Happy Birthday!

This is R writing!

Yesterday was my birthday. I decided that we would go somewhere different for it. So we went to France! We went to Strasbourg because they have a great huge Christmas celebration through the whole town. They call it the Capitol of Christmas. There were markets strung around the town as well as decorations that put Switzerland's to shame.

We started off earlyish in the morning and headed to Basel where we would catch our train to Strasbourg. They had a special section in the Hauptbahnhof labelled "France" for all trains heading there. It was a pretty waiting room, but we didn't stay there for long and hopped right on our train. It was interesting because we were one of the few groups to get seats on the crowded train. We sat across from another American family with kids and an adorable baby who quickly befriended both L and T. The mother had gone to Mama's law school and they overlapped by a year so that made nice conversation.

 

Typical train ride with the littles. 

Finally we arrived in Strasbourg and started to walk around. We looked at the cute houses and pretty scenery as well as plentiful decorations on our way to a cafe and the catherdral. They were right next to each other so we popped into the cafe first for some lunch and unofficial birthday cake. The cafe was strange because once you got in you had to go around to the back and up a spiral stone staircase to get to the small tea room. There was an older French woman at the bottom of the stairs who saw our big group and warned us in fast French how tiny and crowded it was up there. She was right. Daddy hadn't seen many markets yet so he and the littles went out for market food (crepes, beignets, hot orange juice with honey, and croque monsieurs) while the rest of us sat down and ate. We had nice lunches and hot chocolate and delicious cakes. Mine was passion fruit with lemon curd and went really nicely with the chocolate on top and the drink.

The cafe decorations 

Yum!

The cathedral inside and out.

 After that and the cathedral we headed out to the markets and shops. S's favorite part, I think, was one small store we went to which was exclusively gingerbread and nougat. The store was separated in half, the shelf on one side nougat and the shelf on the other gingerbread. In the middle was the cutting table for nougat. The blocks of gingerbread and nougat were humongous, like the size of two and a half jumbo Cheerios boxes in a stack. Not liking nougat as much as S does, I preferred Petit Bateau and Monoprix, the French small department store that I've missed since our trip to Paris.

We saw plenty of decorations and more as it got dark. Every street had something going down it whether it was strung across the top or on the buildings themselves. There was something in every store, too, whereas here in Switzerland a store will maybe have a Santa or some candles.  I will put the night decorations in another post so they can be enjoyed separately :)

 The grand finale was the Christkindlemart, which was a very crowded area but had the most stands and a carousel.

Christmas decorated carousel! 

p.s. I forgot the explain the Santas! Right before we went into Petit Bateau we heard a police motorcycle and saw a huge parade of moped riding santas heading our way. It was surprising and T loved it! It was very loud and very red, just his style. As they left they all tooted their little moped horns.