Tuesday, January 12, 2010

French Wine Country and Randy from Michigan

The day after Christmas, myself and the two Lauras drove from Basel to Colmar, France because the word on the streets was that this was the only Christmas market still open.

What a cute town! I've never seen housing facades like that. They looked like they could almost be candy or gingerbread houses.
The town is called "The Little Venice" because there are canals that run through the downtown area.

Although the town has fallen under both French and German control throughout the decades, it was spared the horrors of not only the French Revolution but also both World Wars, so the center looks how it did back in the day.

Here is us goofing around outside the Christmas Market. If you go, a word to the wise, avoid the main parking lot where everyone and their mother is going, if you circle around there is a, apparently unknown and perfectly legit, Christmas Market parking lot directly opposite and just down the street from the main one.

A typical Christmas Market Stall.
We hung around Colmar for awhile and then decided to press on. (BTW, interesting fact about Colmar which barely rates a mention in town, is that the village is the birthplace of Frederic Bartholdi, sculptor of the Statue of Liberty.)

I only know this because we passed a little sign on the edge of town announcing the fact. I wouldn't even 100% believe it, except Wikipedia confirms it. I am a little surprised the town didn't play up this fact a little more, but they seemed to be doing ok on tourism so maybe they figured why mess with a good thing?

More on Randy from Michigan tomorrow......






I love a good cliffhanger :D



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