Alsace

In December, before the Christmas holiday, Shereen and I took our last weekend trip of the year to Strasbourg. During the weeks leading up to Christmas, many of the larger towns in the area have Christmas markets, including Orleans. But the market in Strasbourg is said to be the crème de la crème of Christmas markets. This piqued our curiosity, only to be satisfied by seeing it for ourselves.

Strasbourg is located in the Alsace region of France very near the border with Germany. Ownership of this area has changed hands from France to Germany many times, so much so that the culture is a unique blend of French and German. The drive from Orleans was “only” 5 hours, so we left on Saturday morning with plans to spend the afternoon and evening in Strasbourg.

After parking in a garage on the perimeter of the city, we walked across the river that encircled the town and followed the stream of people toward the unseen market. Typical of European towns, the streets are narrow, preventing one from seeing your destination until on top of it. We began to pass huts collected in gaggles, aligned to funnel passerby up against the display fronts. Available were various Christmas ornaments and lights, lace doilies, wooden toys, plastic Santa’s climbing ladders and spinning, amongst which were interspersed food huts offering thick waffles with chocolate, strawberry or sugar toppings, crepes with similar coatings, pizza on baguettes sliced in half long ways, roasted chestnuts from locomotive style roasters, and the popular “vin chaud”, hot wine flavored with large chunks of fruit floating in plastic cups. One gaggle contained huts from different areas of Europe, with jewelry from Romania and scarves from Slovakia among others.

We bit into waffles as we wandered, looking for something interesting to buy. The streets were packed with people and among the huts it was difficult to move through the traffic. The main market was located at the foot of the cathedral, another imposing architectural marvel. Next a bag of chestnuts and vin chaud helped us to keep the cold at bay. Other than making a few purchases in a chocolate store, we were struggling to find something we were interested in buying, the offerings either seemed to be cheaply made or expensive (particularly with the detrimental exchange rate). The cold began to get to us after a couple of hours. After spending too much time cramming through long, narrow passages between huts with an impatient, elderly, German woman using her large purse to push you from behind, we decided to make our exit.

Our hotel was another budget job over an hour drive from Strasbourg. Clean and comfortable, but small.

The next day I decided, against Shereen’s objections, to drive back east to visit Colmar. My interest was to see the Unterlinden Museum which houses the Isenheim Altarpiece. Since Shereen was not at all interested in seeing the city or the artwork, we stayed only long enough for me to enter the museum, walk past the other displays, and listen to the audio guide at the altarpiece. This artwork is as famous in Germany as the Mona Lisa is in the US. It was created for the Isenheim monastery, which served as a hospital that specialized in treating skin diseases. In particular ergotism, caused by eating fungus infected grain, was quite common in this area at the time the painting was completed. Since the altarpiece was intended to comfort those suffering in the hospital, the image of Christ is painted with skin displaying the marks of ergotism: Christ suffered as you do. Other significant features are the cross bowing under the weight of Christ which pulls his shoulders out of there sockets, the varying and realistic expressions of grief on the observers at the cross, the uniquely dramatic “exploding” resurrection, concert of angels including Satan among the choir, and the vividly gruesome temptation of St. Anthony. For more see: http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/html/g/grunewal/2isenhei/index.html

I did have a chance to walk through Colmar for a few minutes. The city is smaller and “cuter” than Strasbourg, having more interesting houses and streets. Colmar should be your first choice if touring Alsace.