Yes, I know I’ve written blogs about the Christmas Markets in Strasbourg and Colmar before, but these markets never get old. And my husband and I were able to revisit them this Thanksgiving which means a new blog about them and I’m excited to write about them for the second time. And let me say the title of this blog doesn’t do them justice. These markets are so much fun to walk around, but they are also like a huge maze and it’s really easy to get lost in them, but I also think that is part of the fun.
First I should probably let you know about the Airbnb we stayed in. This place was about a block or two away from the Chrismas Markets which made it very easy to walk to. It was a very cute place and I would recommend it to anyone. Walking through the front door to this place was like walking into a fairytale and that is always cool.
We started our Christmas market shopping in Strasbourg. We walked up and down the different aisles looking at all the pretty ornaments and smelling the delicious food. We did have some vin chuad (hot spiced wine), some hot chocolate, and some Jus de Orange with honey (hot orange juice with honey). The hot orange juice with the honey was my favorite. Just to let you know there is a deposit that you need to pay for the cups. If you return the cups you will get your deposit back, but if you keep them, they make a nice souvenir. That’s what my husband and I like to do. We also ate plain pretzels, a pretzel with sugar on it and we bought some flavored marshmallow things that always taste SO good. Oh, and the gingerbread! There is one store we love to go to Fortwenger. We bought a couple of small gingerbread loaves from their stall at the market. They are that good!
The side streets in Strasbourg are also cool to walk around. The window displays of all the different desserts, gingerbread cookies, cheese, and nougat is a site to behold. I was having such a good time walking around everything that I forgot to take a lot of pictures, but I should have enough for this blog.
Another must-see/do in Strasbourg is visiting Notre Dame De Strasbourg. This Cathedral is beautiful to look at inside and out. Everything about it is beautiful and its clock is amazing to watch. It has animated machines that move around (automatons?) when the hour changes and it shows lots of different information than just time (date, zodiac, moon phases, etc.)
And then there is Colmar. I think Colmar might have more buildings decorated with Christmas lights. Their markets go on and on and are just as easy to get lost in. There is a map, but still, you can get lost. There was one particular stall we were looking for in Colmar for our grandchild and that happened to be in the very last area of Colmar we were looking at. That area has so many different rides for kids to go on, which would make sense as to why that stall was there. We had so much fun walking around the Christmas Markets in Colmar and seeing all the buildings decorated for Christmas. It truly felt like we were in a fairytale.
I would seriously recommend both the Strasbourg and Colmar Christmas Markets to anyone. If you are planning to visit France before Christmas or if you live in France, I would highly recommend visiting these markets now. They are beautiful to see. They are amazing to walk around. They are fun to do Christmas shopping at. The food is tasty. And those marshmallow things are soooo good!
Kathleen Smith author of Miscarriages My Story, Brooklyn Raised Livin’ Upstate & Hey You Moments to Remember. Blogs about a variety of things. Has her own podcast Kathleen’s Korner and she is the CEO of BearsWithApps. OH, let’s not forget her YouTube channel