BIGGEST CHIRISTMAS MARKET IN FRANCE - VAN LIFE CHRISTMAS MARKET TOUR
good morning everyone welcome to strawber France now I will tell you we got up really early this morning and there's a good reason number one you guys know that we're not big fans of van lifing in big cities because of the traffic because of the difficulties finding parking because of the maneuverability of our big van and also because of honestly crime the bigger cities are definitely the more dangerous places we travel and for all those reasons we generally stay away but we are in Europe and there are so many historical beautiful big cities and places to see that we really just can't see our see a way to avoid hanging out in some of these cities snow did a good job getting on the different uh apps now you've heard probably a lot about I Overlander in Europe you use park for night a lot we use both we use the Google we use everything but she found a beautiful spot here in the university and today is Sunday which means nobody's in school on Sunday parking is free we will stay here tonight we have to leave early in the morning but it is early in the morning and we left early this morning because well it's the best time to avoid the traffic we only had about a 35 minute drive in we had to pick up Fuel and wow $150 to fill the tank and I will say ouch but it always helps when we can find free places to camp and that's what we have here that's what we had last night so we're doing pretty good on that note but the drive into straussburg was gorgeous the architecture the big buildings and our strategy paid off we got in before people are waking up so we avoided the traffic it really really really was not too bad and the good news is we are a short walk for the Christmas markets right here in straussburg which is supposed to be one of the biggest and best in France so we are excited we went to one last night to the north here and had an amazing time so we are really looking forward to this and oh I might sneak off and just check out the city a little today so it's going to be a fun episode let's go guys we see you in a [Applause] [Music] bit now of course we have the Christmas Villages we're going to visit but I thought since we got here nice and early and it's such a beautiful day uh we actually had some sun earlier I was able to pop the Drone up which was really cool and gave me a breathtaking view of the city so anyway I decided I got to get out and do an urban hike and explore this thing I'm going to take you guys along but I did notice there's some really cool churches and also some cool architecture and I don't know what else we're going to find but we're just going to go explore and I'll show you any anything interesting I find along the way now I have to remind you guys I'm not a historian I'm not as probably studied or rehearsed as some vloggers but doesn't matter cuz we're going to see some cool stuff either way look at these statues one of the things I'll point out is our camp spot's in a perfect location we're right over by the University of strawberg and as you can see there's a lot of churches here and this one's just right across the way from us and as big and Majestic as it is it's not even the biggest church in town all right look at this little train guys and they've got glass windows around I'm not sure if it's heated but probably from all the people in there it's probably all warm and steamy but it looks like some have some headsets on it so maybe a little a little uh tour there and I'm sure you guys are aware that the train system is awesome here in Europe and vast and you can see the little train coming through this big square area and it's stopping right in front of us and I'm not sure what this big building is right here but it is pretty cool a big huge Courtyard and you can see all the gorgeous leaves just falling wow all right there is a lot of actual Christmas markets set up here and if you can see these little hous shaped buildings they look like Monopoly houses these are all around the town and so I think we'll probably end up coming up through here and maybe snaking through later on this evening and seeing a good bit of them looks like a fun day here's the big giant Christmas tree so we definitely have to see that and there's a series of rivers that run through strawberg and a lot of them are real low but you'll see little low profile tour boats going through there giving tours of all the scenes and well it's just pretty all right it is noon on Sunday and the market is bustling and it is already lit up and look at some of these plates of foods wow big sandwiches and hot dogs and noodles and we we are definitely in a much crowded more crowded market today I have big sausage hanging out of that bread [Music] wow and I don't even know if I can get close enough to some of these booths to show you guys wow excuse me looks like sausages and Sauer cruts macaroni potatoes lots of different hot dogs and of course wa and breads with cheeses BR worst oh I think we're going to have some BR worst tonight or some Curry worse look at this food looks delicious [Music] guys and they have all sorts of hot spice drink drinks as we saw at the last one looks to be many different types I think pom is Apple and you can see orange frosa maybe strawberries it's spiced differently hot kettles hot juice it's everywhere look at this place hot chocolate 25 CLS wish they had smell a vision but these are nougats and they have stuffed with different stuff almonds nuts fruits chocolates and all sorts of different other kinds of Pate day fruits covered apples apples of Love is what they call them little sticks of chocolate covered fruits bananas pineapples cherries strawberries and then a they have all the different sweet candy nuts and sugar covered nuts wow and I can tell you the smells are just off the charts with all the spice juices the candy nuts and then of course they have all these different boosts now when we were at the last one they did a good job of having only like one of each kind of Booth but here there is so much stuff and so much variety I mean you can build your whole manger scene they have little trees and shrubs and little animals and caricatures you got geese and chickens and cows and donkeys and baby Jesus and Shepherds and deer and horses and elephants and everything wow and up here they even have the manger scenes so you can get the manger scene and build your own manger wow look at that and look at all the different gingerbreads and of course we've told you we're in the alace region and so you see that prominent on a lot of the things spice breads fruit Breads and what would a Christmas Market be without dancing Santa and they've got them all dancing playing music they even have a drunk reindeer a break dancing Santa look at that which Santa is for you [Music] guys all the different Christmas [Music] lights snow [Music] gloves [Music] and we didn't have to go very far through these cool buildings to find a market over there to our left and yet another Market in front of us so everywhere where there's like a little open space they've set up these booths and markets and uh it's just so fascinating definitely the place to be I'm a little stunned that we were able to get the parking that we were able to get what a super cool City and I can tell you even if the Christmas markets weren't here I still would be in love with strawberg but the Christmas Villages are definitely definitely hitting in this area and these streets are bustling now I don't know if it is always like this but these look like walking streets and shopping streets and we even have some American restaurants here in McDonald's Five Guys fries Levis the big beautiful flowers hanging from the sides of the buildings I can't wait to see this place lit up tonight so Kurt is off for his walk and before he left we noticed this line of people it kind of started as just a group but then it started to form into a lime over the past maybe hour and a half started to form here we were kind of trying to figure out what it was and now this van has just pulled up and this group of people within a matter of minutes have set up these tables and it looks like some sort of a Food Kitchen as everybody else continues to set everything up for the [Music] food and she's setting out uh clothes she's got bags of scarves and jackets and hats I think these people are here to eat and I think these volunteers all showed up in the van and I think they're fixing the feed all these people on a Sunday at lunchtime here in front of this University I think it's a mobile soup kitchen and that's both [Music] incredible and sad that it's needed there are all kinds of different people waiting in this line and to be honest with you none of them looked [Music] homeless they just look like people but they've been waiting in line for an hour and a half to two hours for Food [Music] So Hunger plagues the world even in beautiful cities in [Music] France I just turned the corner and saw this and literally I was like oh wow it just kind of took my breath and maybe the scale of it is not so apparent but as you're walking through these narrow streets with all this fascinating architecture all of a sudden you see this thing just jut up and there is so much ornate detail intricate detail on this church it is incredible look at that statues spires I don't even know all the stuff that is on this church but it is stunning and then right at the base and all around we have all these Christmas markets and all the bustling hustle of the people the only thing missing is a little snow wow I can tell you the intricate detail on this notredam is like on this Cathedral is like none I have ever seen there's a line for people to go in and as I said at the base of it you have this big Christmas Village just absolutely takes my breath away look at [Music] this Silent Night holy night all is C all is bright round [Music] Onin mother and child holy inant so tender in my sleep in sleep in Heavenly [Music] peace Silent Night Holy Night shepher Quake at the sight glor stream from Heaven AAR Heavenly Host singing [Music] hallelu Christ the savior is [Music] born Christ the is all right guys I just spent about an hour walking through this Village and you can see notams right there at the end of the road as I walk here and cross the river right here this is the University that we're parked right in front of throughout the day it looks like a crowd has definitely grown and uh snow and I were discussing what we thought it was I thought maybe it was where they were feeding the homeless or something like that some sort of food drive we saw people out here waiting earlier and now they approached the van it looks like that may be what it is all right guys if you remember we're in a big city and the big city we're taking a few extra steps of precaution we've got the slip slick locks on the sliding door and the back door of course we've got locked up with the security tent and the good news is there's other couple Camper vans here so we're headed to the market let's go all right today I was working on conserving my energy so Kurt did a walk this afternoon by himself and he said I'm absolutely going to flip out when we get to this Christmas Village so that means I'm absolutely going to flip out I know it I not wasting any dreams this Christmas I've made my wish upon that star the only dream of which my list consistes to always be wherever you [Music] are we have arrived at the food station and oh my this does not look like your normal street meat that you'd find in at a festival I mean look at this I wish you could smell it when someone going to invent smell a vision guys I think we're going to grab some food oh look at those giant sausages down there okay all right we think you just step up in order can I get the mushrooms with the spel crumble and I want one of those too thank you no there is no you excited so good oh guys you can just smell it too it's just like bubbling up the mushrooms up over there yes I as happy as a child on Christmas I've made my wish and it came get an extra plate CT or a bowl all I want for Christmas is [Music] you all right so what are these little potato noodle things called spitzel spatel spatel spel spel spatel it looks like they got some bacon and grease on top these mushrooms look they've been cooking for a a while some sort of meat it's pork I think I don't know if it's a pork knuckle or a pork shank but it's been stewed all day and it's still got like the fat and it's cooked down it looks so yummy yummy yummy Yumm y so how much was this this was $18 all right so it's a good thing we split and then we'll have a snack and one of these yummy drinks a little bit later all right at each of these little villages we said we were going to try the food some different kinds of food in each of the places and honestly we just walked into this one tonight and the foods oh the mushrooms were bubbling the smells from this place and this pork is fall off the bone and spettel spatel is something we've had before but yeah not real authentic like this in our last video when we were heading to this region of France I told you that it is known for its food kind of a Fusion of German and French food because of the history here of going back and forth this looks freaking yummy all right snow has found the apple cider what do you think best apple cider in the world maybe not but the best apple cider I've ever had it is very sweet very cinnamony it's still steaming hot comes in this great little plastic mug that will be our souvenir for the tonight I don't know why Kurt didn't get his own I don't think I've told you the story yet guys but absolutely one of the most difficult things for snow to let go of when we sold our house and sold everything and moved into a tiny van with some of her dearest Christmas decorations and it may sound silly but every year at Christmas she was always going out and looking for the special things the special colors and she always treasured Christmas and if you're wondering why she's so super excited this is why and as we've come through the countryside here in France on the drive here she was definitely spotting some of the Christmas trees growing out on the side of the road in the Farms so look at that [Music] little yeah hang with that hang on our wall behind the couch all right if you look up here they have little teeny tiny trees snow spotted and that would mean she could get some decorations which I think is kind of the point so it probably is a really really really good thing that our van is teeny tiny cuz I could have just decorated like 30 Christmas trees through there and I was eyeballing that little tiny Christmas tree but quite honestly we we don't even have anywhere to put that so don't worry I'll hang some lights and put up a few things but uh just walking through these markets I'm getting my Christmas fix so we walked down Row one and uh we're at one it's supposed to be the largest Christmas markets in all of France so we got to go find another Street that'll be full of even more stops so what a cool way to lead up to the holidays guys I hope you guys are getting to decorate your trees or however you celebrate your holidays I know people celebrate them many different ways around the world for us it's Christmas but I hope you're getting ready for whatever your holiday is they literally have chestnuts roasting on a fire so we walked down this great little alley the lights hanging all over little pedestrian only narrow alley popped out in another square at the other end where the giant Christmas tree is Christmas trees everywhere people everywhere lights everywhere it is a Sunday evening so I think it's Big Time family time down here everyone's having fun shopping drinking this yummy stuff I hope we can convey the Fest of spirit how it kind of comes through we'll see we'll do our best [Music] h [Music] we just found a place where they melt the cheese on a big block till it gets a little brown and crispy and then they scrape it onto the sausage dog would gain 100 lb in one week I never want to leave this place guys that was incredible I was joking with Kurt but then I realized I really wasn't joking at at home in the United States they'd be squeezing the cheese out of a bottle or something squeeze the cheese not something like that that looked delicious but we've already eaten at this place hopefully they have the melted cheese at the next Market we take you guys to we found the pretzel Booth salty ones sweet ones cheesy ones chocolate ones oh [Music] my [Music] this place is magical isn't it this church is insane and if we would have been able to come here in the daytime when there weren't as many people there's something really cool about it I'll insert a picture we'll still look for it as we leave but it's dark so I don't remember the year 1400s 1500s whenever it was the County commissioners of this area hired an artist to come in and make all the Gargoyles for this church and there are a lot of them up there well towards the end they refus to pay him so one of these gargoyles is literally mooning his pants are pulled down and facing towards where the county commissioner building was at the time and it's still here so I would have loved to have been able to find it we're not going to be able to in the dark but I had to share that funny story with you guys after all that walking around the city we decided to get some Belgian fries and a little Burger to split cut in half but we're worn out and we're winding down if you like this video be sure to subscribe to our Channel and hit that notification Bell so you guys know when we put out new videos and don't forget you can always follow us over on Instagram to see what's going on in between videos cheers guys
2023-12-22 14:43
