Strasbourg: The City of Christmas

Strasbourg 

What a magical fairytale! I’ll start by saying, make sure to visit during winter or Christmas time, it only enhances the entire experience you will have. I would actually love to return during the springtime, as all of the villages in Alsace region are known for their exquisite and extrodionary amount of flowers. But..Christmas time! You have and will never experience anything like it in your lifetime. I feel as if we were transported into a Hanzel and Grettle story, and the feeling never seized for the remainder of our time there. 

Stasbourg is home to the oldest Christmas Market in the world, which started 450 years ago this year. Theres some rich culture! If you have never been to a Christmas Market in Europe, I highly recommend it. They are little wooden pop-up (although slightly permanent) outdoor shops gathered together, where artisans sell their handmade goods. You can sip on mulled wine or Gluvein (spiced hot wine), taste on crepes and treats while you browse and shops for tiny ornate treasures such as ornaments, soaps, jams and mustards, and just about anything you can imagine they make in these various parts of the world. It is a festive place to purchase arts and crafts. Although it’s not just shopping in case that's not your forte, its really an experience of the culture.

Strasbourg itself is a small city of amazing architecture and history. This now French region, Alsace was traded back and forth between Germany and France 3 times. While originally German, Louis IVX, wanted it for France, and there's no question as to why. The city is built over and around the river, which was once used to move trade goods and the water movement alone was used to generate energy. The town encompasses the most amazingly quaint buildings with grand gothic style cathedrals. Over the World Wars, the region was then traded back and forth multiple times, so there is actually almost a French-German dialect. Many of the younger generations now generally speak French, but understand and can speak German as well, with a bit of a French accent. We experienced and heard this mostly with the older generations, especially in the little mountainside villages outside of Strasbourg. 

Now, its not just the Christmas Markets themself that make this town so festive, Christmas spirit is literally in the souls of the people and all of the places you go. We stayed in the most amazing boutique hotel, Hotel Cour du Corbeau (highly recommend, great service and location), that was fully decked out in almost every direction with Christmas. The thing I loved most about the towns Christmas style..it was so classic. The use of natural colors and resources was quite amazing, so everything always felt perfect, never overdone.

Classic, Classy, Christmas!