Alsace

This weekend Emilie and I went with her mom to visit the Alsace region of France to see a few of the small towns in the area that are known for their Christmas markets. We're staying in Thann, which is about three hours north of Lausanne (via Basel).

The weather was cold and rainy, which provided little motivation to explore after our arrival. Here's a picture of a plaza near our hotel where we found a restaurant to grab a quick bite to eat and escape from the cold.

The weather finally cleared in the late-afternoon, so we headed to the Kaysersberg for our first real visit of the trip. The town has a medieval feel to it and was part of Germany up until WWI, as may have been surmised from the name ("Kaisersberg" = "emperor's mountain" in German).

By the time that we arrived it was dark (the sun sets before 5pm now) and we struggled a bit to find a parking space. It seems we weren't the only ones who decided to visit the city's famous Christmas markets.

The atmosphere was very festive, with packed streets full of people kicking off the Christmas season. Here's a picture that I took of the city's medieval church.

There was Christmas decor everywhere, including the following Nativity scene that was set up at the base of a statue in a plaza.

After exploring the city's sights and window shopping at the x-mas stores for a couple hours (primarily the former, for me), we finished up our visit. Here's a picture that I took from a bridge during our walk back to the car. The style of the house in the middle of the photo is very typical for the area.

Next we headed to the nearby town of Riquewihr, which is one of the few towns in the area that wasn't heavily damaged during WWII and thus still maintains much of its 16th century architecture.

Unfortunately for us, the Riquewihr visit didn't go according to script. First, the Christmas store that Emilie specifically planned our trip to Alsace around had already closed for the day (fortunately, we can make a return trip tomorrow). Second, the restaurant where we had booked a reservation didn't serve the Alsacian specialty that Emilie and her mom specifically wanted -- tarte flambée.

And given that tarte flambée is apparently a "must" for any Alsacian visit, we cancelled our existing reservation and instead searched for a back-up restaurant. This was a risky maneuver given the town's small size and the throngs of tourists, but we ultimately found a nice restaurant that wasn't complet AND served tarte flambée.

So what exactly is tarte flambée? It's effectively a rectangular, pizza-like baked dish with cheese,  crème fraîche, thinly sliced onions and lardons (small strips of pork fat -- basically bacon). And I have to admit, it was very good and well worth the extra trouble. Here's a photo (trust me, it tasted much better than it looks...).