onto the French toll motorway to were halted for two hours in a long queue waiting for an accident to be cleared - well fed, with no commitments and friends on board the time soon passed.

There was a good sunset to photo with the Pyrenees (Canigou) in the background.