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.