Late Spring Holiday, 13 May

Strasbourg, Grand-Est

Today is our last full day in Strasbourg; we will have to move on tomorrow. I should have liked to have stayed another night, but the campsite is full for the long weekend, so we'll head on. I would then have liked to have gone to our next scheduled stop, and arrive in Oberstdorf on Friday rather than Saturday, but himself wants to do the Ulm parkrun, so we can't. We think we'll stop over in Freudenstadt, on our route, where we have stopped a couple of times before. Of course, the shopping complex there will be closed tomorrow, as it is Ascension Day, but they'll be open again on Friday morning, and I'm sure I'll have time to shop then. 

But to return to today. We had thought to take the bus to Etoile-Bourse and then change on to a D tram, but in the end we got off a couple of stops earlier and walked up along the river, to the Barrage Vauban, which was having Works done to it, so covered in scaffolding, and so into Petite France.

I hadn't known that, back in the day, it was the main port for Strasbourg, and the area where the more noisome trades were kept, and the poorest people lived. Nowadays, of course, it is seriously touristy! 

We were delighted to find the local Methodist Church, although it was locked so we couldn't go in; however we could, and did, go into St Thomas' church, which is also Protestant. The SW said it was too highly decorated to be Protestant, but I pointed out that it was restrained compared to some Anglo-Catholic churches we know! There was an exhibition of modern sculptures taking place, which were rather lovely. 

We walked on up to Homme de Fer, and then to Place Kléber and looked round the market there; then on to Les Halles, where there was a shopping centre but it wasn't very exciting. So we came away. I was beginning to have had enough by then, so
 we walked back down the road to a restaurant I'd seen yesterday and thought looked good. It was called Le Bouillon Pharamond, and is a homage to the traditional "bouillons", or workman's cafés, of Paris. 

It was very good. I had snails (and because I wanted a main course, I goody didn't sop up the delicious garlic butter with the bread provided) followed by steak and chips, which was not such a huge helping I couldn't eat it all - plus I was hungry after all that walking. I washed it down with Diabolo, that delicious mint cordial that I would never drink at home. The SW had egg mayonnaise followed by boeuf bourginon with coquillettes, washed down with apple juice. 

We then lazily took the tram one stop back to Homme de Fer, where we changed to an F, which took us to Comte Station, where there is a Lidl. I bought one or two things for tomorrow's food, and we walked back to the campsite down rather a lovely path which takes us past the old Jewish cemetery and through a public park. 

Whereupon I flopped on the bed and went to sleep for a bit, and the SW did a load of laundry. And in a bit, we will have croque-monsieurs for supper. At least, ham and cheese toasties because we probably can't be bothered to make béchamel sauce! 

Photospam, needless to say, on Facebook.