Colmar – The Fairytale French City

Come explore beautiful Colmar with us! It’s a French city with a medieval Fairytale Medieval village within it! Check out the peaceful gondola cruise in “Little Venice” on the canal system, the stunning architecture throughout the city, and some delicious food from France’s Alsace region.
Please SUSBSCRIBE for more travel vlogs of Europe and all our adventures in Britain! Cheers! XX Dara and Ian

Mittenwald Germany video – https://youtu.be/foNOOqUQF_4
1st Time Driving in Europe – https://youtu.be/Y_yDdwA-v4w
Mountain Biking in Austria – https://youtu.be/BhFC-SVS2Jg
Trying Alpine Chocolate – https://youtu.be/0YDNgtZa5b0

We have just disembarked from the magenta train and uh Ian and I are wearing our matching royal blue t-shirts today it’s not raining which I’m very happy about uh let’s go see if we can find out where our hotel is and see what Kar looks like this is a pretty cool

Building that we’re walking by on our walk from the train station to our hotel and here is another interesting thing we’re encountering on our walk to the hotel don’t know what this Tower is have to find out tomorrow we just arrived in beautiful colar and got settled in our

Hotel apartment and now we are headed to dinner in the Little Venice area one of the most famous places in colmart so can’t wait to see what it looks like here are the first of hundreds of half Timber buildings I will be videoing all of the painting accenting the half

Timber is just lovely so this is is the issue with colmart is we’re trying to walk to dinner but I keep getting distracted because everywhere I look it is phenomenally picturesque interesting quaint whatever you want to say I just have to get Beyond this building I really do want to eat

Dinner but it’s just so interesting so many good restaurants because this area is known for all the alaan wine and produce and delicious food can’t wait to try it yes this street holds more beautiful half timbered buildings and wonderful shutters but what else it has is just

Amazing smells it smells so great here bisy that sounds like a place with cookies banery Patisserie forgive my terrible French pronunciation creery doesn’t look like it’s open but but this is probably the place that the great smells are coming from maybe we’ll have to try that tomorrow I love this little corner here

Just so many little nooks and angles and Dormers and windows I just saw the sign the hotel is from 1562 this is a really pretty hotel it is called the romantic hotel from where we’re sitting here on the sidewalk cafe I can see the canal The Market Hall across the street and those

Beautiful half timbered buildings in the Setting Sun of the golden hour here is the beautiful little restaurant where we’re going to have dinner version original 68 however you say that in French and not only do they have English translation in their menu but they also have have a picture book

So we can see what everything looks like which is very handy so we are ordering this it is a tarte flambe which we can’t tell exactly what it is but it seems like a crap with stuff on top that’s broiled bacon onion ham goat cheese nuts honey and figs that sounds very

Interesting so we’re going to try that and a nice healthy salad with tomatoes and lettuce and cucumber and fresh goat cheese and sunflower seeds this looks fabulous some baguette and then the tart Plum B this the one we got looks even better than the one in the picture book it does come

On you know when I see a place like this I’ve got to take a selfie you’re a lucky duck get getting to live in a view like this these are some really interesting flavors Nutella melon oh look at this they have they have Smurf flavor in yeah I wonder

What that is I don’t know it’s that blue one back there I’ve not seen rochet before that looks really good that salted caramel got Oreo but then look over here there’s Hazelnut and then Violet I might have to try that this is Ian’s gelato he has I think blueberry flavor

And then uh Ferrera ret on the bottom and I have Violet flavored well we’re in France so I think a little food review recap of the evening is in order the restaurant was fabulous it was just what we wanted fresh food lots of fruits and veggies and the pizza likee thing that

Tarte flambe was fantastic just a super thin crust and the flavors of all the ingredients were perfect together we had pizza when we were in Italy and we wanted it to be something great like that and it just wasn’t that was wonderful now for the gelato review Ian

Thought it was a little crazy getting the Violet flavor but I actually really loved it it was super creamy and just very faint hint of floral uh Violet flavor I thought it was really good he didn’t love it but he did love his flavors yep I got PR ré it’s really good

And also I think black current unfortunately I can’t understand any french so the animated Disney movie Beauty and the Beast from 1991 shows the main character Belle in her hometown a quaint little French Village which was inspired by several real life locations in France I’m not promising you that Kar

Was one of them but there are definitely some similarities check out these stills from the movie and then see a recap of some of my favorite views from around the streets of kar whether or not Kar had a Disney movie made about it it is definitely a magical fairy tale Village

Nonetheless I think this ramshackle collection of Timber framed buildings epitomizes Kar in addition to the half Timber I’m really loving the shutters here in colart so many cool old shutters I love the detailed painting on the shutters of this building I’m not sure how old it is but I think it might

Be from the 1600s check out these shutters on this bonger probably not very usable but beautiful and appropriate nonetheless okay Dara would have an absolute fit if she were here right now seeing this and I found some lovely Dusty Rose shutters in another part of the city as

Well the wavy walls of age isn’t this building wonderful how each floor juts out further than the one below it reminds me a little bit of the shambles in York the sun always shines on TV well according to the AHA song but here in the real world of magenta otter travels

Vlogs sometimes it rains and un fortunately this is our only full day in colart so we’re going to have to walk around in the rain time to check out the market and search of breakfast we’ll start with the outdoor stalls I’ve never seen these before I’ve never seen such red pineapple this

Market is beautiful we just walked inside and it’s very clean and we’re here early so it’s not a mad house these pasta does look beautiful we want to try something here for lunch that looks really good these look like beautiful local yogurts the cheeses are tempting as well but this Bakery looks

Like the place for breakfast all the pastries and the breads look amazing but the decision has been made this is the only type of ES gargo I’ll be eating on this trip to France even though I’m not on Instagram anymore I still have to get the Instagram photo of

The beautiful French pastry against the picturesque French background this little bird saw me holding up the pastry and was like uh hello you given that thing away I’m here I’m here throw me a crumb man this area is so interesting because it’s been part of Germany and

Part of France kind of back and forth over the centuries and there’s still a lot of German spoken around here as well as obviously French being the main language now and of course in a touristy place like colar a lot of people have to get by with a little bit of English as

Well which is very helpful to us how appropriate is it that the road to get back to our hotel is called the American Street speaking of America there is a very important link between colar and the United States one of the most iconic images of the US is the Statue of

Liberty and the sculptor who created Lady Liberty is Frederick AUST bartoldi a native of kar he was born in 1834 and moved to Paris with his family when he was 9 years old he studied art and architecture and as he matured became fascinated with the idea of creating a

Colossal statue that would be his legacy after his first trip to the US in 1871 he worked on realizing his goal of creating a Monumental sculpture that would represent a gift of friendship between the countries of America and France it was called Liberty enlightening the world the Statue of

Liberty as we call it now was officially presented in 1886 boldi died in Paris in 1904 but maintained his childhood home in colar throughout his life and in 1922 this house in which he was born became the beraldi museum as you walk through Kar you see these brass directional arrows in the pavement

Reminding you of boldi and his work we didn’t visit the boldi museum but I did visit another Museum in colar the chocolate Museum this museum is a multimedia experience that shows you about how Cacao is grown and harvested and processed it also explains the origin of chocolate consumption and how

Cocoa beans were used historically just in case you’re getting the wrong idea of seeing a r it next to these little cocoa beans what this really is is showing how the Aztecs used cocoa beans as a form of currency when Cortez first met monuma he was given hot chocolate to drink but of

Course it was nothing like the hot cocoa we drink today cocoa butter was also used anciently to help heal wounds and also as Sun cream in the Middle Ages Coco came to Europe and eventually became a very fashionable part of Society enjoyed by the aristocracy the leap from drinking chocolate to

Chocolate bars happened thanks to a French pharmacist named man in 1836 who created the first chocolate bar and then the fries Chocolate Company in England that 10 years later created the first commercial chocolate bar because I worked at two different Swiss chocolate companies earlier in my life and I’ve

Also visited the chocolate Museum in Cadbury World in England I knew a lot of the information shared in the chocolate Museum but it was still really fun to visit I enjoyed seeing the chocolate Statue of Liberty and these old chocolate molds as well as some vintage magenta hot cocoa serving sets the gift

Shop had some cute items including a nod to a very British phrase but of course the best part of the visit were the chocolate samples that were given along the tour and the Very indulgent hot chocolate that I was served at the end it was made by submerging a block of

Decadent chocolate into frothy hot milk oh man that looks delicious that was phenomenal that was so good after being reminded that legumes are not beans they are vegetables we decided to get this Greta legum for lunch and they’re warming it up for us now so rather than sitting at the rest restaurant like

Civilized people Ian suggested that we eat our lunch here in the rain he’s huddled under this tree he’s found a place he says is dry I love vegetables and melted cheese is my love language so I’m pretty excited about this okay break into it and let’s see what it looks like

I think it has cheese and egg and then shredded like carrots and corett and stuff that looks delicious yes this is really tasty but the eating circumstances are a bit ridiculous there are various ways to tour colar in addition to walking or biking one option is these cute trains but we were anxious

To get on the water and explore the city from the beautiful Canal system it gives an interesting New Perspective to the places we had been walking around the day before it was really rainy earlier today so it’s great to see the blue sky eyes and some sun here’s more water cans hanging off

Of things a very popular site in colar I’m filming people filming [Applause] [Applause] me this is the old Executioner’s house these flat bottom boats were originally used to transport fruits and vegetables to the market from the fields where they were harvested we’re going back through the Ducks again uh-oh see just really seems like that Duck’s going to get hit but then they managed to dodge

It there’s the most Instagram row of half Timber houses I think all right time to duck again selfie mode going under the [Applause] tunnel it’s a hotel from 1562 known for its flowers decorating the hotel during the summer and Christmas decorations in the Winter I don’t think we’re going to make it under that one I think here’s where we turn around and there is the steps up to the market where they used to deliver the produce that they brought on the boats this part of kar is called Little Venice

And let’s talk about this whole Little Venice moniker because if you go to Borton on the water in the cotswalds in England they call that the Venice of the cwal and it’s kind of like every place that has water or canals gets called Venice I think that’s kind of stretching

It it’s nice that they have canals and bridges but not every place needs to be called little Venice I do think that Little Venice is an appropriate name here in colar because the canal system really was an important part of the city and they have these wonderful boat tours

I really wanted to do that today that was one of the biggest priorities that I had for our visit to colar a great way to see the town from a different perspective being on the water and it was so fun tonight it’s only a 25-minute tour but you just very peacefully Glide

Along the water and get to see the gorgeous views of kar from the canal so I highly recommend it I thought it was fantastic let me know if you have done Canal tours anywhere and what you thought of it and if you recommend it oh if only my friends Rachel and especially

Wills from postcard and a pint were here with me I just found the perfect shop for Wills I couldn’t resist the Christmas shop myself myself you see we buy a Christmas ornament every year to signify something from the year so I decided it was time to get a colmart

Christmas ornament to remember our trip to Europe this year oh this looks very alssi oh these big wheels of cheese are just amazing looking up in the upper shelves ooh there’s TR cheese that looks delicious oh my that’s pesto cheese that chop keeper was so nice she let me try the lavender cheese

It was actually lavender Thyme and rosemary it was so delicious it didn’t taste very heavy with the lavender it was just a nice Rosemary cheesy flavor with the others uh herbs complimenting it so I’m going to see if I can get Ian to come back there and buy some cheese

With me later I learned a funny lesson when I was a university girl living in the Netherlands for the summer I went with my girlfriend to a market and we tried to buy a wedge of cheese and I said I just want a little bit and we

Ended up with a giant wedge of cheese that we ate for days and just couldn’t finish cuz it was so huge so here I am a million years later and I just went into that cute little cheese shop sh with the giant wedge giant cheese wheels and said

I wanted to buy a little bit of cheese you can’t do that people you got to say like 200 g or something I ended up with this massive wedge of cheese thankfully I’m going to visit friends tomorrow and it’s vacuum sealed and will last a month cuz

Look at this thing it’s like bigger than my head okay I have settled the debate americ Americans pronounce it nougat Brits pronounce it nouar and we’re both wrong the French pronounce it noua no T at the end no r at the end just noua I asked the woman who was in there making

All the noua and that is what she said so there every street in colar is beautiful I don’t know what it is with these pixelated Minecraft people on the street signs but I want to go check out Ru St Johan because it looks just so picturesque oh yeah beautiful very old half Timber

Buildings and at the end that looks like a church with one of those gorgeous green tile roofs the design on it like we started seeing in Austria so who thinks that that roof looks like it was built with Legos it’s noon so the cathedral bells are really ringing what

Strikes me about Cathedrals here on the European continent versus in Britain is I go in them and they just seem so dark has anyone else had that experience on film it doesn’t look as dark as it does in person this side Chapel has beautiful murals from 1910 on the ceiling and then

Also this on the wall that’s very beautifully done when you sit here in this large Park colart does feel like a city but when you wander around the old town it’s like a little village a little medieval village inserted in the city I’m really glad that I came to see this

Part of colar because it really has a big modern city feel to it as opposed to if I just stayed in the little Oldtown Village part I would have never known how diverse Kar really was for our last meal we are eating at I don’t know how

To pronounce this l no idea anyway is a tiny little restaurant that is supposed to be the best in Colmar really tasty alaan food and I can’t wait to try it all right here is our giant flam cook tarte flamb with bacon and cream and cheese and onions and chives looks

Delicious this is our dessert the tarte flambe that is Apple druel and look it’s got these way for thin apples going all the way out to the edge and then the druel topping with sugar powdered sugar looks so delicious come visit Kar it is a stunningly beautiful place that I highly recommend

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