The Way-Back Machine: Strasbourg, Late November

Heidelberg is a great place. I really mean this. It has some very beautiful buildings and quiet streets; it has a river that flows through the shallow valley where the city is situated between several forested Bergs (I translate this to mean “sort of big hills”), a public transit system that I’d rank about 6/10, and it even has its own castle! Plus the lectures at the university are public, there’s a Deutsch-Amerikanisches Institut (where I can attend lectures in English when I realize I have no idea what’s going on at the German ones), there are some good and very regular music events going on at a place called the Karlstorbahnhof (public transit by day, music venue by night), and throughout the month of December there was a great Weihnachtsmarkt (Christmas market) going on, which I will definitely say more about in another post.

But despite its many fine attributes, Heidelberg is also small, vegetarian food selections are quite limited and, while this isn’t Heidelberg’s fault, the Studentenwohnheim where I am currently residing is under construction; the sound of jackhammers just outside my window, 12 hours a day 6 days a week (this is a work ethic like none other, right?? How is it possible, I ask myself daily.) is more annoying, distracting, and evilly undermining of thought than anything else imaginable. And though recent overdoses of travel have made me appreciate Heidelberg all the more, there came a time in late November when I was looking for an escape.

So as a dual celebration of Thanksgiving and my birthday, Matt and I took a trip to Strasbourg—a weekend we decided to make last through Monday, sort of like French people do.* We took the train to get there and back, which is a bit more expensive than other options (transfer 2 or 3 times on buses to reach the border, then switching to the train, for example), but worth it in my opinion—it's fast, easy to figure out, and the countryside is very beautiful; it was nice to be able to relax and enjoy it.

The Weihnachtsmarkt in Strasbourg has a reputation for being a pretty big deal (Strasbourg is, after all, the self-declared “Capital of Christmas”), so after dropping our bags in our hotel we spent most of the first day walking from one market site to another, experiencing as much of it as we could. This involved drinking headaching amounts of Gluehwein (that is, hot wine mixed with sugar and spices—a beverage which may or may not be more of a reason for the Weihnachtsmarkt phenomenon than Weihnachten itself), trying a variety of snacks (I'd never eaten roasted chestnuts before--they're delicious!), and doing a little bit of early and completely impractical Christmas shopping. There’s not a lot more I can say about the market that wouldn’t be better conveyed in a photograph—or several! From every possible variety of ornament, candy, crepe, plaything, and manger scene, to the densely packed crowds, street performers, and carnival rides, it’s a sensory fête to say the least, and to use the French :)

As much fun as all of this was, we were still running into a few weather-related off-season challenges—namely, it snowed! It was so cold I couldn’t feel my feet and my ears felt like they might fall off. So on the second day of the trip, we remedied these problems in two important ways:

1.)The acquisition of the following hats:

2.) a long afternoon escaping the weather in Strasbourg’s Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art. I give this a rave review, hands down! The collection was very diverse and engaging, not to mention that, if you can get away with telling un petit lie about your age (under 25!), you can get in for just 3 Euros. We were lucky, too, because our visit fell between the November 6th 2010 and the February 13th 2011—the dates during which the Marcel Duchamp Prize** exhibit is being hosted in Strasbourg (so you can still go and see this! It’s not too late!). Works by about 40 different winners of the prize are on display—with particular emphasis on works owned by private collectors and public institutions. This seemed important to me because I’ve so seldom thought about how much visual art is simply unavailable for public viewing. As a writer, I usually forget and feel startled by the fact that only a single copy of a work of art can exist in the world.

In the snowy weather, we found out that we liked being in doors a lot; in particular, being in doors looking at art. So on the third day we checked out the Tomi Ungerer Museum, which show cases the children’s books, erotica, advertisements, political satire and agitprop art by the artist for whom the museum obviously takes its name. The Modern/Contemporary Art Museum was great, but I get it that not everyone loves hanging out at places like this. So skip it. But the Tomi Ungerer Museum is so incredibly worth seeing whether you’re an art fan or not, I give it my highest recommendation for places to visit. Ungerer’s biography is amazingly relevant to World War II history, and his work narrates decades of international (especially German, French, American) social and political change and revolution. Also, he's so funny! What’s not funny about erotic ghosts?

Anyway Strasbourg is completely beautiful. The French-German cultural mix is really interesting and unique in my experience, and the city is much bigger than Heidelberg but (despite the weather) easy to cover by foot, not at all unmanagable and pretty easy to find your way around.

At the very bottom of the entry are resturant recommendations (as people expect to hear of any trip to France, we did eat some really fantastic food) and more pictures below of some things I didn’t get a chance to mention above! Also: the 2 pictures immediately below are of the biggest rodent I’ve ever seen in my life, but there’s no possible way it was a rat, it was the size of a large house cat…I’d much appreciate it if anyone could tell me what this is.

Resturant Recommendations:

This seems like something I might be inspired to continue including in the blog entries, if for no other reason than the fact that where ever, whenever I travel, I inevitably waste a lot of time searching for someplace to eat. A lot of times I get sick of caving and going for the nearest pizza just so I can get on with my sightseeing; I'd like to try local and regional dishes but I admit I'm picky, somewhat cheap, and a "pescetarian." And this search goes on at least 3 times a day! Sigh. So these are just in case anyone happens to see the blog before also making a trip to Strasbourg.

Le Monceau: 6, Place Saint Thomas, 67000 Strasbourg. We arrived here more or less by luck and happy accident, but I would definitely go out of my way to eat here again. The restaurant seemed more like the casual living room of someone’s house than a restaurant, so the atmosphere was really relaxed and the lighting was great. The waiter and the chef (the only two people working there as far as I could tell) seemed to own the restaurant and were both incredibly nice. They gave free appetizers! And though the menu was absent a vegetarian option, I had some really great salmon instead, inexpensive but very good wine, and berry tart for dessert. Definitely the best French food I’ve had.

Feuilles D’Artichaut: 56, Grand Rue 67000 Strasbourg. Of all the many places to eat on Grand Rue, we ate here because it also had a nice, casual atmosphere and mismatched furniture, it’s co-operatively run, and the mention of vegetables—artichoke!—in its name said to me, welcome, vegetarians, you can’t go wrong! As it turned out, you really really could—pork knuckle and a handful of other unusual, little-thought-of body parts were listed on the menu, but a couple of great veg items were, too, including a spicy, mixed vegetable quiche and *maybe* the best salad I’ve even eaten, which was topped with something they called “Brocos” and copyrighted on the menu as their own invention—it was something like a cheese curd with spinach and herbs mixed in. The prices were really reasonable (by my experience, this is pretty unusual in Strasbourg) and the wine was great! Actually, we liked it so much we tried to go back a second time but ran into the everything-closed-on-Monday problem.

*Mostly all stores and businesses (excluding restaurants) are closed on Sundays as they are in Germany, but we also found many places (including restaurants) closed on Monday as well. Needless to say, this is something to keep in mind if you’re traveling there, though we found plenty of great places regardless.

**The Marcel Duchamp Prize is awarded to a French artist (or artist residing in France) creating in the medium of plastic and visual art. The winner is chosen by a committee to be honored as being among the most innovative artists of his/her generation. It was established in 2000.