Thursday, October 15, 2015

Exploring Haguenau, France

One of the joys of living in Europe, which never ceases to delight me, is how easy it is to pop over the border to another country and find a surprisingly different variety of groceries and other basics.   Which is what prompted us to plan a little jaunt to France last weekend.  In just over an hour from home we can shop for all sorts of different food brands, French comics for my nephew other little goodies we can't find on the German side of the border.

Even better than the variety of groceries to be found in Europe--is the endless stream of lovely little towns which feel, to my American soul, more like storybooks come to life than reality.  I doubt I will ever tire of exploring the hundreds of little towns and villages, all teeming with character and charm.  Truly, for every one well known city or town, that tourists flock to, there are dozen more, just as quaint or beautiful waiting to be discovered by those who move off the beaten path.  So, after shopping at a larger chain grocery store on the outskirts of town, we naturally decided to drive into the downtown area to explore a bit.  We had, after all, never been to the little Alsatian city of Haguenau.

We parked in the public lot next to the old armory, which, feels more like a fairy tale castle than reality.  You almost expect The Beast to appear at any moment:



Heading into town, I still felt like I was in a real life version of the Disney film that came out my senior year in high school:  Belle in her blue dress, nose in a book, would really fit right in on the streets here:







The church was lovely on the outside and in--we were lucky to have decided to stop in it as we first passed; by the time we were heading by again on our way back towards the car people were arriving for a wedding.   


We stopped for a bit to eat in one of the many outdoor cafes:


and explored a bit more before buying some fresh bread, cheese and donuts and heading back home--having made note that this is a town worth a return visit (I wonder if they have a Christmas market?).







--Hadley







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