January in Paris: Strasbourg

On Friday morning we arose early (actually, much earlier than we needed to) to get the metro to Gare d l'Est for our trip to Strasbourg. We arrived 45 minutes before our train was due to leave, which did give us plenty of time to get a croissant at Paul, conveniently located at the station.

The train was great (I love a good train ride) although not much for scenery. The first half of the trip was still dark, and the second half didn't provide anything too exciting. We arrived in Strasbourg at about 10:00, and stopped by the tourist office in the station for maps and brochures. It was pretty easy to make our way to the center of town, through a busy street filled with shops, still decorated for Christmas, into a big plaza, and then on to the cathedral.

The cathedral is absolutely awe-inspiring. It is so immense there was no way I could begin to get a decent picture of it, so I didn't even try. We spent awhile exploring the cathedral and then wandered off to see what else we could find of interest, which included the local museum, the University district, and the area called Petite France. Petite France is the old town, set along canals and built with old timbered structures. It definitely qualified as picturesque.

We had lunch at a tiny vegetarian restaurant we found on a narrow side street. The daily menu posted outside sounded good - salad, vegetarian couscous and strawberry mousse for 10 euro 50. It's a good thing we both wanted the daily menu, because apparently that is all they were serving. Every person who walked in got exactly the same thing, kind of like the old SNL routine.

We walked a few miles more after lunch and by about 3:30 we couldn't walk another block so we parked ourselves in a very nice cafe with a couple of big beers for two hours, until it was time to head back to the station.

After about five minutes in Strasbourg it became apparent that Christmas is a VERY BIG deal there. There are elaborate lights up in nearly every neighborhood, and all of the stores are lavishly decorated. On our way back to the station we were able to see everything lit up and it really was spectacular.

Our train was an hour late leaving, but other than that the trip went smoothly, and was definitely worth it. Although only two hours away, Strasbourg was so different from Paris, it seemed like it was in a different country.