2018-12-10 France Christmas Markets

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This blog is about our short visit to see some of the Christmas Markets in France. We visited Mulhouse, Colmar and Strasbourg and then took a train down to Paris where we spent a few days visiting the City of Lights for Christmas. From there we flew home to have a family Christmas.

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Dec 10 – Flight to Basel and Mulhouse France

We were up at 3:45 to catch our 4:30 transfer to the Casablanca Airport. The trip was uneventful, as was check in and boarding. However, Air France changed our flight from Paris to Basel/Mulhouse and we now have an extremely short connection, so we are sweating it as to whether or not we will make our connection. Paul spent much of yesterday trying to sort it out with Air France but they were adamant that we (and our luggage) should make the connection. However, just in case, we both packed a change of clothes, our cold weather coats and essential toiletries in our carryon bags.

We had to change terminals at Charles De Gaulle airport and had to go through both security and passport control. However, we made it to the gate with about 10 minutes to spare (and our luggage made it too).

It was rather cold when we arrived at the Basel/Mulhouse airport and had been raining, but we got our wet luggage and headed out for the bus to the train station. We had about a 10 minute wait for the train and then a 14 minute train ride to Mulhouse (pronounced muloos). We considered taking a taxi to our hotel but after getting a map and finding our street it turned out the hotel was only about a 2 ½ block walk from the station. Well located for us.

This evening we wandered down to find the Christmas Market. It is small but rather magical with most of the shops in the main square in front of the church. There was also a rather large white ferris wheel in front of the church as well.

For dinner we had a walking meal. Hot chocolate in one of the pop-up restaurants, soup at one of the shops, and a hot cheese sandwich from another. Very satisfying.

Dec 11 – Mulhouse Christmas Market

We're combining our Christmas Market visits with work so this morning was spent working on our Morocco pictures. At lunch time we headed back down the street and found a nice restaurant for lunch.

A main square on the main road included a great Christmas display.

And there were other displays tucked against various buildings.

Then we wandered over to the Christmas Market. This was a small, compact market, but very colorful and lots of nice shops. Almost all of the shops were open so we checked them out some more.

There were many types of goods for sale.

Paul bought a large Belgian waffle with Nutella and banana. Mary had a couple of bites.

The church in the square is Temple Saint Etienne.

It serves as a great backdrop for the ferris wheel.

At one end of the square is the City Hall. They had it pretty decked out for the holidays as well.

They have a nice small carousel wheel just beside the city hall.

Then it was back to the hotel to warm up and do a bit more work.

We opted for dinner at a restaurant close to the hotel and didn’t go down to the Christmas Market this evening.

Dec 12 - Mulhouse

Unfortunately Mary was sick this morning…seems to be a cold. She slept in and missed breakfast as well as most of the day. Paul worked on emails and other stuff on the computer and slipped out to pick out some fruit for lunch. Otherwise it was a very slow day.

By late afternoon Mary was feeling better and we headed out to find an early dinner. Unfortunately, restaurants don’t start serving until 8:00 so we opted for another walk around dinner at the Christmas market…a cheese baguette and a beignet with Nutella for dessert.

There were a lot of lights on the streets leading to the Christmas Market...

and a large Christmas Tree in one of the squares.

Temple Saint Etienne (Saint Stephen) was quite lit up...

and made a beautiful backdrop for the giant ferris wheel.

The market is so magical at night. Only thing missing was snow.

We did some nighttime photography and Mary worked on using time exposures. However, it was actually pretty light in the main square so timed exposures really didn’t work, but at least she got some practice.

It was about 33°F out and really cold for us so we didn’t stay out long. Back at the hotel early for some work and rest and packing.

Dec 13 – Train to Colmar

As it is pretty cold for us we opted to stay inside all morning, venturing out only for lunch. After lunch we gathered up the luggage and walked to the nearby train station where we caught the train to our next town, Colmar.

Our hotel is just across the street from the train station…no hunting around or trying to ask for directions. Early evening we bundled up and headed out to try to find dinner and the Christmas Markets. Dinner was easy.

However, the Christmas Markets, not so much. We had a map and ended up in the market area but there were only a few shops open serving food and wine. We bought some spice cakes for breakfast and then headed out to find another area of the markets. We found them but they were all closed. With her very limited French Mary was able to ask a local trash man when the markets opened. He said 10:00. But we didn’t know if that was this evening or in the morning. It was too cold to hang around for two more hours for them to open so we went back to the hotel.

Tomorrow we will ask at the hotel before heading out.

We did see enough of the area to know that Colmar is absolutely charming with lots of old half‑timbered buildings and cobble-stone streets. We will definitely have fun tomorrow touring the area. If we don’t freeze.

Dec 14 - Colmar

We headed out to the Christmas markets late morning. The markets open at 10:00 am, and close at 6:00 pm. These markets were a little more spread out than Mulhouse and had more stalls in total. The day is very dreary and overcast and rather cold. If it going to be like this the least it could do is snow. But a little too warm for that so we'll just take dry.

The route took us through a large park that was decorated for the holidays.

It also had an ice rink...

and some food stalls, including a carousel bar.

The town is so very quaint. Much of the architecture in the area of the markets dates back to the 15^th and 16^th centuries with half timbered building, shutters and picturesque roof lines...sort of Disneyesque.