Let's go to France for lunch today

The best thing about having the Semester Ticket (and having a well-connected train system) is that we can go to a lot of different towns without paying anything extra. And when we do decide to go somewhere, it's pretty much spur of the moment. :) Friday night someone sends out a Facebook message, and we decide where we want to go...(because pretty much all the "party machen" happens during the week. Weekends are usually for catching up on sleep and traveling).

So we decided on going to the town in France that we could get to with our ticket. It was a cold, but good, day. We had some awesome food, saw lots of little bakeries (ate in one too), and generally had a good time. It takes 2 hours to get there by train, but the town is picturesque...and of course, the church is awesome. Sometimes we joke that we don't tour cities, we tour the Catholic churches...because the other denominations are usually closed--they aren't open during Winter.


One of the many bakeries

Wissembourg has a lot of small canals, and this one had a restaurant at the far end of it. During the summer it would definitely be nice to eat there...but it's overly expensive, so I never will!

City Hall--couldn't go inside (some construction going on I believe), but definitely a beautiful building!

We're not in Germany anymore...French roadsigns

And of course, Escargot. I didn't eat any because the thought of having to dig them out of the shell just didn't seem to appetizing. :) But my dinner, a baked cheese dish with bread, was very good, and extremely filling!

Here is St. Peter & Paul Cathedral--right across the square from the Rathaus.

Better view of City Hall--French Flag and all

More canals

Closer view of the church

Inside was quite beautiful. It had low lighting though, and "no flash" signs, so I did the best I could. :)

The stained glass windows were quite beautiful. And since it was so dark inside, it didn't matter that it wasn't that sunny outside. I still could see them perfectly.

There were a lot of paintings on the walls. Old, of course, so they were somewhat faded, but very detailed and interesting.

This had a monastery attached to it, and this is the "reflection" area, as well as where the tombs of the abbots are. The stones on the right hand side are the gravestones.

This is the small chapel used for Vespers I believe. It is set partially underground, and is close to the main church.

Here you can see a water mill in use, and that wall was part of the old city wall.

Cold, but happy!

The shops had fun decorations and signs...pig, anyone?

And our last stop was at a bakery/cafe, where I had some very delicious dark hot chocolate.

Then we hopped on the train, and were soon back in Mannheim.