What if this was the start of the end-of-year celebrations? As always or almost at the same time since 1570, the Strasbourg Christmas market opened its chalets this Friday. For scenes seen again and again but which are difficult to get tired of: streets full of people, selfies everywhere, never too many wows and of course these scents of mulled wine, sauerkraut, etc.
To avoid large crowds, no countdown was planned this year for the lighting of the Christmas tree. But there were still hundreds of them waiting, telephone in hand, for the first “musical and luminous awakening of the big tree”. It was at 4 p.m. and it repeated every hour five times. To the sound, of course, of My Christmas Tree and other classics of the period.
Enough to delight the many tourists, like this couple of Canadians who came specially for the event. With three young children. “We took the grandparents with us,” smiles David. “When my partner typed “Christmas market” on the Internet, Strasbourg and Vienna came up most often. We’re going to Austria afterwards but we’re staying here for five nights. We’re really happy with what we’re seeing so far. The difference is volume. We only have one market per city, there are everywhere! »
“Enjoy this enchanted parenthesis”
Spread throughout the city center, in around ten places. Not to mention the decorated streets, the facades of the shops and restaurants arranged in detail… “It’s quite extraordinary. I like it a lot,” says Juliette, who arrived from Paris to join an Alsatian friend. “So yes, we find stands that we can see elsewhere. But the atmosphere is different. »
The town hall is keen to do so, as city councilor Jeanne Barseghian reminded us. “We need it with this difficult news. I hope that together, we will enjoy this enchanted interlude that is this Advent period in our city,” she said before the concert by the children of the Ukrainian school choir. One of the many activities of the day, such as the lighting of the “cathedral tree”. A work 10 meters high and composed of 77 small luminous Strasbourg cathedrals.
This Friday, it was party time in the Alsatian capital, still under high security. Five years after the attack, extensive resources have been deployed. It’s difficult not to move around without coming across CRS, gendarmes, soldiers, etc. And at each entrance to the Big Island which forms the city center, sheds with paths that must be taken by pedestrians and cyclists. “It’s going to be like this for a month,” grumbles a Strasbourg resident kindly. Yes, exactly one month: the Strasbourg Christmas market will close on December 24 at 6 p.m.