Strasbourg, France Wine Festival

Took the Wife to Strasbourg, France for Valentine’s Day. Normaly this town isn't much of a day trip, but once a year (second weekend of Feb) they hold France's largest wine festival with over 500 vineyards. The town sits right on the border with Germany so it didn’t take very long to get there at all. We rode a tour bus, but It’s an easy drive.

The event took place at the Parc des Expositions and was it crowded. Reminded me of any event in Tokyo. Who knew Europeans loved wine so much (joke).

They hand you a tasting glass when you show up and you get to wonder both to both trying all the wine and cognac you can drink.

All the vendors are from smaller vineyards from around France. We tried a lot of wines, but our favorites always seemed to be from the same region: Alsace, France. I don’t know if it’s the soil or maybe the water out there, but they are doing something right!

After going down a few rows, we needed a break from drinking wine and I noticed that The Notre Dame was located in this city. Its not the famous one, that one is in Paris. It turns out, “Notre Dame” means Church of our Lady and there are several throughout France.

Even though its’ not the famous one, it was still very beautiful and it was HUGE! Construction started in 1015 and wasn’t completed until 1439! That’s over 400 years it took to build this massive structure.

The front alter was beautiful with its’ stained glass window and murals surrounding it. Above is most notable, “The Crowning of Mary.”

The entry was massive and let in the perfect amount of light. The large circular stained glass above the door way is called, “The Rose Window.”

Off to the right wing of the cathedral sat this enormous cuckoo style clock known as , “The Astronomical Clock”. It also has the name of, “Three Kings Clock”, because at noon three kings present themselves before the baby Jesus.

Matter of fact, the entire right wing was covered in stained glass windows.

These are known as portals. These individual stone columns were masterfully crafted and every single one was something different. After lunch we went back to the wine festival and bought a few cases of the ones we liked the best.