Strasbourg and Colmar - Beautiful Alsace
- Lucy and the lens
- Oct 3, 2018
- 3 min read
In summer 2018 we began our month-long European road trip in the Alsace region of France. Right on the border with Germany, the towns here have been passed back and forth between France and Germany for hundreds of years, resulting in a hybrid culture when it comes to language, architecture and food. Living in Germany, we were excited to see how the culture we were familiar with blended with the French!
Strasbourg
Strasbourg is, without question, insanely beautiful. Our first glimpse of the Old Town was from the roof terrace of one of the Ponts Couvert (covered bridges) leading across the River Ill. This was one of the most impressive entrances into an Old Town I've ever seen!
We instantly fell in love with Strasbourg's pastel-coloured, wooden-beamed houses. They were so familiar to us, having explored Bavaria in Germany, but also oddly new. There was just something...French about the way bicycles leaned up against railings and the cafes offered macarons instead of bretzels!
We were also struck by how quiet the town was, even in the height of summer. There were pockets of crowds around a few of the restaurants, but otherwise we wandered peacefully around the winding streets and canals.
My main mission in Strasbourg was to try out the macarons at Macarons & Inspirations. A patisserie by Elisabeth Biscarrat, its specialty is the 'Petit Jardin', a large macaron with a 'garden' of fresh fruit and a mini-macaron on top! The choux bites are also delicious, coming in many flavours with a delicious creamy centre.
We discovered a giant wine barrel in a pretty square called Place des Tripiers, and just across from this is a great little craft beer pub, Les Berthom, where we sat for an hour out on their street terrace. The streets around Place des Tripiers are full of independent shops and restaurants and have a really great vibe, being away from the main tourist places by the canals.
Another patisserie stop - this time, at Maison Caffet for gourmet eclairs. They were almost too pretty to eat...but only almost!
It was ridiculously hot when we visited Strasbourg, so we found shelter whenever we could under the many bridges over the canals - sheltering under bridges has never been so scenic!
And, just because, here's one more shot of scorching Strasbourg!
Our final mission before leaving Strasbourg was to see if the tarte flambée matched up to its German counterpart, flammkuchen. This pizza-like dish is one of our favourites to eat in Germany, but knowing that it originates in the Alsace region meant there was a lot of pressure on to find the best one in Strasbourg! It has a super-thin dough base that is cooked for a very short time to make sure it doesn't burn and achieves the perfect amount of crispness. You can then choose your toppings, but the traditional version features sour cream, spring onions and bacon bits. We settled on Binchstub for our tarte flambée, as the internet had reliably informed us it was the best in town! I'm happy to say we weren't disappointed, even though I decided to live on the edge and go for a goat's cheese and honey version rather than the traditional! We practically inhaled our tartes, they were that good!
Colmar
We stopped into Colmar for a few hours before heading on to the Burgundy region. The first thing we noticed was how much busier Colmar was than Strasbourg, which was a shame...but we still tried to make the most of our time! The pretty square below and the photo below that was one of the less busy spots we discovered, before we wandered into the Little Venice area of town.
Essentially, in Colmar, where there are canals there are people. Luckily, the place is so beautiful, a fairytale toy-town, that the crowds almost don't matter! Here are some colourful photos from Colmar!
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