Welcome, 2018!

E gleckichs Nej Johr, feliç any nou, bonne année, Frohes Fest und guten Rutsch ins neue Jahr, Καλή χρονιά, Bliain úr faoi shéan is faoi mhaise duit, buon anno nuovo, 新年おめでとうございます, שנה טובה, happy new year, godt nytt år, bona annada, feliz Ano Novo, la multi ani, Счастливого Нового года, próspero año nuevo, नवीन वर्षाच्या शुभेच्छा 2018 हार्दिक शुभेच्छा,
Manigong bagong taon, Yeni yılınız kutlu olsun, DIS chu' botIvjaj. 2018!!!

Not Strasbourg!!!

Looking at the grey ky, at the very dark clouds outside my windows... I so need holidays!!!
Cefalu, Sicily, last August.

Musica!

Wish it was summer... Wish I was in Italy...

Early morning in Germany

On my way to the shops

Cross-border

A french tramway in Germany. Since april 2017, there is direct tram from Strasbourg to Kehl, our neighbor city on the other Rhine side. Very very convenient!!! Germany is a good deal cheaper than France for many things, such as food, tobacco. Taker me 25 minutes, instead of a good hour before. Over 10.000 people use it every day, many commuting to work.

Good place for...

...a merry go round, in the shade of the cathedral!
Most of the christmas market is closed, with a few stalls remaining at the cathedral, till the 30th. Hurry up!

T'is the day

Wishing you all a very Strasbourg christmas!

Noel!

Moderation

Enjoy your weekend, everybody!

Christkindelsmärik

The entrance to the main of the 11 christmas markets, on place Broglie. The word means Child Christ's market in alsatian, the 447th. We're in France, but we're of our alsatian culture, traditions, food, and so on, and our own language, which has absolutely nothing to do with french, as it is a germanic language.Close to the Amish's ¨Pennsylvanian Dutch. We are probably around 500.000 alsatian speakers worldwide, the city of  Castroville, Texas, included.
 So anyway, last year , that sign disappeared, the city fathers wanted to be "more french". Big angry outcry!

Janus

The Janus fountain, by Tomi Ungerer. 2-faced head and fountain, erected to celebrate Strasbourg's 2000 years, in 1988. The first roman camp was situated there, and was called Argentoratum, in 12 BC.
Why Janus? He was the roman god of beginnings and endings, usually depicted with 2 faces, since he looks at the future and the past. The month of january is named after him.
So, basically, we're a roman town... This might explain my lifelong love of pizza...lol

Getting closer

Some wonderful decorations in town. 5 days to go...

Need some ideas?

Any last minute present to buy? Here in idea... Available at the Christmas market, until the 24th.

City lights, part 2

Or when a tree gets the blues

The place at the back of the garden

Nice place for tea, brunch and... jewellery, just behind the cathedral.

No Santa

A different decoration: no Santa, no rendeers, no bears, penguins, baubles or artificial  snowy landscape to be seen. Refreshing!

Last sunday

More black and white here, on Dragonstar's very excellent blog!

You've got mail...to write

Did you write to the Père Noèl (Father Christmas, aka Santa)? Here is his mailbox. Hurry up!

A coffee, please.

Sorry, we're closed.
More b&w here.

A beautiful sunday

So, which tree would you choose? They look all the same... The christmas tree market on place Kleber, last sunday morning, during the heaviest snowfall in years. Yep, 13 days to go!
BTW, the snow was all gone by the evening.

A Monday Mural

More Monday Murals here! eanwhile, have some M&Ms!

Fun!

Some heavy snowfall this morning, so everybody had a lot of fun! Well, I was trying not to fall on my nose (or other parts): wrong shoes. I was successful.

Welcome to the kingdom of Bredele!

The bis Christmas market is divided into 11 smaller markets. One of them is dedicated to bredele. Bredele: biscuits traditionally baked on Christmas time. Here are some for you!

Hungry? C ya at the courtyard behind the Rohan Palace!

???....?...

..................?....................???
Well, I don't know either.

There be angels

Wondering who is staying in this room... The wings drying (?) on the balcony might be a clue

Christmas at the garrrison

Christmas at the Aubette, the former garrison building, built from 1765 to 1788. Now a shopping, with a small museum and a ...Starbucks. Although being a coffee multilingual aficionado, I've never been there, as I don't starbucks. Or klingon.

Venice? Not!

This could be Venice... I have very similar photos taken there. But it's not.

Folks, guess it's winter!

It snowed last night, so I hurried up to take a few pictures, as it is very noticeably warmer today, 10 degrees C more, and as it is melting very fast.
Friends in northern latitudes, please stay warm. Others: don't forget the suncream, or umbrella for some!

Not your everyday gargoyle!

Pretty colorful, innit! I am not quite sure if it actually a gargoyle, it might be an art piece.
Strasbourg is a city of gargoyle. I don't think anybody counted them, but there might be several hundreds of them, or more. They are everywhere!

City lights

December theme day: gift

Hi there. This is me, 7 years ago, recovering from open heart surgery in the ICU, at St Paul's hospital in Barcelona. I was given the gift of life.
A few years later, in Skopje, Macedonia, I suffered a severe stroke. And I died, my "new" heart just stopped. The doctors there, at the university hospital, brought me back, after 2 minutes. Again, the gift of life. Life changing experiences, both of them.
You guessed it, this month's CDP theme day is: gift. Being half german, I just HAVE to tell you that Gift is german for poison...;-) Waiting for german posts about that theme...
Anyway, just click here to see what my dudes and dudettes did about it! Do it now!

Number 3

Third time lucky! After 2 broken trees (see a past post), the big christmas tree (well, a miserly 28 meters tall) is up and decorated. Much bigger than the "big" one on Times Square in New York, a ridiculous 23 meters... Ha, WE BEAT  NYC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Strasbourg, capitale de Noel, capital of Christmas.

Having some wine at the cathedral

It is getting really cold, barely above freezing. So, a vin chaud, aka mulled wine, aka Gluehwein, is good for a lot of of things: makes you warm, help fighting colds, it it opens the appetite, it boosts the immune system, and so on... Louis Pasteur called it the healthiest of drinks.

Monday mural on tuesday

Sorry, I'm late!
Yep, our local genius Dan 23 did it again!!!

Hark the angels

The main street leading to the cathedral. It is even busier than it looks, thousands and thousands of tourists, all of them stopping abruptly (right in front of me, usually) for photos... You won't find many locals there for the next 5 weeks. Well, there is me...

It's christmassing

A butcher's christmas decoration... The 447th christmas market has started, the tourist hordes are coming, all 2.5 millions of them...

Hey you!

Feed me!

It was a cold and rainy evening

More b&w here

The big clock in the sky

I had to be in town early this morning, so I took my obligatory 2nd coffee of the day at the train station. No moon, just a big clock.

Good morning!

The view from my kitchen window, whilst sipping my first coffee of the day

Barcelona...

A photo from my old Barcelona blog

Cliché

Believe it or not, we do have other cars in France...LOL

Christmas tree, episode 3

Right. Every year, in time for the opening of the Christmas market, the city puts up the tallest possible pine tree on place Kleber, aka the main square.
Well, it started well. They found a tall one, 36 meters, in the mountains nearby. They cut it, and... it broke into 3 pîeces.
One week later, they cut another one. This one made it to the city, and was put up. The city workers were decorating it, when... they noticed a large crack.
So, this is number 3...  Let's touch wood.
The Christkindlsmaerik, or christmas market, opens next weekend.  I'll keep you posted.

Black and white weekend

Brushing up on my b&w skills, lol!
More b&w weekend posts here!

Big Brother is watching you...

... from his underwater lair.

Post 500

I lived in front of Parc Monceau in Paris for a few years, and it still is as beautiful as 34 years ago

Kraken, I love you

Surprising love declaration.

2 boats crossing...

...one from Paris, the other one from...