Back to Strasbourg

Well it's been a few days since Amy and I were there... but I can't just leave you hanging with pictures and no explanation, now can I?

Here's a quick background check for you: Strasbourg is located on the French-German border in the Alsace region. Throughout history, claims on who owned the area were violently disputed. Many of the original buildings were destroyed, several times, during many different wars, most notably during the Allied raids in WWII when Alsace was annexed by the German Reich. After WWII, Strasbourg was liberated by the 2nd French Armored Division. Today, Strasbourg is one of the seats of the European Union's Parliament. Strasbourg is obviously very much influenced by its close proximity and historical ties to Germany. It is supposed to have the best marches de Noel in all of the Alsace region (we shall see how it compares to Colmar!).

We started our day with our McDo breakfast down the street, checking our email, and leaving our baggage in the storage closet behind the front desk. The front desk lady allowed us to eat our take-out breakfast in the breakfast room, which was nice of her to do... since we didn't pay the 7 extra euros per person for breakfast (from what we saw, we were glad to have spent just 3 euros at McDonald's).

After we got all bundled up (big sweaters, coats, scarves, tights under our pants, thick socks, and gloves!), we headed towards the markets by the Cathedral . We stopped at the square with the Christmas tree and a nice couple took our picture (and then we took theirs). There were a few stalls around this area, and since they were the first ones I saw... I got a little Christmas market happy and bought a jar of pumpkin spice jam from some nice old ladies. It was a weird first purchase, but after having had it for a few days now, I have thoroughly enjoyed my touch of pumpkin in my otherwise non-pumpkin flavored diet.

The markets by the Cathedral were by far the best, and where we did the bulk of our shopping/drinking of the famous vin chaud (hot wine, pronounced vahn show). It is kind of like a hot sangria with oranges and cinnamon added to the red, or sometimes white wine. It was a perfect remedy for cold hands... but we also tried hot orange juice... which kind of sounds gross, but was actually quite delicious. I think I might have even preferred it to the vin chaud! We each found Christmas presents for just about everyone we know (almost)... there was everything from jewelry to wooden objects to scarves, ornaments, and vin chaud spices! We happened to still be around these markets at noon when the big church bells went off, which was definitely a cool thing to experience. We noticed though that the markets were getting more and more crowded. We passed by the ice skating rink, but didn't stick around long because there were so many people in that area.

About this time, we both started to get very very cold. We wanted to eat pretzels and gingerbread for lunch, but the warmth of a nice restaurant was inviting. We found a really nice place, bustling with market goers. I wanted to try the Alsace specialty choucroute (sauerkraut), only God knows why. It came out with heaps of cabbage, topped with several different kinds of meat. The picture from the other post speaks a thousand words. Needless to say, the elderly women sitting next to us, who both ordered the choucroute, were none-to-impressed with how much of it I actually managed to eat (they practically licked their plates). The couple on the other side of us sort of laughed and said something about tourists always wanting to try sauerkraut, but never really liking it. On the upside, I did manage to pick a delicious chocolate cake desert, with a warm fudgy filling and raspberry sauce drizzled around the side. Amy went with a safer menu option, some sort of honey glazed meat and pasta and a fruit tarte for desert.

After lunch, we walked towards la Petite France, which is the area of town we hadn't seen yet. We were so glad we walked through it because it was incredibly cute, with rows of wood-framed houses and flower boxes. We did a little more shopping and headed towards the markets by the train station. We got our last vin chaud for the day, a pretzel for the train ride, and headed back to the hotel to warm up and pick up our luggage. It was a very successful shopping day, but more importantly it was a lot of fun to walk around with no real schedule in mind and shop and see what we could see!

We had a long train ride back and it snowed the entire way until we got to Lyon. It was a good thing we got cookies to go with our pretzels:)

Lovely Snowy Strasbourg (Picture Post)

Capitale de Noel!

Well- I'm still too tired to do both an update from tonight and a blog about our day in Avignon, so you'll have to wait just a few more days for that one! But, I will give you the scoop on Strasbourg!

Amy and I left at 12h35 (from Lyon) and arrived in Strasbourg at 17h36 (5:36pm). We both sat on the aisle (so, we were next to each other, but with the aisle between us) and got some good napping/reading/music listening in during our 5 hour train ride. It was nice to not have to do anything after our big Thanksgiving day. And, after my first nap, I woke up to a winter wonderland! I felt like I had woken up on the polar express it was snowing so much. It got us both very excited for our final destination...the only annoying part of the train trip was sitting behind a young, and very lovey couple. I don't think I've ever seen people go at it in such a public place in my life... and for 5 straight hours at that! I guess they were excited about getting to Strasbourg too....

We went straight to our hotel to check in/add more layers, which was very easily found from the train station (literally across the street). The man checking us in gave us a map and suggested places for us to eat dinner. We went off in search of the Cathedral, lights, and food.

We passed by the big Christmas tree and thought that it was going to be lit up at 7... so we waited around a bit and realized it wouldn't be lit until tomorrow night. However, we walked a few blocks further and saw that Santa Clause was being "called" to light the town's Christmas lights. We wanted to wait, but were cold and hungry, so we went to find dinner (we figured the lights would still be on when we were done!).

We found a cute little restaurant, nicely decked out in Christmas balls and cherubs... I had escargots (snails, yumz) and a tarte flambee (kind of looked like pizza, but had cream, ham, and cheese on top, it was pretty good too). Amy had a steak and we both got desert (creme brulee for her, apfelstrudel for moi, both amazing). After feeling a little warmer and much more full, we headed back out into the cold to see more lights. It was beautiful! There are lights everywhere! It's a little kid (and ours) Christmas dreamland.

Tomorrow, we will be hitting up as many Christmas markets as possible (there are several spread all over the city and with different themes to some). We will be trying vin chaud (hot wine), soft pretzels, gindergbread, and more. So exciting!!!!

Enjoy the pictures:)

Reste cool!

The Tours Tour

These are pictures from when Lindsey and I toured, Tours, France... hehe. The hotel we stayed in was in Tours, but we did most of our touring out and around the Loire valley in the castles. We did get to walk around the town of Tours more on our last night and last morning there before taking trains different places (home for Lindsey, Paris for me). In these pictures you see the huge cathedral (shown in a previous picture at night time), cute wood-framed houses, an arched bridge with flags crossing the Loire River, another really old Cathedral, a pair of 300 euro shoes with balls we saw while window shopping on Sunday morning (I thought they'd be nice for Christmas), and the Hotel de Ville all lit up at night. And there you have it!

A Tour of Tours and More!

Another long day!!! I'll give you a short recap of yesterday first and then another of today.

Yesterday, Oct. 23: Loire Valley Day Trip

Lindsey and I met the tour mini-bus at 8:50am sharp. Our tour guide was a very entertaining, petite French woman, who spoke in a very French/British English accent. (Although we could speak French, 3 out of the 7 passengers were Japanese, 1 Chinese... and their second language was English). During the drive, she would give us in-depth historical information about each Chateau we were about to visit, where to start and finish, and what her favorite parts of the castle were. She also explained that the Loire Valley used to be the capital of the French Kingdom in the Middle Ages because the mighty Loire River was the main way of travel back then.... because all the kings came out to build their castles, the nobility did the same.

Our first visit was to Villandry (which ended up being my favorite). We didn't even actually go inside the castle, but just toured the 4 beautiful gardens surrounding the Chateau. The gardens are the best representation of 16th century gardens and they were themed: the love garden (with four parts: tender love, passionate love, fickle love, and tragic love), the water garden (with a big "mirror" lake or reflection pool with swans), the sun garden (a fountain center with gardens extending out like

the rays of a sun), and the food garden (fruit trees, vegetables, roses, all surrounded by grape vines... which had delicious grapes!). Even though we about froze our toes off walking around so early in the morning, it was just delightful. And, fun fact, the noble lineage that owns the Chateau still lives in the stables.... which are bigger than the castle!

Our second visit was to Azay-le-Rideau. This castle, according to our guide, is an excellent example of the "feminine touch of the rrrrrenAissance style of archytecture" because whomever owned it first had his wife design the Chateau. It's a beautiful castle, with a pool surrounding it (made artificially way after the Renaissance), so it's almost like looking at 2 castles if the sun is out and shining a reflection on the pool. I liked it, but it wasn't my favorite...I've also been here once before on my Loire Valley trip in high school. I don't have the best pictures of this one because my camera batteries died. :(

After our 2 stops, we were dropped off back in Tours to grab a quick bite for lunch. Our guide actually told us that all we'd have time for was to buy a sandwich and swallow it, haha. Then, we got back on our mini-bus and headed off to Chenonceau (another chateau I visited before, but it is gorgeous!). The chateau is knicknamed the "ladies chateau" or the "chateau of the queens." And it has quite the risque little history... the original chateau was built and torched a few times in the 1400's, but eventually taken by the King Francois 1 after someone owned him money. Henri II was next in line as King, and he gave the chateau to his mistress, Diane de Poitiers. She decided it was too much to row across the Cher river to get to the other side of the bank from the castle, and so she had an arched bridge built extending straight from her front door. When Henri II died in 1559, his wife, Catherine de Medici expelled Diane de Poitiers to another chateau (which was scandalous because this was "her" chateau). Catherine de Medici added on the extra levels on top of the bridge extending over the river, as she found the chateau too small for her summer parties.

After her death, Queen Louise, wife of Henri III, was given the chateau, and after her hubby's tragic assisnation, she fell into a state of depression, choosing to live and pray in a completely black room.... And then some other stuff happened that I can't remember, and then in WWI it was used as a hospital... and in WWII it was used by the Resistance to help Jews escape to "free" France, which was divided by the Cher River (with Chenonceau directly in the river). Anyway, in my opinion, the coolest part of this chateau, besides its amazing bridge structure over a river, is it's HUGE kitchen, and it's beautiful checkered hall, on the inside, you see all these symbols for Henri, Catherine, and Diane de Poitiers... like the castle is still conflicted in a love triangle!

Last, but certainly not least, we visited Chambord, which is now the Presidential hunting retreat. The chateau was originally built by Francois I as his hunting lodge. The chateau is the 2nd largest , besides Versailles (although it was built first), and it is surrounded by beautiful forests, still to this day full of wildlife (we even saw a pack of wild boar crossing the street from atop the castle!). The chateau literally looks like it has a small village on top, it has more than 400 rooms, 77 staircases, and 365 windows. I was most impressed by the spiral staircases (designed by Leonardo de Vinci himself). Otherwise, this is just one huge chateau. This picture only shows about a third of the full chateau!

On our way home (Chambort was an hour out of Tours) we passed by Cheverny, Blois, and 2 others I can't remember. If I ever take another Loire Valley trip, I'll be hitting up Cheverny because it looked pretty spectacular!

And that was my yesterday (for the most part).

Today, we got up, refunded my train ticket from Lyon to Paris (woo!), went to McDo for breakfast (coffee, OJ, and 3 mini, but delicious pastries for under 3,50 euros), and then went on a little tour of Tours (haha, I laugh every time I write this). We passed by the pretty bridge with flags, our new favorite Cathedral, the Chateau of Tours (not very impressive), went to Vieux Tours that still has many wood-framed houses, to our hotel for check out, back to the cathedral for lunch at a nearby cafe, and then back to the train station. Our train from Tours to Paris was pretty miserable (so glad I'm done riding trains for a few days) with babies crying, loud talkers, and over crowding near the end. With the strike, people have to crowd onto one train, instead of several... and there isn't always a seat. Thankfully, we already had seats!

From there, I got on the metro in Paris, which was fine. Then, I switched to the RER commuter train to get out to the airport (SO glad I don't have to do this tomorrow morning). This was fine, until I realized the train would go one stop, have everyone get off, and then go in the opposite direction. I couldn't figure out why I wasn't going where I needed to go, so finally I just said, I don't understand, how do I get to Charles de Gaulle???? And a nice older man said he was on his way there and to follow him... he said because of the strike, the regular RER wasn't running, we'd need to take the RER from the train station....we walked REALLY fast, but got there just in time. I couldn't help but think, this little old man with the St. Malo baseball cap is my angel. I would have been riding the other dang train back and forth for the rest of the night!

I caught the free bus to my hotel, which is very cozy, and now it is time for bed!!!!

I want to live in a Chateau too

Because I'm exhausted from today (saw more than 8 Chateaux, touring 4...remember they are big, with lots of garden, house, stairs, etc to walk, see, and climb), I'm going to post a few pictures, and tell you more about my day tomorrow. Just so you know, these are the 4 I visited on foot, not from the tour bus window. We have, in backwards order from when I saw them today: Chambort, Chenonceau, Azay-le-Rideau, and Villandry.

Of course, my train has been canceled for tomorrow, so instead of taking 3 trains home, just to take another one Monday morning.... I made the wise decision to refund my ticket for Monday, book a hotel for Sunday night in Paris, and only take one leg of the 3 train trip tomorrow (the part that goes to Paris). According to Orbitz, I will have high-speed internet connection at my hotel (which, oh by the way is located a mile from the Charles de Gaulle airport). I will be able to pick up Maggie, Thomas, and Heather with zero problems Monday morning. Hurray! And I won't be cranky from train travel and waking up at 4am!!!! Happy day.

Reste cool:) More soon!

OMG!!! We made it to Amboise/Tours!!!

This morning is all just a blur to me now. I went to bed last night fully expecting to get up past 8:00am, but instead got a call from Lindsey at 6:40am, saying that she had found another train and to get ready. So- all I could think to do was to follow orders and get ready. I had semi-packed my bag last night, thank goodness! We were on a train to Gare de Lyon (gare=train station) in Paris by 9:30am, changed train stations in Paris at 12:00pm, via the Paris metro (we had to switch the metro lines twice... which I kind of remembered from my month stay a few summers ago), and then got to the Montparnasse train station (still in Paris) to catch the train taking us to St.Pierre-de-Corps (near Tours). From there, we took another train to Amboise. And when we got to Amboise, we bought our 8 euro train ticket to get back to Tours after our little visit around Amboise (which was our only extra train ticket-buy for the day... all the other trains we just rode for free due to our circumstances). AH!

By 3:30pm, we were taking a short taxi ride to the Tourism Office in Amboise, where we dropped off our heavy bags (mine being extra heavy with my laptop). We went to find the

Chateau in Amboise (not hard to find) which is right off of the beautiful Loire River (we are in the Loire Valley). We also hit up a famous/cute little chocolate shop... that I've actually been to before (I came on a high school trip to the Loire Valley when I was 16, amazing that I remember chocolate stores of all things... well maybe not that amazing, hehe). I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

We caught a little tour, but didn't follow long because we wanted to see a few more things before taking the train back to Tours. We saw a cathedral built in 1107 and walked along the river. Amboise is the town where Leonardo daVinci lived his last three years... the King at the time brought him there to help dseign parts of the Castle... he also gave him a nice little house (well, big house) in Amboise, and Leonardo is supposedly buried at the Chateau.

After booking it to the train station (across a really, really long bridge), with our heavy backpacks on.... we caught a 5:50 train to Tours, checked into our hotel (with free wifi!), and went to find something for dinner. On our way there, we found a HUGE, and I mean absolutely the biggest church I've ever seen (as of yet), huge cathedral. We went in, and it is equally as huge and high ceilinged as you'd think it would be from the outside. It is very beautifully preserved Cathedral, from inside to outside, with stained glass in tack from the 1300's. Note the moon's height in the picture....

We ate a cute little creperie (I had a spinach crepe for dinner and a pineapple crepe for dessert). It was a very good ending to our busy busy day. Now it is time to sleep. Tomorrow- more chateaux of the Loire Valley!!!!

Miss you all! Reste Cool:)

And don't worry, more pictures to come! I only took 200 today...