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Colmar, France

Colmar is a city about the size of Rotorua, 70,000 and yet it feels more like a Whakatane sized town. I like the way it flows seamlessly from the old town city centre with houses dating back to the 1300’s to the residential section with houses around 100 or so years old like our B&amp;B. The majority of houses, shops and homes are carefully maintained and some old buildings even have writing on them giving dates of their various restorations. The residential areas have beautiful cottage gardens in the front which have big beautiful peonies in full bloom and fragrant roses spilling over the fences. Its so nice just walking around looking at them, Never-mind key attractions!

There are tidy green parks with statues and water fountains, and the one near town which we cut through has a big 1900’s carousel and crepe house, both popular with locals and tourists. The parks in general always seem to have people and families enjoying them.

We took the opportunity of the very warm weather to take a pile of clothes to a laundromat to freshen better than our hand washing does, and then post a pack home as we don’t think we will need the cooler weather clothes anymore. It was a challenge working out how it all works with French, but managed it in the end, after all its a washing machine system! Postage was not cheap (€19 for 2kg pre paid box) but still worth it for replacing the clothes and it will give us a little bit of room perhaps to buy something or just have a lighter load. As RS says, even a straw weighs heavy when you are doing a lot of carrying luggage, and I wholeheartedly agree.

By the time we made it into town our stomachs were signalling to be fed so we quickly found a little bakery and shared a delicious quiche and plum cake. I am not a big fan of pastry unless it is a very good one and the quiche pastry was excellent – buttery crisp yet tender and not greasy. The filling was perfect too and it only cost €3.50. The plum cake was very German and had a thin crisp pastry filled with apple and fresh plum and streusel pieces. Very nice but missing a big dollop of cream, it was only €2.70 for a big slice. The portions were so good, sharing them along with a coffee each was enough to keep us going until we went through the markets where I got a tiny snack of some amazing lean salami type meat and Munster cheese which comes from this region.

We strolled along the cobbled streets admiring the half timbered houses with their leans and colourful render. The big old exposed beams protruding at the first floor level looked as though holding up the houses for all those years was hard work, many with bows or borer holes. Vern wondered if some would last another few years and preferred not to walk directly underneath. I meanwhile felt the presence of witches past ……

For a change we decided to visit a museum and chose a toy museum recommended on trip advisor. Collections included mecano, barbie, bears, rocking horses, simple metal and wooden early toys like clanging monkeys, board games, etc, matchbox, soldiers, fire trucks and hats, trains, dolls, marionette, and a carousel. There was also an excellent separate collection of 250 barbie type dolls all custom made in dresses from early period costumes to modern designer by one woman, which Vern appreciated as much as I did. Off course the large working model train display was the highlight. The visit there was very nostalgic taking us back to a time of our childhood before the invasion of the Internet, cell phones and DVDs, when it was a treat to receive one simple toy as a present at Christmas or birthday that was treasured and looked after. Oh dear feeling old right now.

After the toy museum we took a corney “petite blanc” tourist train for a town and park loop complete with English audio guide. It actually was very good and a welcome rest for our hard working feet. This took us to dinner time and a real treat – Alsation duck pate, tarte flambe and choucroute.

As previously mentioned the Alsace region is renowned for great food both modern chef creations and regional specialties, the later of which I am doing my best to eat my way through. I will try and record the delights of our samplings.

The pate which we shared and you can see in the photo was simply NOM. We ordered one portion and got two plates so were worried something got lost in translation, however as we started to eat it we both agreed it was so exquisite that we would not have liked to share a portion. Instead we enjoyed every silky smooth, delicate, yet fine, flavour explosion in each mouthful. Oink. Truly I have never had anything of that mousse texture or fineness of flavour in my life – or dreams.

The condiments were a chutney with apples, raisins and pistachio and a jelly of a seasoned pork stock (and perhaps veal or chicken) which was so good I could have eaten a bowl of that as an appetiser by itself. The pate was lined with a thin tasty layer of lightly smoked and seasoned speck or pork fat. Crunchy thin toast completed the entree which I am delighted to say when we got our bill was only one serve split in two! (Wouldn’t have minded paying double for it though)

Tarte flambé is a special pizza which has a wafer thin flakey crust a cross between a thin pizza and filo, a cream or soft style cheese and onions pre cooked in butter and well smoked bacon on top. This one also had goat cheese and basil. Yum cholesterol burst.

Choucroute is a dish of Alsation sauerkraut with a selection of smoked pork meats and sausages on top, usually served with potatoes. It is different to typical German sauerkraut and so far for what I have tasted I would say superior. I did a bit of googling to see what the difference is and from a quick look its not in the pickling but the cooking. It is very well rinsed and has wine added either after rinsing or in cooking. They use duck fat to fry off some onions and maybe bacon or apple and then add the cabbage and either a medium good Alsace white wine or beer and bouquet garni which varies but the one I had included Juniper and cumin. On the cumin note they have a wild cumin here which tastes similar to caraway but not as strong which I think was used in the one we ate. Ours did not have bacon in it but on top was a slice of slightly smoked pork belly, ham off bone, frankfurter and smoked thicker sausage. The sauerkraut component is really nice as its not sharp, but sweeter fresh cabbage tasting, creamy from the fat and a little fragrant from the herbs as well as being still a little crunchy.

We were so full and try as we might we could not finish it all up. I guess if you look at the photos its not surprising…. The meal is going to be remembered as one of the best I have ever had.

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