Where can you encounter sausages, ancient art, accordion players, snobby Frenchmen, castles, other exotic meat products, a history based on syphilis, the European parliament, cobblestone streets and, best of all, authentic soft pretzels? If you guessed Alsace, you'd be right!
It would be hard to sum up last weekend in a few words, but if I had to, that list would do it (oh, and sunshine). At 6:30 on Friday morning we jumped (well, actually we sort of dragged and grumbled in the lovely way of the half-asleep) onto our minibus and headed northeast to the region of Alsace, an area that has gone back and forth between France and Germany since the days of yore (although it has belonged to France since the end of World War I, aside from Hitler's seizure of it). It's very heavily German-influenced because of this (hence the sausage, sauerkraut and pretzels), and they even have their own dialect, Alsatian, which is a mix of French, German and Dutch.
After stopping for breakfast on the way (I had my first pain au raisin, which was delicious), we made our first stop in Strasbourg at the European Parliament. This was equal parts interesting and frustrating. For one thing, we had learned about almost everything that our tour included in a politics class that four of us took last semester, which rendered it more interesting but also extremely annoying because we found we had forgotten most of the information we'd learned. For another, we had the strangest/worst tour guide in the history of the world, and this is not an exaggeration. Nathalie had had him in years past and she had actually called this year and requested not to have him, but that obviously did no good. He repeated everything at least four times, would not stop talking about the most useless things (like television screens and stairs) and he defined everything. Direct quote: "This building is in a shape. This shape is a circle. The building is in the shape of a circle, the form that is round. It is a circle." We and the German students on the tour with us had to struggle to keep straight faces, and even though it was interesting to see the Parliament, it was definitely not the most useful tour.
After that, we checked in at our hotel and went to lunch. The restaurant was very authentic, with dark wood walls and checkered towels and things hanging everywhere, which was cool, but I didn't actually enjoy the cuisine, especially after I found bacon on my vegetarian tarte flambée. After lunch, we had free time to explore Strasbourg. We went to the cathedral, which was beautiful, and then we wandered down to Petit France (thus named because the French came to the region in the Middle Ages and brought syphilis with them), which was beautiful! We walked along the sparkling river, which is lined with old-fashioned buildings and pretty trees. We were really lucky to have beautiful weather all weekend, and it was so enjoyable to walk around. We also took a boat tour along the river-- my first boat tour-- and it was so much fun.
Petit France!
We bought pretzels later and then a few of us went back to the hotel to relax until dinner. The food at dinner was not better than lunch, and it was made worse by the fact that our waiter was the epitome of a snobby French person. Although the French can be somewhat rough sometimes, I honestly hadn't encountered a stereotypical French snob until this restaurant. He scolded us for not cleaning our plates and proclaimed it must be because we had eaten at McDonald's beforehand, and then he delayed our dessert by a half an hour as punishment. He also pulled the really clever trick of pretending like he couldn't understand us when we spoke, even though there is no way he couldn't have (we've encountered this more than once). All in all, I was really glad to go back to the hotel, curl up in bed and watch a movie with Helen before bedtime.
some of the group waiting for our boat tour
The next day we left Strasbourg and headed first to le Château de Haut Koenigsbourg, which really was high up, just like it says in the name (haut). It was really really fun and when we got to the top, there was the most beautiful view out the windows. We basked in the sun for a while before we left. I think château-visiting is one of my favorite activities here. There is so much interesting history to learn and think about, and they are so beautiful as well as very fun to run around in.
the group in front of the castle!
From there, we made our way to the village of Riquewihr, stopping at a picturesque church on the top of a hill on the way to see the view. The drive was kind of like Mr. Toad's wild ride, but it was lovely-- I felt like I was in a movie as we rolled across the hilly green countryside through tiny little villages, each made up of old-fashioned houses and a church. The region is also famous for storks, and we got to see a few perched on chimney-tops.
basking in the sun in the middle of the countryside
Riquewihr felt even more like we had stepped into a storybook. It was a tiny village with everything traditional and charming, from the cobblestones beneath our feet to the Alsatian woman handing out hot, fresh macaroons from the window of her pastry shop. We got to eat lunch outside, which was great, since we were taking every opportunity to soak up the sun. Once again I didn't really find anything I wanted to eat-- that was the major downfall of this trip for me. If you want to eat vegetarian and/or not very richly, Alsace is not the place for you. Lunch was fun (and I had violet ice cream afterwards-- yummy!), but I was sort of in a bad mood afterwards, since I had eaten salad for every meal for the last three meals. We also had free time but there wasn't much else to do, Riquewihr being so charmingly tiny, so we just sat in the sun for an hour and chatted.
sunny lunchtime!
Nathalie came and found us in the late afternoon and we went to some caves for a wine tour and tasting. So far, this was my favorite wine activity by far, for a few reasons. First of all, we only spent about five minutes in the cave, which suited me just fine because the caves are cold and spiderwebby and the process of winemaking is really something I could not care less about. Second of all, we were served the most delicious traditional cake to go with our wine tasting, and free cake is always good, especially when it has glazed almonds on top and it is a local specialty. Third of all... drumroll, please... I tasted a wine that didn't make me want to spit it out all over the table and head to the nearest dentist's for a thorough mouth cleaning! I actually liked the first wine we tasted, which was a Reisling. I bought a bottle, too, because it was grand cru, which is the very top echelon on the scale of wines (see, I am learning, if reluctantly), and only 15 euros, which was a steal, and because after our professor explained to us that the appeal of wine is less the wine itself than everything associated with it-- it is an experience of nostalgia, you could say, and the most important thing is when you bought the bottle of wine and the memories that come out of the bottle when you open it, as he said-- I was persuaded that I really should bring home a commemorative bottle of real French wine.
proof of the wine
After this, we got back in the bus and drove to Colmar, where our hotel was located. We hung out before dinner (we found "Glee" in French on the tv in our room!) and then we went to our restaurant, which was located in Petit Venise (Little Venice) and situated right next to a river! This dinner was great. My appetizer was goat cheese with honey brulé, and I think it might be my favorite specifically French food that I have tasted so far. We had a really good time and all ended up crying from laughing at one point, including Nathalie.
The next morning we got to see Colmar in the daylight, and it was very sunny daylight, indeed. I wore shorts! We got to gallivant around a pretty courtyard with a fountain and lots of colorful flowers while Nathalie figured out our tour, and then we had a tour of the art museum, which is one of the most visited beaux-arts museums in France. Our tour guide was interesting but he too was rather rude-- not to us, but to some of the patrons. I have never heard anyone shush so fiercely!
the plaza in front of the art museum
After this, we had the best lunch ever. We ate at an outside cafe, and it was blissfully warm and sunny. An accordion player stopped by as we were sipping on our drinks, and we took a moment to realize how extremely French we were being right now. The accordion player was even wearing a striped shirt! This lunch was great, and afterwards we had the most magnificent ice cream sundaes I have ever encountered. My framboise melba, which consisted of raspberry sorbet, vanilla ice cream, raspberries and the most flavorful, creamiest whipped cream in the world, was literally the best ice cream I have ever consumed. Needless to say, we were in a state of bliss by the end of our meal.
best. ice cream. ever.
Our bus ride back to Dijon was shorter than the one there since we had moved south over the course of the weekend, and we all dozed off. We came back to cloudy skies, and not two minutes after we had all gotten home, there was a huge thunderstorm! Since then, though, we've been having lovely weather-- spring has really sprung!
