Alsace help?

Show all answers

fredericus

Well, there is lot to say about Alsace.
Alsace is located north east of France, about 45mn flight from Paris and 2h30 by train.
Three main cities (from north to south) : Strasbourg, Colmar, Mulhouse.
Strasbourg is a very important city, home to the European Parliament (as well as Brussels and Luxemburg). It is culturally very rich, the cathedral, little France and different historical buildings make this city one of the most famous in France. If you happen to be in this city at the beginning of December, there is a nice Christmas market (one of the biggest and oldest in France….not of Europe !!!!!)
Colmar is a rather wealthy city. Really nice to hang out, check the Little Venice neighbourhood, you’ll love it.
Mulhouse is an industrial city up to the date. Home to one of the Peugeot plants (auto maker), it dragged a lot of immigrants from the Maghreb countries in the 60's(Algeria, Tunisia, Morroco) to work there. There are a lot of interesting museum to see there, Railroad museum, Electricity museum, Textile museum, etc….
For any further details you may need, check these web sites :
http://www.region-alsace.eu/index.php?lg=en
http://www.investir-strasbourg.com/index.php/en/
http://www.ot-colmar.fr/index.php?lang=en
http://www.mulhouse.fr/en/index.php

Beside this, so far a lot of things have been said, and there are a lot of generalization…….sorry Ingrid, even though from France, you dont know Alsace at all !!!!
The climate in Alsace is continental, hot in the summer and cold in the winter. In November you might have negative temps going on. Usually at this period of the year, sky is grey, days could be sunny or rainy and coldish (down to 35F !)
I tend to think that people in Alsace are mainly nice but some people are quite cold and wont make an effort to talk to you. But this, happens all over the world, ain’t it ?
Alsace has many culinary specialties, but the one you should try are :
La Choucroute (sauerkraut)
Tarte Flambée (Flamekueche), I would call it the Alsacian pizza, the dough is the same, sour cream instead of tomatoe sauce and put some bacon and onions on it.. ;make it cheesy and order it gratinée ! If you go to Strasbourg, go to a place called ‘Les Brasseurs », they have happy hour from 5 :30pm to 7 :30pm daily, it is a microbrew and food is not expensive at all.
Carpe Frite, fried carp, you’ll find this especially in the south of Alsace, in the Sundgau (border with Switzerland).
Bakehoffe, sort of mix of meat and potatoes, it is really good.
Alsace is also well known for its white wines. Try any of them, you’ll find what you want as they range from sweet to bitter. Also give a try to the only red wine to be served chilled Pinot Noir…my favorite !

Alsace, as a wealthy region, was struggled over between Germans and French. As a result, the atmosphere is a good mix of German and French. Look around, you feel like in Germany because of the architecture, but listen to the people and look at them....you are in France....THIS IS ALSACE!!!
Today, many Alsacians speak a dialect called Alsacian. It is not a language as there is no grammatical rules to it. It sounds like German, but it is not, it really is different even though people from the border, on the German side, understand Alsacian.
Nowadays, we can almost say that the border between Germany and France (in Alsace) does not exist anymore. You know you are in Germany when you see the Rhine River, you dont stop at the border anymore !!!! Cool. A lot of Germans come to shop in Alsace and vice versa.

If you need more help, get in touch with me, I am from Alsace, I live in Strasbourg and i am originally from Mulhouse.
Hope you have fun while visiting Alsace.

suisse shoggi

the Alsace region is very beautiful, and you should have a nice time in Colmar. Have fun.

http://www.french-at-a-touch.com/french_...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/alsace...

http://www.virtourist.com/europe/alsace/...

http://www.france-pub.com/region/alsace....

http://www.galenfrysinger.com/colmar.htm...

http://goeurope.about.com/od/france/ss/c

Em Elsass esch´s Wetter scheen. M´r hán mánchmál Hitzwell em Summer, Schwinnekált em Winter, romantische Herbschde wuu de kalter Wind d´Blettere Weht. Am liebschde esch ma awer s´Frijáhr wenn de Naduur Blijt un de Schwalwe zerick kumme.
De scheenhät vum Lánd ká ma nit vergliche. S´Elsass isch die Heimat un sini Spráach a Lied fer´s Herz vun sine Inwáhnere

French Ingrid

Fresh on summer and with snow on winter (now we dont know, the seasons are bizarre).

People is very nice there, hostly.

The speciality (gastronomy) is La choucroute !

They was german, french, german, french, german....... french ! lol so they speak officialy french but have a dialect : l'Alsacien

Alsace accent is similar to german accent and they have german names.

The biggest xmas market of Europe is in Strasbourg (strassburg in german) and its wonderful (i hope i'll visit it one day), since only 2007, its possible to take a fast train (TGV) from Paris to Strasbourg for maybe 2 3 hours, i don't remember.

A lot of ppl dont hate german, other like.... cause during the 1st world war, germans took Alsacien in german army and the other ppl in french army, excuse my french.

They are protestant (the more french are catholic) and have little mountain called Voges.

The traditional costume is very funny (for me) ahah

I hope I could help you with this but i'm from paris suburbs not from Alsace lol

regis

Alsace is north-east of France where people were on 3 differents occasions spoiled to become, french and then german, and then french again, that`s why they enjoy talking in their own dialect to show difference. Lovely area because of large vineyards, very wet and green all cold months of the year, and sunny in the summer, one of many french region with lots of food traditions. Main place, Strasbourg is a true beautiful city with old neigbourhood on an island down-town where you`ll enjoy a SauerKraut and sausages all year long.
A cold country that makes warm people, rascism is famous thus

Enter Your Message or Comment

User Name:
User Email:
Post a comment: