Colmar

La Petite Venise neighborhood

After leaving Germany, we headed for the Alsace region of France where the city of Colmar would be our home for two nights.  Alsace is a unique blend of German and French influences as this part of the world kept changing hands between being part of France and being part of Germany as the result of wars and occupations through the centuries.  Now firmly a part of France, the German architectural style of half timbered houses is so prevalent in some small towns, you'd think you were in Germany except for seeing all of the signs in French.

Unterlinden Museum

Colmar is a lovely city and it's old town area of cobblestone streets and pedestrian only lanes evoke a typical European feel.  Between outdoor cafes, patisseries, and small shops, you can easily lose track of time wondering through the town.  Colmar has an Easter market spread across two different squares and it was in full swing this week.  It was smaller than the Easter Markets we experienced in Prague, but just as festive.  One difference here was several areas of live animals -- goats, rabbits, sheep, etc.

Bartholdi statue decorated for Easter

One of the must-dos while in Colmar is to visit the Unterlinden Museum which houses the Issenheim Altarpiece, which I covered in a previous post.  A smaller interesting museum is the Musee Bartholdi.  The sculptor Auguste Bartholdi was born in Colmar and his boyhood home has been converted into a museum celebrating his work, including models and castings.  Bartholdi's most famous work is the Statue of Liberty.  While there is significant space and focus on Lady Liberty, we also got to experience his complete body of work.  He donated several pieces to the City of Colmar which we saw during our stroll around town.  Some of these works were featured in fountains.  Bartholdi also has other sculptures in the United States including one of Washington and Lafayette in New York and one of Christopher Columbus in Providence, Rhode Island.

We also ate our way through town experiencing the wonder that is french bread and pastries.  Croissants, eclairs, mille-fueille, and tartelletes were just a few of the great things we ate along our strolls.  La Petite Venise --  Little Venice -- is another fun area of town with houses along a few canals and small boats traveling the canals a la Venice.

Obligatory Statue of Liberty Picture

As with Trier, we've discovered we would like to spend more time here.  That's one of the challenges of a week's vacation in this area -- too much you want to see and do.  We do know it's a place we want to return.