Strasbourg, or Heaven for Christmas Lovers

If you love Christmas, you must visit Strasbourg during the month of December at some point in your life. It truly is a mecca for Christmas lovers. Earlier this month, Karim and I had the good fortune of visiting Strasbourg, not just for the Christmas markets, but also to reconnect with our friend from Dartmouth, Emily DeYoung Becker. We also met Emily's charming husband, Marc, for the first time.

We arrived Friday night and spent the evening catching up with Emily and Marc at their apartment. Emily introduced us to a delicious wintery cocktail - cremant - Alsatian sparkling wine - with a dash of gingerbread liquor. It's absolutely delightful!

The next morning we headed off to picturesque downtown Strasbourg to check out a couple of the Christmas markets. We spent the day wandering from stall to stall at the markets and Emily and I each picked out a couple perfect ornaments. It was absolutely FREEZING outside, so hot wine was a must as we walked along. For lunch we tried an Alsatian specialty called tartes flambes, which are somewhat pizza-like. Very tasty indeed. Here are a couple shots from the day:

Our gracious hosts - Marc Becker & Emily DeYoung Becker

A whole bunch of ice sculptures

Emily & Karim - almost cold enough to be ice sculptures too

Lovely pastel buildings

Emily & me, sporting my conductor's hat one last time

Another gorgeous cathedral

Marc, Emily and I strike a pose

I couldn't deal with Karim making fun of my "conductor's" hat any longer, so I broke down and bought a beret. Shockingly, Karim likes it on me. What do you think?

Strasbourg is so beautiful that I couldn't stop taking photos!

When early evening rolled around, we were all pretty much frozen to the bone, so we decided to tuck in for a wine tasting before dinner. We sampled an array of white wines from Alsace and I discovered that I do like sweet wines --- as long as they're done well. During our tasting, the winery's cat decided that he'd like to cozy up on Emily's lap. Too bad she likes cats just about as much as Karim does (which is not very much at all). Her face below says it all.

Emily likes cats just about as much as Karim does

After our wine tasting but before dinner we strolled around one of the adorable small villages near Strasbourg. Unfortunately I can't remember if it was Barre or another town, but it was incredibly lovely:

A Christmas market lit up at night

After enjoying a delicious dinner together, we headed to bed on the early side, since we wanted to fit in visits to several other small towns on Sunday.

A picturesque Alsatian town, sadly I can't remember which one!

Little Liz in front of the most-photographed spot in the town

One highlight of Sunday was picking up the most delectable jam by Christine Ferber. It's to die for. We spent the rest of the day wandering through the little towns and lunching, before it was time for Karim and me to make our way back to the Ile de France. We were sad to leave Emily, Marc and Alsace in general, but we look forward to hosting Emily and Marc in the spring!