From the Gare de l'Est in Paris, we boarded a train east to Alsace — and the Christmas extravaganza waiting in Colmar was worth every kilometer.
One Last Day in Paris
Before leaving Paris for Colmar, we had one more extraordinary day in the city. It started with a tour of the Louvre with our guide Avi from WALKS Tours — a genuinely excellent way to navigate a museum that can otherwise feel overwhelming. The day ended with a walk around the Eiffel Tower and a dinner cruise on the Seine. One small disappointment: the water level was too high to pass under several of the bridges, so we missed part of the scheduled route. But the city at night from the river is hard to complain about.
"Colmar in December transforms into something genuinely magical — the old town fills with market stalls and the smell of Vin Chaud drifts through the streets."
East to Alsace
Thursday morning found us at the Gare de l'Est, boarding a train east toward the Alsace-Lorraine region. The journey takes about two hours and deposits you in a part of France that feels unlike anywhere else in the country — a place where the architecture, the food, and even the language carry the influence of centuries of shifting borders between France and Germany. Colmar is the jewel of the region, and in December it transforms into something genuinely magical.
Colmar at Christmas
Colmar is famous for its Christmas markets, its half-timbered medieval buildings, and its connection to the illustrator Hansi, whose whimsical images of Alsatian village life became iconic in the early 20th century. In December, the old town fills with market stalls, the smell of Vin Chaud drifts through the streets, and the whole place looks like it was designed specifically to be a Christmas card. It was. We were not disappointed.
