On Friday we started with a drive south to Colmar - a smallish city that the Americans here rave about and for good reason. It was even cuter than Strasbourg! We wandered aimlessly for a while - the kids played a bit at a part, we found an arts and crafts store and bought some items for our fairy garden (oh my goodness you should SEE the miniature snails!!!!) and then eventually ended up at the tourist information center. I was looking for a town map and scored! They have one (in English too!) that gives you a historical trail around Colmar to follow. The trail is marked by golden triangles embedded in the streets and sidewalks and there are signs in French, German, and English at various points of interest. Not only did this give us a guided way to see the places we wanted to see, the kids thought it was a lot of fun to seek out the triangles and follow the path. And they were perfectly spaced: far enough apart to have to search out the next one but not so far that we got lost.
Colmar is the birthplace of the creator/sculptor of the Statue of Liberty so that's a big one at the entrance to the time.
Everyone is happy to be the size of snails
Pretty picture of the inside of the church with the light coming through the stained glass. I love stained glass.
We stopped in this Fromagerie and the kids didn't want to stay because of the smell! The owner was talking to a customer and I looked around but had no idea what would even be good so ended up leaving as well. But it was kind've fun to be in a French fromagerie!
So many choices!
This was a fun mix of old and new! That's one house!
All of our feet at the first triangle
The House of Heads - so called because it's decorated with almost 200 heads
The birthplace of the Statue of Liberty guy
We see street performers all the time and we usually give a few coins but I was excited that this one was a traditional looking French mime! Abby's favorite was a violinist.
French flower shop - This whole trip I was getting way too excited about things that are considered typically French.
There are bookstores and library cafes and things everywhere - probably more than I've seen any other location. It was fantastic to browse through used book stores and antique bookshops, even if it was all in French.
A synagogue dedicated to victims between 1940-44.
I love roofs like this
We ended up at "Little Venice" - just a series of amazing houses along a canal but it was beautiful
When we left Colmar we followed directions in an old Rick Steves' book to a beautiful panorama site with a cemetery to French soldiers from WWII and a memorial to the Americans who fought with them.
The knots on this tree looked like eyes!
When we left there, we drove on to Riquiwihr, another small, beautiful town on the wine route. This one had a lot of wine cellars for touring and tasting and lots of colorful architecture.
We went into a cheese cellar with very expensive cheeses but there were some samples and they were very good. The kids thought it was really cool though that this was cheese and that it could be that big. This is William saying cheese among the cheese!
I adore houses covered in greenery but I'm not sure I'd want to live there because of what else might live in the greenery!
a little free library!
Ran to a grocery store and came across these . . . rebranding gone wrong?
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