Europe Christmas 2009: Day Four in Strasbourg
December 30, 2009
This morning at 5:30 our alarm went off… that’s 8:30PM for all of you back home. We quickly finished packing up our bags and then checked out of our lovely hotel in Paris and headed for the metro. From the metro we went to Gare de L’est, which is one of the bigger train stations in Paris. Everything went smoothly and we got a little breakfast and hopped on board for our 7AM departure on the TGV.
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| From Paris 2009 Day 4 |
This train ride was on the luxurious side, as we got first class tickets! (sing it with me now “big pimpin’ we be spending cheese everybody go…”) Well actually, there wasn’t that much additional cheese involved in this first class excursion. The TGV releases a limited number of discounted tickets (prem and loisir) and we got the better of the two (prem) for first class. It pays to book ahead! We paid about 10 euro more for those seats and they were definitely worth it, especially on such an early ride.
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| From Paris 2009 Day 4 |
After we got off in Strasburg at around 9:30AM, we headed straight to our hotel to drop off our bags. Once again, we were staying at the high-ball Best Western – this time the Monopole Metropole. The German lady at the front desk was super helpful and took our bags and armed us with a map and little “isn’t Strasburg oh so cute” pamphlet.
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| From Paris 2009 Day 4 |
After that we basically just spent the morning looking around petite France (the uber cute section of the city that looks straight out of a fairytale) and then headed over to what is unquestionably the main attraction of the city, the cathedral (Notre Dame de Strasburg.)
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| From Paris 2009 Day 4 |
Unfortunately, with this being France and nobody actually ever working, the cathedral was closed at lunchtime when we made our way over there. And, since we knew lunchtime also meant all the little shops would be closed, we decided that meant it was time to get some lunch. When in Rome, my friends!
As for dining in Strasburg, we were in luck. Not only did I know someone from here (a fellow triathlon member back from my days at UCLA) but Chris has a friend from his old lab at Stanford, Laurent, who both loves food and is from Strasburg, too! Laurent, a self-confessed cheese lover (being French and all…), told us about a place called “La Cloche a Fromage” – a cheese-lovers paradise!
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| From Paris 2009 Day 4 |
And so, after getting only a little lost in the narrow cobblestone alleyways, we made our way there.
Oh.sweet.god. the smell upon entry was enough! Cheese – really good rich cheeeesssseee! I knew it was going to be a very good…and very expensive lunch.
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| From Paris 2009 Day 4 |
We got a Riesling (because I’m a big fan and it would be a sin not to in the Alsace region!) and for an appetizer we decided to go with the slightly strange sounding foie gras with gingerbread and honey – with just a little coarse salt on top.
Oh my god it was delicious. Trying not to gain 100 pounds on this trip, I gave Chris a big piece of my half but let me tell you – you should try it. The gingerbread was toasted, the foie gras was fried, and the honey was drizzled across the plate. And the salt really tied it all together. Perfect!
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| From Paris 2009 Day 4 |
For our main dish we got goat cheese fondue with white wine and kirsch. That cheese fondue was without question the best cheese fondue I’ve ever had. Whereas in California the cheese is sort of thinish (as in, you can’t stick your little fondue fork in the cheese sans bread or apple and really get any substantial amount of cheese out), the cheese here was somehow simultaneously thick (I could stick my fork in, twirl it, and get out a serious amount of cheese) and very fluid. And it smelled like heaven. The only downside was that here they don’t give you a bunch of stuff to put in the cheese – just bread… though it was some seriously good bread. And really in the end it didn’t matter – I basically just ate the cheese straight!
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| From Paris 2009 Day 4 |
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| From Paris 2009 Day 4 |
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| From Paris 2009 Day 4 |
For dessert (because no matter what, there’s going to be dessert at a restaurant like this!) we got two things. I got the chocolate fondue with fruit and Chris got the 3 scoops of cheese ice cream: one parmagiano reggiano, one goat, and one cottage.
Naturally we split both.
The cheese ice creams were weird but tasty. I think our favorite was the cottage cheese ice cream with blackberry cream. It was probably the closest to dessert flavors that we’re used to. The other two were both very good, too. The goat took a second to get used to but somehow the cold creamy goodness was quite good. And the parmagiano with a little of the ginger crumble spread over the plate made for a very tasty bite!
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| From Paris 2009 Day 4 |
As for the chocolate fondue, I mean, what’s there to say? How could it go wrong?! The chocolate was uber rich and we basically ended up just taking a spoon to it. The accompanying fruit was ok – though I was sad there were no strawberries and only a little banana, but it was amazing. So amazing.
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| From Paris 2009 Day 4 |
By the end of this meal I was pretty much in the best mood possible… tinged only slightly by the feeling that I ate way more food than I should have.
As we were about to leave our big fancy meal of the trip we stumbled upon what might be the best technological innovation France (I’m guessing) has ever been responsible for. There was this metal contraption with a hot stone in it that was basically a cheese luge – and by that I mean you stuck the cheese at the very top of this 45 degree stone slope and the super hot stone basically caused the cheese to melt and slowly drip down the stone onto the blessed food that sat at its base (on your plate). Does that make sense?
So basically as we walked by we saw a globs and globs of cheese dripping down onto potatoes and ham.
It took everything in my power not to sprout a third stomach, push the potatoes out of the way, and stick my mouth right under it!
After our indulgence we decided the gluttony wouldn’t be complete without a nap. So, we headed back to the hotel to find our bags in our room, and took a luxurious nap as (I’m sure) the cheese congealed around our arteries.
After the nap, we ended up spending the rest of the night strolling around the city – not doing anything in particular but looking at cute stuff and taking more pictures of the cathedral. Having mastered the art of dressing for cold weather (tights under the pants, two layers of socks, my northface fleece under my jacket, and my hat, scarf, and gloves!), it was a perfect night for doing nothing in particular.
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| From Paris 2009 Day 4 |
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| From Paris 2009 Day 4 |
Tomorrow, though, it’s time for another mini-adventure – this time we go for a day trip to Triberg, Germany! Land of the cuckoo clock and a beautiful waterfall! I can’t wait! I’ve always wanted to go to Germany and it’s finally happening!
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| From Paris 2009 Day 4 |
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One Response to “Europe Christmas 2009: Day Four in Strasbourg”
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You are making me soooo hungry. Sounds like you two are having a blast. The pictures are beautiful! Hope you have a happy and fun New Year’s eve. Love you. Muah!