A week end in Strasburg

The Cathedral

This week end was a long one, with Monday blank holiday, well for me it didn't change anything since I'm currently unemployed but I decided to leave to Strasburg with a friend. We wanted to go somewhere, quite close, in France since she had not yet all the ID documents of her new car, so on Friday evening, on the phone and on internet we made our choice. I had been to Strasburg quite a few times, but never more than one single day. It is located in the North East of France, very close to Germany: you just have to cross a bridge (by car, bus or foot) to get to Kehl, Germany. Strasburg is also widely known for the Cathedral, the "Petite France" (meaning "Small France") district and the European Institutions.

@ Chocolate Museum

So we left, on Saturday late morning, we drove around 2-3h, including lunch stop and time to get lost on our way to the hotel, her GPS not knowing the hotel's street. Our first thing after settling in the hotel was the visit of the Chocolate Museum which was located just nearby. It was a bit expensive, €8 (but at the hotel they gave us a €2 discount voucher) but quite interesting. It's all starting with a small movie about the chocolate's history, told by a male voice, almost sensual! ^^ Then, a small exhibition, some nice phrases about chocolate and it's ending on a workshop. The hostess is explaining and demonstrating how to make a casting and then we got to taste chocolate at different stages of production, from crushed bean to dark chocolate. And of course after the gift shop, with everything around chocolate. But you get a little chocolate gift.

Place Kléber by night

After, we went to the city center, did a few shopping in the old town, went to see the wonderful cathedral. It was already night, and the lightning of the monument was really nice. Then, we met some friends of my friend and went to restaurant. It was an Italian restaurant, Papa Lisa, it was very nice, nice food, got a pizza with Parma ham, mozza and gorgonzola, quite big and very cheap.
Then, with my friend we headed to our hotel to get changed. We then met in the old city some people, there's a website called OVS (Urbizz in English), people organize events (clubbing, restaurant, walks, exibition, whatever,...) and other people can join, not knowing each other, very nice concept. So, before leaving we  went on the website and spotted a night in club, so we decided to join. The club, Le Seven, seemed quite nice at first. But, the DJ didn't play the songs in their whole, got from one style to another completely different, and it was over crowded, they kept on letting people in whereas we could barely move inside. But the people we were  with were very nice, we all in all had a great night.

Our Alsacian lunch

On Sunday, we went first to the city centre late morning, had a nice walk. We stopped in a great restaurant, Le Caquelon, it was very nice inside. We had some typical Alsacian food: one was a "Croûte au fromage à l'alsacienne", it was bread soaked in white wine with bacon and lots of melted Munster (very strong smelly cheese, delicious, specialty from this part of France) and the other a "Poêlée de roësti Campagnarde", minced potatoes with onions, chopped bacon, egg, cheese and ham. It was delicious, the Munster was very strong, just as I like it, but too strong for my friend. And plus it was cheap! ^^
After lunch, we kept on walking, along the canal to the "Petite France" district, it's among different canals, very cute, with typical alsacian houses, so lovely.

Petite France

Later on, we went to another OVS event: Bowling and Flammekueche. I suck so much at bowling but it was very nice, lots of fun, the locals were teasing us, calling us "The Strangers", since people from Alsace have the reputation to be quite chauvinistic. Of course, I lost! Then, we went to restaurant to eat flammekueche. When the first one arrived, I wanted to use fork and knife since we were in restaurant, but no way! I got yelled at! That's a crime to eat it with cuttlery, gotta use your hands. They were very good. After that, we went in a bar/club and had a very nice night out.

On Monday, we went for lunch at my friends' friends, had a nice time, before getting back home. We had a very nice time there, met some nice people, and weems they expect us to come back, which we will of course! Plus, it's a very nice city, might try to see more of it next time, like European Parliament and Commission.

Some more photos.


==Greetings from Metz, France==