Strasbourg

We hit the road on January 1st for Strasbourg, France. The drive itself only took about 1 hour and 40 minutes. Piece of cake! Luckily, we have a GPS system in our car, so we easily found our hotel, the Hotel Royal Lutetia. Our room was small, but perfect since we knew we didn't come to Strasbourg to hang out in the hotel. We were pleasantly surprised by the cool views our teeny balcony offered:

After we settled into our room, we decided to hit the (rainy) streets and do some sightseeing. We knew that we wanted to see the Strasbourg Notre Dame Cathedral (the Cathedral's spire is visible in the background in the above left photo). From what we had read, the Cathedral is a must-see and located right smack dab in the center of the city. We figured it was a good place to start! Armed with Brian's trusty sense of direction we found the Cathedral. Turns out, it was only a 15 minute walk from our hotel! We were both amazed by the sheer size of the Cathedral. Once inside, the endless stained glass, intricate sculpture, and beautiful architecture made for a very powerful experience.

We probably spent about an hour or so wandering around the Cathedral. Once we had our fill we decided to take a look around the city. We saw so many quaint shops, picturesque buildings, and cozy looking cafes. After walking around for a little while we decided to warm up with a late lunch/early dinner. We stumbled upon Au Dauphin Brasserie...just what we wanted! Warm interior, ridiculously rich food, and wine.



The first bite of my chicken dish (above left) was just like the scene in Julie & Julia when Julia Child has her first bite of rich French food. It was a butter explosion of the best kind! Not only were the meats and sauces rich, but the vegetables...OH MY LORD. I think it was the one time eating vegetables was actually bad for you. That being said, we cleaned our butter-filled plates like the good American kids we are! After our meal we walked the streets of Strasbourg in a dreamy butter-haze all the way back to our hotel.

Day two in Strasbourg started off nice and early (and sunny!). The first stop on our list was the Museum of Fine Arts. The MFA is located right next to the Cathedral and is housed in one of Napolean's former residences. Here's a shot of Brian in the courtyard which leads to the entrance of the Museum:



The Museum had a nice collection of European art ranging from the Middle Ages to the late 19th Century. We saw work by Rembrandt, Rubens, Giotto, Botticelli, Goya and Courbet (to name a few). After the Museum we walked to a slightly different part of town to see the St. Thomas Church. This church was considerably smaller than the Cathedral, but had a lovely interior.

Again, we were both taken with the gorgeous stained glass (particularly when it splashed glowing color all over the walls) and the seemingly endless vaulted ceilings. Our next stop was to see the Petite France Quarter. This is an older part of the city where the tanners and millers used to live. It's located right on the river and all of the buildings are quite steep.

Walking around the Petite France Quarter made us both hungry so we decided to make our way back towards the Cathedral. We spotted a little Pizzeria and thought pizza and wine sounded just right for lunch...and it was! French pizza is good, not quite as good as Italian pizza, but it had a nice thin crust with tasty toppings. With full bellies we went to another museum and walked around the city some more.

One of my favorite shops we passed a few times was the most DARLING candy store I've ever seen. See for yourself!

Madeleines, candies, chocolates, and lollipops were everywhere. It was just adorable!

After a long day of sightseeing we had some downtime at our hotel and then headed back out for a delicious French dinner and a quick stop at a small, cozy pub. All in all our time in Strasbourg was fantastic! We saw a lot, ate a lot, and learned a lot (we did not know very much French prior to Strasbourg and learned the hard way that the French aren't very sympathetic to non-French speaking Americans. Luckily, they douse their food in butter, so we forgave them). We look forward to visiting Strasbourg again in the spring or summer.

Most surprising fact about Strasbourg:
There is dog poop EVERYWHERE. Apparently letting your dog relieve him/herself on the streets and sidewalks and NOT PICKING IT UP is completely fine. One street that was particularly littered with poop we fondly nicknamed Rue du Poo Poo.

If you'd like to view the rest of our photos from Strasbourg, please click on this link:

Strasbourg Photos


PS - Clicking on an image will enlarge the photo