Last weekend, we took a three-hour train ride from Paris to Strasbourg, a little city on the border of France and Germany. After disposing of our baggage at the little chain motel, we headed toward Petit France, the medieval quarter that is the heart of Strasbourg. All great cities have a corresponding great river. In New York, it’s the Hudson and East rivers, from which you can see the imposing skyline. In Paris it’s the Seine, flanked by breathtaking monuments and traversed by numerous romantic bridges that lovers can put locks on as a testament to their undying love. Strasbourg too has its beautiful river, though I suppose it’s more like a canal. On either side of the river are medieval buildings painted in bright colors; literally candy for the eyes.
The first word that comes to mind when attempting to describe Strasbourg is charming. A tram runs through the center of the cobbled streets. People sit outside winstubs (wine bars) that look like they should be on the set of a period movie, with their renaissance-style signs hanging over the front doors, declaring “rotisserie” or “winstub”. The windows of the patisseries boast kugelhopf, a German bread/pastry that is somewhat similar to the French brioche.
One of the coolest things about Strasbourg (other than the charming quaintness) is that the city is a mixture of French and German culture. All the signs are in French and German. The waiters and shopkeepers speak both languages. The cuisine is a mixture of French specialties like foie gras, and German specialties like chucrute. There are street stands selling bread and
pretzels. For dessert one chooses between kugelhopf cooked in so much alcohol that you might as well be taking a shot, or good old chocolate mousse.
My French host family told me before my visit that I absolutely had to eat an Alsatian (the region of France in which Strasbourg is located) specialty called flammekueche, or tarte flambé in French. So that is what I ate for my first lunch in Strasbourg, along with a pichet of Riesling, a wine made from grapes native to Alsace. Flammekueche, which I have given up on trying to pronounce, is kind of like the Alsatian version of pizza. It’s made with a very thin crust, on top of which are onions, ham, and crème fraîche. It has this great, tangy taste. I’m making myself hungry just writing this!
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After lunch, we headed to the cathedral of Strasbourg, Notre Dame. I actually found the Strasbourg Notre Dame even more stunning than the Notre Dame de Paris. The striking reddish brown color of the Cathedral is pleasing in an earthy kind of way. You can see the impressively tall spire of the cathedral from almost anywhere in the city. Inside, the stained glass windows were a mix of colors that went perfectly together. The cathedral possesses a massive and meticulously decorated astrological clock that I couldn’t stop looking at for several minutes.
In the late afternoon as the sun set, we walked along the river. I took pictures of absolutely everything, because it was so beautiful I couldn’t stand the idea of forgetting a single blue shutter or vivacious flower box.
Before dinner we had aperitifs outside at a little café on the river. The Kir, which happens to be my drink of choice, cost less than 4 euro! I have yet to find Kir that cheap in Paris. In case you didn’t know, Kir is white wine mixed with blackberry syrup, although some restaurants also offer other fruit syrups, like peach or raspberry. A Kir Royal is like a Kir’s cooler, hotter sister, because it’s made with champagne instead of wine.
Dinner that night was incredible. We went to a restaurant called Maison de Tanneur, in an old tanner’s house. The inside of the restaurant had the cozy yet elegant vibe of
an old New England inn. The menu featured the regional hybrid of German and French cuisine, including an extensive variety of chucrute dishes. I had “Coq au Riesling”, which is like Coq au vin, but of course cooked with Riesling.
On Sunday, we could hear church bells ringing throughout the city all morning. We rented a wonderfully yet obnoxiously bright blue car, and drove along the wine route through the vineyards and tiny villages of Alsace. Each town was prettier than the next. The medieval and renaissance architecture made walking through these towns the closest I will probably ever get to travelling back in time. There were flowers everywhere: red geraniums climbing out of window boxes and winding their way around the banisters of church steps, and pots of flowers of every color on the sidewalks and in t
he gardens in front of the houses. Each town square had a carrousel with not just horses for the children to ride on, but hot air balloons and airplanes as well. As we wandered through the streets of Molsheim and Ottrot, we could smell the scent of meat sautéing in wines and spices wafting out of every restaurant, and the sweet, tangy smell of gingerbread winding its way out of each patisserie.
We had lunch at a charming hotel called L’Ami Fritz in the town of Ottrot. I ate a delicious and colorful foie gras with a sparkling rosé called Cremant, another regional wine. After lunch we drove through the countryside and the mountains, which was incredibly calming after a few
weeks in fast-paced Paris. We dipped briefly into Germany and drove under an arc of fall foliage that almost rivaled that of New England. We headed back to Strasbourg very full (German cuisine will do that to you), and very content. I’m already planning my trip back to Strasbourg for the famous Christmas markets!