Strasbourg

 

Our next stop finally took us into Alsace: Strasbourg, the capital of Christmas. They have one of the largest Christmas markets in the world at the base of the cathedral, and sell gluhwein (warm spiced wine) on every street corner. We ended up here for New Years Eve and it was obviously a huge destination for foreigners—every third person we saw on the street was pulling luggage and speaking German. The main tourist area is called La Petite France and is a neighborhood of old wood timbered houses that line the canal, formerly occupied by tanners.

 

It is so unbelievably picturesque.

The Rhine river runs through the city…

…making an excuse for loads of adorable bridges and walkways.

 

Wrapped up like a little sausage, Sawyer prepares to ring in 2010.

Chris starts things right with une petite coupe de vin chaud.

Place Kleber, the main square, with its impressive Christmas tree.

Buying Gateau de Noel at the Christmas market.

‘Les Illuminations’ really bring the city to life at night.

Every little square has its own special installation.

One last look at the canal before heading back to the hotel. There were a lot of celebratory shouts and explosions around midnight, but overall, a pretty quiet night. I went out the next morning for breakfast and saw nary a trace of the festivities in the streets, unlike the tiny city that we visited next.

Metz- Nancy

 

The next day we drove into the Lorraine region—yes, where quiche lorraine originated—and stopped in Metz for the afternoon. The cathedral is the big draw—the locals call it “La Lanterne de Dieu” because of its height and its golden hue.

 

Breathtaking inside, with an inordinate number of stained glass windows, none of which photographed very well.

I was mesmerized by the wear on the steps leading up to the altar—centuries of hopeful or hopeless, faithful or faithless, trudging up and down, has left its mark in the shape of the stone.

And then we ran across a great little Christmas carnival! Oh man did we eat the best boudin blanc smothered in sauce…

One of the attractions was an animatronic “wonders of the animal world” type installation for kids. Sawyer loved the bears and farm animals but was a little freaked by the monkeys.

That evening we drove into Nancy, famous for its Place Stanislas (featured in the book “1000 Places to See Before You Die,” if anyone has that one).

Holiday lights highlighting the gate and fountain.

You can see the cathedral at the opposite end of the street through the gates.

That night we stayed in a BnB in a working cattle farm. Here’s the hang out space; our room was to the right.

Chris photographed the property a little while I talked to the owner, who told me that in matters of health care, America is “pas très avancée.”

Sawyer bookin’ it to see the cows.

 

And there they are! This guys used to sell his meat all over the world before the mad cow outbreak. Now you can’t buy European beef in the States.

The house that we slept in was built in 1760.

A shot of the countryside as we cruised out of town, on our way to Strasbourg.

Reims-Tattinger

 

We flew back to Paris on accursed Ryan Air, which I can’t recommend to anyone, and began our road trip through several regions of eastern France. Our first stop was Reims in the Champagne region. Unfortunately I was suffering from food poisoning when we arrived….so we didn’t tour the city. The main attraction, once I was on my feet again the next day, was to visit one of the Champagne houses. We chose Tattinger. But first Sawyer drove his train all over the grounds and practiced his camera smile.

 

Welcome to Tattinger. Yes it really was founded in 1201—not by Tattinger himself, but by a bunch of monks living in an abbey surrounded by vineyards, under the direction of the Count of Champagne.

Like so many other religious edifices in France, the abbey was destroyed during the French Revolution, but the caves and some ruins are still intact and are an interesting part of the tour.

In the caves: after the champagne is aged for an initial 6 months, it’s tilted to allow the sediment to settle in the bottleneck. A special turner comes by every so often and rotates it. The guide said a turner can rotate up to 60,000 bottles a day. Eventually the bottle is completely upright, and after that it goes to the degorgement workshop, where the sediment is removed rather explosively.

Here’s an example of a vestige of the abbey: the staircase that led to the sacristy.

All the sizes of Tattinger bottles, for all your champagne needs.

As far as the eye can see….

The caves are chalk—called Les Creyieres—and people haven’t stopped carving throughout the centuries. There’s a lot of ancient graffiti, and also interesting artwork.

Next stop Metz!

Madrid!

After our week on the coast we drove up to Madrid via Granada (where we visited the Alhambra, but the number of pictures is too intimidating to me right now to post about it). Madrid is where Chris lived for a year before we met (and what encouraged him to sign up for French 101, thank you, Spain). He had a great time showing me and Sawyer around, and it was nice for me to relax and be led about without having to make any decisions.

One of our first stops on the walking tour was a square where he often came to eat with a nice statue of Lorca, but of course Sawyer only saw the playground, so we had to stop and frolic a little.

 

While playing there this huge toddler went cruising by on his own little ATV. I asked the father how old he was, and he was the same age as Sawyer—birthdays within a few days of each other. But I couldn’t believe this kid’s driving skills! He was weaving in and out of the different toys on the very cramped playground, doing circles around the adults, without any narrow misses even. The dad said, “He’s had lots of practice.” Then he asked if Sawyer wanted to give it a try. Why not? He’s never going to have a shameless toy like that, I’ll see to it, so he might as well go wild for 5 minutes. Turns out he was a little too small to go wild; his foot couldn’t reach the pedal.

This is Spain’s rival to the Galleries Lafayette, called El Corte Ingles. Their holiday installation was bigger--but not necessarily better--than the cone boob bears in Paris.

El Plaza Mayor

 

 

 

…with its Christmas market

And the restaurant on the plaza where we had lunch: The Museum of Ham.

I’m not kidding; here’s the menu. Smoked meats galore!

 

That night Chris took me to a mysterious urban monument called El Templo Dibod.

 

Artisan market! December is such a great time to travel!

 

And who was lurking behind the artisan market? My two Spanish heroes, Don Quixote and the faithful Sancho Panza.

Rendering homage up close.

And now: the Palacio Real. Not just beautifully illuminated by night, but a gathering spot for rollerblade tricksters and skaters.

And a quick tour of the holiday lights…

 

The Plaza de Espana by night….

The next day we took a walk through Madrid’s giant park, Retiro…

 

…where we saw many of the standard cabbage-like plants used for landscaping.

 

The Crystal Palace! Normally it houses art exhibitions, but was closed due to the rain (I guess the roof isn’t rain proof)

There’s an adorable little grotto right by the Crystal Palace…but mostly this picture is great because of that Weekend at Burney’s corpse I’m carrying around on my back…

Before leaving Madrid we had to indulge in the number one native pleasure: churros y chocolate. The churros were greasy and the chocolate thick as oatmeal!