Pretty pictures in Strasbourg

As promised, here are some of the pictures that I didn't have too much to say about, but I think are worth sharing all the same!

Here are some of the cathedral

Petit France in the misty morning

A nice black and white picture..

A beautifully written menu advertising a set menu speciality of the Alsace region

A bright blue building amongst the German architecture!

Petit France in black and white

A really cute French looking fairground ride!

Some more German architecture in Petit France

A museum in the Centre Ville

And the gateway to Petit France, seen from the boat tour on the river.

Strasbourg!

Around the middle of last week, I decided that we needed to make the most of the 3 day weekend ahead, so I proposed a trip to Strasbourg, in the North of France on the German border. I have heard a lot about it, and it is meant to be a very beautiful town, with a lot of German influence, in fact the town centre is the only entire town centre to be listed as a word heritage site, and I can see why as it is really nice, ringed by a river that flows around it.

Because it was cheaper, we took a slightly unconventional method of getting to Strasbourg. We used the Covoiturage service, its where you look online and can find someone who has registered that they are going to and from the same places as you, and then you just pay them to take you! It was a great experience, we ended up finding a retired man from Strasbourg who used to be a pilot, going back home via Grenoble from a glider convention in the south. He was very interesting, and took us on a route right up France, through Switzerland, and then Germany before finally making it to Strasbourg. 

This is him pointing out the various sights!

We first drove through the beautiful countryside of Switzerland..

And then came the exciting part.. Germany! I have never been before, and didn't think that I'd get a chance to go, so I was doubly excited to learn that not only would we be driving through Germany.. But we would be going on the fastest roads in the world, with no speed limit!!

 (The sign means no limit, see how fast we were going I couldn't even get a clear picture!)

And our driver certainly made the most of the limitless road! He got up to 170-180km/h at one point, I've never driven so fast in my life!!

When we got to Strasbourg, we found a hostel then set out to look around the town. It was so busy, and everything was going on at once! I saw a hot roasted chestnuts cart, and just had to try some real european roasted chestnuts.. they were delicious!

We were also just in time to see the sun setting over the river, it was such a nice warm night and the whole town was incredibly scenic in the evening light!

The next day we had all the main sights listed on our agenda, and although it was a slightly chilly and misty morning, we set out for 'Petit France', a pretty area of traditional houses and buildings set against the riverside, and it was amazing! The German influence was most obvious in this area of Strasbourg.

Next we went to the town centre, where there is one of the biggest cathedrals I have ever seen! The architecture was amazing, I wish I could've fit the whole thing into one photo! I couldn't choose which one I liked best, so here are the top 5! The third one down was when we were there a bit earlier in the day, you can tell how misty it is because you can hardly see the top of the cathedral! 

In the town centre there are many tourist shops, so I decided to pose with a delicious looking gingerbread heart.. too bad it was too overpriced to justify for morning tea!

One of the tourist must-do's in Strasbourg is to go around the inner city centre on the 'Batorama' boat that provides a commentary and tour of the historic and notable sites. This is the covered one, but we got the uncovered one so we could see everything better!

The commentary was provided in 14 languages, so we each had a headset to listen to the language of our choice as we rode along!
One of the exciting parts was that the river is really a canal, so once the boat got to certain parts, it had to stop, and the flood gates closed and then opened so we could float up to the next level of the river, it was all very interesting! This is what this boat is doing in the picture.

The next day, we had two things on our agenda -  The Orangerie park that supposedly housed the city's emblem, the stork, and the historic wine cellars in the basement of the city hospital. 

I was so excited to see the storks and their nests, and I was not disappointed!

There was also a mini zoo, complete with exotic birds, tortoises, monkeys, and.. flamingos! Another first for me!

Then we went to the wine cellars. After a bit of searching, we found it, and it was really nice, doubling as a shop to sell the wine of the Alsace region, alongside their own, 'Caves historique Strasbourg', which is made in barrels right on site.

I had an amazing time in Strasbourg, it is one of the most beautiful places that I have ever been to, and to convince everyone else of that fact, tomorrow I will add a few photos of nice things I saw while I was there :)

Ice skating!

This week we had a day off on Wednesday, so a group of us decided to go to the ice rink! It's huge, I think that the general skill level here is a bit better than in New Zealand.. I'll put it down to the European lakes freezing over giving them all lots of practice!

This weekend I'm going to Strasbourg, a French town with a heavy German influence in the North East of France right on the German border. I'm so excited as it's most likely my once chance to see some of Germany while I'm here!

There will be many photos to come, but the weather for the weekend is looking great! Not quite winter yet :)

The caves of Charanche and Pont en Royanes

This weekend I wanted to do many exciting international things, but after an incredibly busy week I ran out of time to plan anything, but luckily France is just as exciting, and a lot less effort to travel around!
Here in Grenoble we are in a flat basin surrounded by mountains, and on the other side of those mountains is a lovely little town called Pont en Royanes, which was recommended to us by a Professor from Otago on sabbatical leave here, who we met up with the other day. It's definitely worth seeing!

It is a town that is well known for its houses that are stuck into the cliff right on the edge of the river, with balconies that look like they're going to fall off at any time!

Although it was a charming town, it was very small, so once you had seen the main attractions and walked along the river, there wasn't much else to see, so we decided to go to some nearby caves that we had heard about. I had really wanted to go and see these before they closed at the end of October, and I'm so glad that I did!

There were many passages, all lit up beautifully, and they were very accommodating for those of us who couldn't quite understand the guided tour, with sheets of paper in English describing what we were walking through.
There were the most amazing formations hanging from the roof, apparently they were like hollow straws, and were formed from a crack in the ceiling. When a drop of water falls through, it leaves a minute ring of calcite behind, and as each drop of water falls through it leaves another ring, until stacks and stacks of these rings create an amazing formation hanging down from the roof! They grow by 5cm every century, and the longest of these are 3m long!

These were everywhere, it's amazing to think how much time these caves have been here.

Another showcase was perhaps the ugliest cave dwelling creature I've ever seen. Maybe not, but it is very weird, and the largest cave dwelling animal in the world! They have no eyes, are translucent, and incredibly rare.

It was just a day trip, but we saw so much and were still home in time for dinner! Its great to make the most of any time I have free, there's just so much to see!

Annecy!

Annecy is only 2 hours away by train, and so we decided to go there for the day, it was only 20 Euro for the train there and back!

It was the most beautiful town that I have been in in France so far, and it was very well geared for tourists, with a town guide with four separate self guided tours, we took the old town tour! It was amazing, especially as it was a 25 deg day, so it was lovely to wander around in the sunshine.

One of the highlights of the town was the little old building in the middle of the canal, it was once a jail, a courthouse, a mint, and now houses some little cafes.

The canals running through the town next to all of the old buildings was a beautiful sight, and the water was incredibly clear for an inner city waterway!

The water runs into a massive lake, with crystal clear water. There is a water slide going into it, and paddle boats too! The water was very cold though, surrounded by mountains!

There was also a castle up a small steep street, that is now a museum. In typical French style, it was closed for 3 hours over lunchtime.

I bought a roll of goats cheese from a market, and a baguette (which I'm holding) from a nearby boulangerie, it made a delicious lunch!

 We walked a little way around the lake, and sat in the sun for an hour or so with an ice cream. It was such a nice day, and so nice to be able to take a day trip around to these beautiful towns!

Via Ferrata - The unexpected climb!

On a hot Thursday, I was invited to go rock climbing around the Bastille area, and as I had seen that there was a sort of adventure climbing activity right at the top, I was happy to go along! It turned out that I had been thinking of the wrong thing entirely..
This was Via Ferrata (look it up on Wikipedia), where we were climbing an almost sheer face, with a group of French friends who apparently do it all the time. You just turn up with your own gear, and do what you want, there is a course of metal rings and small metal things to stand on that go up and along the rock face. One of the guys had 5 harnesses, so we all put one on and slowly made our way up the rock face.

I'm the one with the white top!

It wasn't only rock climbing, but there were also ropes to walk along high above the bush below too!

Don't ask how the photo got taken!

It was actually terrifying at the beginning! I definitely didn't know what I was getting myself in for, but I really enjoyed it, and it was a challenge that I wouldn't have gone after myself but it was amazing! Especially getting  told what I should be doing in French!

Even though it was one of the absolute best things I have done since I've been here, you definitely can't miss the look of happy relief on my face once I had crossed that final bridge at the end!