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Sweet on AlsaceBeyond the ornamental kitsch, traditional holiday markets are fine places to eat, drink and get merry.
It’s 14 days before Christmas. I know the songs on the speakers by heart, the colourful decorations are vying to outsparkle each other and a human wave is carrying me forward. I’m on the tips of my toes, trying desperately to catch sight of a knick-knack that’s calling my name, but my view is blocked by the back of the person I’m squeezed behind. I could be in any shopping mall on a Saturday in December. But I’m in Strasbourg at a Christmas market in Place de la Cathédrale. The countdown is on, and, just like every year, we’re all hysterically trying to get into that strange state of mind we call the holiday spirit. Like a kid on Santa’s knee, I’d hoped that here, in Alsace, I would find a more authentic Christmas. This is, after all, the legendary birthplace of the Christmas tree. Just a few days ago, while I was weaving my way along the wine route, Alsace seemed tailor-made for the celebration of the Nativity. The more fine wine I drank in villages nuzzled up against hillsides, the more convincingly the brightly coloured homes could have passed for gingerbread houses. In the market stalls, I got a taste of Christmas past: meats and cheeses (including the famously fragrant Muenster), enough candy to give my inner child a sugar high and heavenly local specialties like the kouglofs – a.k.a. Alsatian sweet cakes. And then came an epiphany at a wine tasting in Riquewihr, where I was struck by the contrast between the rich taste of the gewürztraminer and the minerality of the riesling: In the same way that these two different wines come from the same soil, the Christmas spirit fits this bucolic landscape, as though the two have always been inseparable. But maybe it was just the alcohol (or Christmas hymns) going to my head. In Colmar, a town that giddily celebrates with no less than five theme markets, each displaying such elaborate ornaments and lights they could make a suburban dad weep with joy, I got a glimpse of the frenetic shopping experience that awaited in Strasbourg. Compared with the country charm of the small towns, these urban Christmas markets didn’t seem to have the same, well, spirit. A guide from Colmar’s tourist office assured me that at least his town has a mandate to promote regional products and avoid “stuff that’s made in Taiwan.” So you can imagine my reaction when he pointed out that the Christmas markets in Colmar and its neighbouring villages have been around for barely 20 years. Ironically, the oldest market is in the biggest city: Strasbourg’s predates the others by more than four centuries. “All these Alsatian Christmas traditions are actually Germanic in origin,” explained my guide. “Other French cities have tried to imitate us, but the spirit of Alsace’s markets just can’t be matched.” |
