Un Weekend en Alsace : Strasbourg

Thanks to our ever-generous study abroad program, my fellow CUPA students and I spent the weekend in Alsace. Those of you who remember your European history will remember that this region has passed back and forth between French and German hands over the past few centuries. It's a region still known for its white wines (more on that in my next post!), German-sounding Alsatian dialect, and hearty German-influenced food, among other things.

As you stroll through the charming streets of maisons aux colombages under signs with the old names for guilds (corporations in French), you might think you'd crossed the border into Germany...

ESPECIALLY if you wandered into the area known as (somewhat contradictorily) "La Petite France"...

Strudel and pretzels (known as "bretzels" in France) abound - even a bretzel crocodile!

Three of us stopped into a cute little restaurant, tucked away behind a large wooden door on a side street.

We were offered a little appetizer of head cheese (read description at your own discretion!), so I amused myself with spoonfuls of the strong mustard from the little ceramic jar on our table. S. ordered this little fella...

...and ordered this feuilleté with Munster cheese and choucroute (sauerkraut), after double-checking with the waitress that it was vegetarian...

...but S. double-checked the sauce for me and confirmed my fears: the sauce was definitively beef-based! I let the waitress know, but she seemed unconcerned: as long as a sauce doesn't have chunks of meat in it, and just has beef broth à la base, it's considered vegetarian in Alsace! Ça me fait chier!!!

Still, I tried not to let the fact that I had ingested cow distract me from enjoying Strasbourg. We met up with the rest of the group in front of the cathedral - one of the most intricately-decorated Gothic cathedrals I've ever seen!

Lucky puppy - touch his nose!

Astronomical clock! We missed the big show at noon, but we still got to see the 1pm.

We then continued our walking tour out in town...

The skinniest house in all of Strasbourg:

Look what we found: the best of pretzels and donuts, all rolled into one! I'm kind of surprised the Americans didn't think of this one first...

Aaaand...if you're wondering if a Nutella-filled beignet is a good idea, just look at how many were left by the time we got there:

S. tries on some traditional Alsatian garb...well, sort of...

~

Oh hey, it's me in my 10euro hat, checking out vintage cameras at a flea market! [Photo cred. to Miss S.]

Now, my story gets interesting...all of CUPA had reservations for dinner at a highly-recommended restaurant, Au Tire-Bouchon:

Pleasant enough interior, and there was both red and white wine on every table. Our large group was scattered amongst several tables throughout the restaurant, and S. and I just happened to sit with the directrice of our program!

As we were a group of about forty, we had ordered our food beforehand through CUPA. Since there's usually only one vegetarian option on the list, my decisions were quite easy! The first course (for me) was a lovely and typically-French plate of crudités: carrottes rapées (grated carrot salad), beet salad, and celeri remoulade (celery root grated in a creamy mayonnaise-y sauce). Delicious and refreshing.

All I knew about my next course was that it was supposed to be some sort of "assiette de légumes" (vegetable plate) - that's what I had selected from the group menu. But what I got was this:

A tureen (there's never been a more appropriate occasion to use that word) of bibeleskaas (the Alsatian version of fromage blanc - literally "white cheese," is the yogurt-like substance lacking yogurt's bacteria cultures that French eat either savory or sweet), garnished with raw onions, AND an almost-empty plate with four little mounds of parsley, chopped onions, chives, and minced garlic.

WHAT!?

Everyone at my table stared at this strange offering and wondered what I should do with it. Was something else still coming? Was I supposed to add the toppings to the bibeleskaas, or mix them on the plate?

In my head, I was also wondering, Will I be able to digest that amount of un-cultured dairy product without extreme discomfort?

Madame la directrice stopped a passing waiter to ask for an explanation for my bizarre dishes. The waiter assured us that some sautéed potatoes were coming.

While I wasn't exactly keen on the thought of eating simple carbohydrates with a mound of dairy that would surely upset my intestines, I was willing to do it for the sake of the cultural experience...

And so we waited...and waited...and waited.

Finally, it became clear that the kitchen had forgotten about my sautéed potatoes; so I seized the opportunity to order an omelette. This beauty arrived:

A+ for presentation, no?

A lovely omelet aux herbes fines, garnished with purple basil and flanked by some sautéed carrot ribbons in butter.

I thus ended the evening as the very happy envy of every CUPA vegetarian.

~

Four of us spent the later part of the evening at L'Academie des Bières, where we sampled four varieties in 50cl glasses, and enjoyed the cozy pub atmosphere - what more could one want?

ONE MONTH MARK

I realized this weekend that a milestone had passed without my even noticing : having arrived on August 23rd, I have been in France for over a month now!

And it shows:

- I'm at the point now where all my thoughts are in Frenglish (a delightfully incorrect mix of French and English). I'm forgetting basic English words and speaking English using French grammar and sentence structure. Sometimes I get frustrated when I'm speaking English to someone and I can't use a French expression that just feels better in the given situation!

- Although I'm eating vegan and wheat-free in my apartment (and whatever I want whenever I eat out), the other night as I was walking home I just knew that after my vegetable sautée I would have a craving for something sweet. So like a typical French person, I stopped into the nearest épicerie and bought a two-pack of little chocolate mousses. French people LOVE their little pre-packaged plastic desserts: yogurts, pôts de crême, mousses, etc. In fact, they are almost incapable of eating a meal (especially lunch) without one. You should see the amount of refrigerator space in any given French supermarket that's devoted to little creamy desserts in little plastic containers!

- I spent this past weekend in Strasbourg (more on that later), and I felt completely disoriented in what looked like a small (by comparison) town with heavy German influence. Walking up to a castle in the mountains through dense forests - even more disorienting! Not being able to hop on the métro? Quel horreur! So much for my suburban-girl apprehensions about living in a big city - Paris feels like home!

After-school snack, Paris-style

Four hours of orientation class every day is enough to make any CUPA student hungry (even with lunch before and a snack during the break!). So S. and I decided to make a few stops at the end of the schoolday...

First was the Poilâne bakery, which was a comfortable walk from CUPA. We picked up two apple pastries - one that was round like a little tart, and one that was folded over empanada-style. We ooh-ed and aah-ed over the stunning breads in the window display, though: check out this sourdough with raisin design!

We took the pastries to go and hopped on the métro in search of what is reputed to be "the best cappucino in Paris" at Terres de Café. The store also sells beans and a lot of coffee-making gadgets and gear.

Two cappuccinos, s'il vous plaît!

They came in these chic glass orb-like cups that helped retain the heat surprisingly well!

Both S. and I appreciated the generous little sprinkle of cocoa powder on each...

Coffee and pastry - a match made in heaven, non?

I'm very lucky to have found a friend who enjoys taking pictures of food as much as I do!

Makes even the most boring conversation class worth it in the end!

Bon appétit à nous!

Score!

This is what we aim for - first orientation class paper!

Sunday Vignettes (9/18)

Sunday I met up with V., an American friend whom I hadn't seen since mid-high school. She now lives in London and was visiting Paris with her boyfriend, boyfriend's sister, and boyfriend's sister's friends. It was a lively international bunch - exactly the kind of group one would want to romp around Montmartre with.

We met at métro stop Pigalle, then trekked up the hill to the Sacré Cœur cathedral by an alternate route and somehow managed to avoid the scammers who prey on tourists (grab your wrist, start making a bracelet around it, then make you pay for it) AND the long line to get into the cathedral (we cut without realizing).

We were still allowed to tour the inside of the stunning neo-Byzantine cathedral, even though Mass was going on at the same time. It was kind of awkward to be a "looky-loo" while people who were genuinely there for service sat and prayed or took communion...but so be it.

As we descended the hill, we passed a Paraguayan harpist playing on the steps - the same harpist I saw there in 2009!

2009

2011

We then passed the famous Moulin Rouge and a variety of sex shops (Montmarte is home to Paris' red light district) ...

And then, since it was an unabashedly touristic day, we ate lunch at Le Café des Deux Moulins - the café from the movie "Amélie" ("Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain"). It was un peu cher, but we vegetarians (there were several of us) were able to get lovely salads sans jambon (without ham).

Finally, we took a stroll through the Cimetière de Montmartre. We spent a good amount of time looking for Oscar Wilde's grave before realizing that he is in fact buried in the even-more-famous Père Lachaise cemetery (20e arrondissement). Still, all was not lost, since we happened upon the grave of French Romantic composer Hector Berlioz, most noted for his Symphonie fantastique; as there were several musicians in our little group, this was almost just as exciting!

Saturday Vignettes (9/17)

The oldest continuously-operating restaurant in Paris, À La Petite Chaise (obviously out of our price range):

For a quick lunch on the go as I passed through the Latin Quarter, I decided to try out Maoz, a vegetarian falafel chain restaurant. At 4euros 90 it's a tad cheaper than L'As du Falafel and you have a salad bar à volonté (all-you-want buffet-style) that you can use to load up your falafel just the way you like it. The falafel balls are fried to order, too! A basic falafel doesn't automatically come with grilled eggplant like at L'As du Falafel, but the salad bar helps make up for it: you can get carrots, beets, harissa, coriander sauce, tomato and cucumber salad, and even American-style cole slaw!

Here's my personalized creation (lots of beets, carrots, and spicy sauce):

I did a big French faux pas and ate it greedily and messily in the metro on the way to the meeting place for CUPA's guided tour of L'Institut du Monde Arabe and La Grande Mosquée.

The IMA building is stunning. It honors the Arab-Muslim tradition of avoiding figurative decorations (depictions of people and animals) in favor of geometric patters. The walls look like monochromatic mosaics...

But once inside, we saw that the little metal panels were actually little mechanical diaphragms that contracted depending on the amount of light outside - beauty and energy efficiency!

This is the view from the roof L'Institut du Monde Arabe.

Paris is a fairy tale.

Oh hey there - c'est moi!

Our next stop on our guided tour was La Grande Mosquée de Paris (Great Mosque of Paris). Incidentally, it was built after WWI, before France had any significant Muslim population, as a thank-you gesture to the Muslim tirailleurs who fought on the French side against Germany.

The mosquée has a lovely little garden café where you can sit under fig trees and sip authentic North African mint tea from little glasses and choose from a variety of delicious 2euro pastries...

Then, after an unsuccessful attempt to return to West Country Girl for dinner (there were six of us, and we didn't have a reservation), we stumbled upon a friendly little Senegalese restaurant called Le Manguier ("the mango tree") in the 11e that had a vegetarian special, so we decided to dine there.

You simply can't go wrong with vegetable stew, rice, and sweet fried plantains...