France Driving Adventures #2 – Easter in Strasbourg

France is always a good idea, especially when you have a new set of wheels that need to be run in on the autobahn and you have friends visiting from England. So on Good Friday, that’s exactly what we did.

A quick two hours later we found ourselves immersed in a rather cold, but gorgeous Strasbourg, a large town in the Alsace region of France. By now, you all know how much I love France, how inspiring I find it, blah, blah, blah (yes, I know that's what you're all thinking). So I'm just going to let the images speak for themselves! 

Strasbourg is a town that has changed its borders many, many times between France and Germany, however since around the 16^th Century it has remained part of France. That aside, the German language is still heavily spoken here and a lot of the traditional Alsatian cuisine is the same as you would find in Central/Southern Germany.

We stayed at a lovely hotel, which was situated about 10 minutes walk from the very impressive Cathedral in the centre of Strasbourg. Initially, Andrea and I were a bit concerned about the location in proximity to all the action, but at the thought of all the nice food and wine we planned on eating and drinking, that was quickly forgotten.

We spent Friday walking around, doing a reccy of all the restaurants we had previously researched, hoping they would all be open. Strasbourg boasts several Michelin star restaurants, unfortunately a lot of these were closed as they tend to be family run businesses that were making the most of the Easter break.

We did some sightseeing and took a lot of photos around Petite France before we decided that it was a bit exhausting and making us thirsty. We found a very cool, very French little bar where we parked ourselves for the next hour or so. After a few sauvignon blancs (me) and several 8% beers (Chris, Andrea and Neil) we decided that rather than go back for a freshen up at the hotel, which would inevitably lead to a rest and potentially not leaving the hotel at all that evening, we would just carry on!

By chance, we randomly stumbled across one of the restaurants on our list, Le Chut. The wine list was quirky, making it rather appealing. Upon being offered a drink, the waiter presented us with their ‘human wine list’. The Sommelier (who also owns the restaurant) was happy to either recommend a wine, based on our descriptions provided or bring a steel wine holder, filled with wines at a range of prices for us to choose from.

 

We all had entrees and mains, which were incredibly delicious. Due to the owner’s Middle Eastern heritage, the lamb and chicken mains had more of an Arabic flavour to them, whilst the beef that both Andrea and I had was a little more French.

 

 

Le Chut is also a hotel, which looks fabulous. If we visit Strasbourg again it is definitely somewhere we would consider staying.

Saturday was our touristy day, which of course, was the day it was bitterly cold. We decided to do a boat tour of the canals around Petite France and Strasbourg. Luckily the boat was enclosed. Unlucky for us, it ran half an hour longer just to go to the EU Parliament building and back, which made it drag on a little and become pretty boring - however there were some colourful characters on the boat that kept us entertained. 

One of the main highlights was going through the lock system, up to a higher part of the river. The other highlight was getting off the boat, as you can see in the picture below!

We visited an Easter market in town, where we were able to gorge on my new found obsession, Flammekuche (pron. flamcooken). Flammekuche (renamed “Flam” by us on this trip) is a delicious, extremely wafer thin pizza with cream cheese, onion and bacon which is then topped with a little grated cheese. Incredibly simple, yet incredibly delicious. My mouth is watering thinking about it.

Saturday evening we were clutching at straws in terms of where to eat, because a lot of places were closed. We ended up at Maison Des Tanneurs (an old tannery, funnily enough). Typically French, albeit a little too touristy for us, we did have a lovely meal, our final supper with Andrea and Neil, who were heading back to Brussels and on to Newcastle the following day. In the spirit of keeping it French, we ate Quiche Lorraine (of course), Duck (of course!), some Frenchy desserts (of which I can’t remember the names) and plenty of Bourgogne vin!

Before heading back to Frankfurt on Easter Sunday, we crammed in some breakfast crepes and purchased Quiche Lorraine and chocolate mousse filled eclairs to take home. All in all, Strasbourg is a gorgeous town, where you can really soak up the mixed French/German culture. We had a fabulous time and I’d love to visit again, however maybe when it’s a little less fresh!

We stayed at Hotel Regent Contades and ate at Le Chut and Maison Des Tanneurs

I hope you all had a happy & healthy Easter break! x