Yesterday, Strasbourg unwrapped its Christmas market, the biggest in France.
And I know what you’re thinking. I’m thinking it too. Who needs this?
Who needs another seasonal attack of terrifying trinketry that nobody in their
right mind would buy were their faculties not dulled by mulled wine – which,
at Christmas markets, is never even approximately drinkable, so must be
downed in one gulp, leaving the suddenly senseless person prey to the
purchasing of wire ornaments, tomato-scented soap and 6in woodcutters worked
in clay?
That, broadly speaking, is what we are thinking, and why we are making no
plans to go to Strasbourg right now. We are mistaken. Astonishing as it
seems, many people like Christmas markets; 1.6m visited Strasbourg’s last
year. Given these numbers, there will surely be market fans in your own
entourage. An opportunity beckons.
What you do is lure them into a winter break with the promise of decorative
gingerbread and Styrofoam reindeer. Shouldn’t be hard to do. They can’t be
that bright. Their little eyes will light up.
Then you leave them among the 300 twinkling market sheds (the technical term
is, I believe, “chalets”) – and go off to discover the real treasures of the
city. This is a brilliant idea.
Despite its catastrophic penchant for yuletide lunacy, Strasbourg remains the
most warmly civilised city in France. Market aside, I know of no finer city
for a pre- or, indeed, post-Christmas jaunt. Here are 10 specific reasons
why.
1 Winter
Strasbourg is built for winter, in a manner more central European than French.
Embraced by the River Ill, the centre is a warren of happily hued
half-timbered streets, wonky with wood and welcome. The wraparound sense of
centuries past defies the cold, and there’s not a house that you don’t want
to enter, confident of finding an apple-cheeked matron simmering something
hearty on a vast stove. But you can’t just go barging in. Even the most
apple-cheeked of matrons has her limits. So, do the next best thing and push
open the door of the nearest winstub or bierstub bar.
2 ’Stub grub
Strasbourg has always taken refuge in epic, cheery domesticity. Bierstubs and
winstubs are where you experience this, amid wood panelling, beams, alcoves
and the warm hug of historical hospitality. From the kitchen, choucroute
garnie (pickled cabbage and a festival of sausages) demands a brass-band
accompaniment. Eat the three-meat baeckeoffe stew and you’ll need a block
and tackle to leave the table. Try Ami Schutz (1 Ponts Couverts) or Chez
Yvonne (10 Rue du Sanglier). Up the scale, the Maison Kammerzell (16 Place
de la Cathédrale; www.maisonkammerzell.com)
has an extravagantly carved wooden exterior and a tangle of frescoed rooms.
3 Brains
Strasbourg’s juicy living is backed by brains. The place glows with ancestral
intelligence. Gutenberg invented printing here, before Erasmus and Calvin
rolled in – followed by just about every freethinking clever devil the
Continent has known. Challenging thought is in the city’s DNA – alongside
the sausages. It’s a heady mix, detectable in the sinuous old streets, where
bookshops jostle butchers, and students in scarves scurry as Goethe and
Albert Schweitzer certainly scurried before them.
4 Raising spirits
Nothing, not even an assault by the Christmas market, can detract from the
grandeur of Strasbourg’s cathedral. It’s a stunner. Soaring with grace and
gravitas from the Renaissance huddle, the fabulously ornate red sandstone
facade slims to a spire topping 460ft. Such is the filigree lightness, it
appears to be the work of confectioners, not masons.
5 Syphilis
Apologies, but facts must be faced. Strasbourg’s prettiest district is called
La Petite France because it hosted a 16th-century hospital for the
syphilitic. Back then, syphilis was known, quite rightly, as “the French
disease”. Thus, both hospital and district were christened “Little France”.
It’s safe to go there now, though. In fact, it’s obligatory, for this is a
concentration of Strasbourg picturesqueness: waterways, steep roofs, timber
frames, flowers and gothic script.
6 Adulteresses
Strasbourg is defined by its rivers and canals, so... to boat! The
bateau-mouche (£5.30, near the Rohan Palace) will swing you through the
locks, under the bridges from which they used to dunk adulteresses and
before the great riverside buildings, which are, apparently, holding one
another up after a party lasting generations.
The English commentary is anguished and squeaky, like a baby panda being
strangled. Then again, so might you be if you had to sail past the European
Parliament and other vast Euro-edifices several times a day.
7 Art and culture
Strasbourg has them to overflowing. If you’ve time for only one bout, however,
visit the Alsace Museum (23 Quai St-Nicolas). Believe me, it’s a little
belter, telling the region’s story through the rambling rooms of an old
Strasbourgeois homestead. This year being the museum’s centenary, entry is
free until December 31.
8 Germans
Our German chums annexed Strasbourg (as they did all Alsace-Lorraine) from
1870 to 1918. They immediately set about demonstrating to the scruffy French
how proper town planning should be handled. This translated into
uncompromising avenues flanked by glowering buildings whose heavy classical
decor rarely stopped in time. As the pivot of the German quarter, Place de
la République really requires a military march-past to be seen at its best.
But – and here’s the point – there’s not much of this
turn-of-the-20th-century urban architecture left in Germany itself. So this
is a rare example, and as confident as a kaiser.
9 Saxe appeal
For the finest in French symbolic statuary, pop along to St Thomas’s
Protestant Church, where the mausoleum of Maréchal Maurice de Saxe dominates
the choir. Saxe was a hero of the war of the Austrian Succession (1740-48) –
which, given the scale of this delirious monument, he must have won
single-handed. Set about with animals and assorted figures, the man himself
is depicted stepping into a coffin, beckoned by death, while a distressed
France “makes bootless efforts to detain her illustrious servant”.
10 Christmas market
All right. We have perhaps been a little harsh and humbugish on this subject.
Granted, there’s not much on sale here that couldn’t, with profit, be
chucked straight in the bin. The mulled wine remains toxic. But, dammit, the
city centre does look splendid under its Christmas kit. Joyous, even – if
I’m pushed. The Christmas tree on Place Kléber is enormous; there’s a
skating rink on Place du Château; and there are 60 concerts across town,
including Handel’s Messiah, in English, in the cathedral at 3pm on December
9.
Getting there: by train, it’s a shade more than five hours from London,
via Eurostar and the new TGVEst. Returns start at £89pp with Rail Europe
(0844 848 4070, www.raileurope.co.uk).
Air France (0870 142 4343, www.airfrance.co.uk)
flies to Strasbourg from London City.
Where to stay: Hôtel Beaucour (00 33-3 88 76 72 00, www.hotel-beaucour.com;
doubles from £87) offers boutique style in an 18th-century setting, and is
bang central. Or try the elegant Hôtel Maison Rouge (03 88 32 08 60, www.maison-rouge.com;
doubles from £70).
Tour operators: Airline Network (0871 700 8630, www.airlinenetwork.co.uk)
has two nights, room-only, in a three-star hotel from £189pp, including
flights from Heathrow. The rail specialist French Travel Service (0844 848
8843, www.f-t-s.co.uk) has three
nights, B&B, in a two-star hotel from £260pp (or a three-star from
£303pp), including train travel. Or try VFB (01452 716831, www.vfbholidays.co.uk).
