Strasbourg & Colmar Christmas Markets

Strasbourg, France

One weekend before Christmas, Nate had to travel to the UK for work, so my friend, Mallory, and I decided to take a little trip to France to shop at the Christmas Markets. Neither one of us had ever been to a Christmas Market before, so we had no idea what to expect, but we had both heard a lot of good things about the ones in Strasbourg and Colmar, so we decided to go. However, we did not expect for them to be closed! We were a little disappointed to find out that all of the booths in Strasbourg were setting up for opening the next day, but we still tried to make the best of it by touring the city and shopping (indoors)!

The empty and sad Christmas booths...

Jake and I are standing in front of the Strasbourg Cathedral... the biggest cathedral I've ever seen!

I tried to fit the whole tower of the church in this picture, but it just wasn't possible. I later came to find out that this cathedral was the tallest building in the WORLD from 1439-1874. I would not want to be the one climbing that ladder attached to the front! As soon as Mallory and I thought we should go inside somewhere to get a little relief from the cold weather, we conveniently stumbled upon an amazing sweets store! They had every sweet imaginable...

Everything you pointed to... They would let you try! Those are some big smiles :)
After getting our sweet fix and buying some goodies for Christmas presents, we ventured back out in the cold to walk the streets of Strasbourg. They had a very different way of decorating for Christmas than Basel. They had actual chandeliers hanging in the streets... never thought I'd see that!

Colmar, France

A couple of months ago, Nate and I traveled to Colmar during the day because it was only a 40 minute train ride from Basel and it was a charming little city. I wanted to take Mallory there because she had never been and it was on the way back from Strasbourg. I was glad when we got there because it was even more charming with all of the Christmas decorations and lights.

Also, the Christmas Markets were open! The markets were scattered all over the city, so they had signs pointing where to go to the next one... this was good because Nate is usually my human map.

At the markets, you could buy....
Sausage (and lots of it)

Half of a pig (eew!) ...

Cheese (I dislike the smelly kind)...

Hand-made candles...

Large bread ... That loaf was as long as me!

Hand-made soaps that smelled SO good!

Hand-made manger scenes...

And of course, chocolate and candy...We bought some good gifts, ate some good food, had a lot of laughs, and by the end of the day, we were tired! So we took one last look and one more picture before heading back to our home away from home.