Strasbourg Christmas markets and snow capped alps

I really wanted to head back to the snow to try my hand at skiing once again this Christmas, but also wanted to see some Christmas markets. After doing quite a bit of research on good Christmas markets and ski regions in Western Europe, we settled on going to Strasbourg for two days before continuing south to the Three Valleys to ski. Life felt particularly busy in December with a lot of social events so I really didn’t do any research on Strasbourg until we were halfway there on the train. We decided to keep the trip fairly low-key but I did find a nice walking tour around Petite France with Happy Tours Strasbourg. This tour started outside of the cathedral and covered the history of this specific area of Strasbourg. Known for its beautiful half-timber houses, Petite France was originally a very undesirable area - the tanners district. It seems like many of the beautiful, historic areas in Europe have a less romantic past, similar to The Shambles that I visited in York. The tour guide provided a lot of information about the local history and was very helpful, despite it being his last day as a guide.

After the tour, we went back to one of the ‘alternative’ Christmas markets, which predominantly sold local goods and second-hand clothes. It was pouring with rain so we sheltered in the food tent and had lunch. I decided to have a local speciality - Tarte Flambee (or flammekueche in German). We also walked over Barrage Vauban, a famous bridge originally used to defend the old, walled city, with a rooftop path/terrace. Our afternoon was spent perusing Christmas market after Christmas market - there really are so many in Strasbourg! We also visited the Alsatian Museum, which is housed in a beautiful old half timber building and a great way to find out about the history of the local culture.

In the evening we visited Le Purgatoire, a restaurant in Quartier Bourse, which has an amazing menu of French-style tapas. I really recommend it if you’re ever in the area. We had so many delicious dishes, including snails, salmon and great wine.

Our second day was spent wandering around more Christmas markets before visiting the famous Notre Dame Cathedral of Strasbourg in the city centre. This magnificent old cathedral is home to an unusual clock, the Strasbourg Astronomical Clock, designed by Jean-Baptiste Schwiluge. This is the third clock in its place and shows the mean solar time and Central European Time. It also had quite a nice nativity display for Christmas.

We spent the remainder of the day exploring more Christmas markets and ensuring we checked all three of the Strasbourg Christmas trees off our list! The Christmas markets in Strasbourg are grouped into three categories - ‘A Magical Christmas’, ‘Christmas Playtime’ and ‘An Alternative Christmas’. I found the markets to be very well organised but potentially to the extent that it did feel a bit commercial. Not all of the markets sold food (although they all had Vin Chaud/mulled wine) so it didn’t quite have the same vibe as some of the markets I have been to in Germany and Austria. All in all, I would say Strasbourg is definitely a nice place to visit in the lead up to Christmas but two days is plenty of time unless you plan to take a day trip to somewhere like Colmar.

The next destination was Brides-le-Bains, a small town in the French Alps and part of the famous Three Valleys. it took us about ten hours on trains to reach Brides-Les-Bains from Strasbourg, about 1.5 hours longer than expected due to a train cancellation. We chose to stay in Brides-le-Bains over other villages in the Three Valleys for its relative affordability. While Brides-le-Bains is only 600m above sea level and definitely not ski-in, ski-out, there is a gondola in the centre of the village that goes to Meribel and takes just under 30 minutes. It sounds like a long time, but it went quickly and certainly saved us a lot of money on accommodation.

We stayed in Hôtel Mercure Brides Les Bains Grand Hotel des Thermes, which was quite similar to other Mercure hotels that I’ve stayed in. I found the Mercure to be comfortable and the staff were very friendly but if I went back, I would look into self-contained apartments to save the hassle of eating out every night. Brides-le-Bains is only a small town so there is a limited selection of restaurants, most of which are mid-priced (around €18-€25 for the average meal).

We had a Christmas Eve dinner in our hotel shortly after arriving. The dinner involved five delicious courses, including a delicious foie gras entree. This was the only traditional Christmas thing we did while we were in the Three Valleys as we spent Christmas day skiing at Meribel.

Ski passes and hire are conveniently located next to the gondola in Brides-le-Bains. As we aren’t amazing skiers (and hadn’t skied for a few years), we purchased the Meribel beginners ski pass for the first two days, which was slightly cheaper than the full pass and gave us access to a good range of green and blue runs. This is a good place to start if you’re still warming up as skiing to other mountains from Meribel is definitely more enjoyable when you feel somewhat confident that you can successfully complete a blue run. Meribel also has another village called Meribel Mottaret, which was a nice place to ski into and stop for food and drinks. We really enjoyed skiing down Rhodos and Foret on the Courchevel side of Meribel and Perdix and Truite on the Val Thorens side of the mountain.

We took on a new challenge on our third day and purchased the Three Valleys ski pass, which gives access to all of the resorts within the Three Valleys. We headed to Courchevel by going up the Saulire Express 1 and 2. We were still feeling a bit scared of blue runs at the stage so we took the Saulire lift down one stop on the Courchevel side, which connected us to a green run. Courchevel is such a pretty resort, although be warned that it is also very expensive! I hadn’t done any research before going to Courchevel but after skiing past a Moncler store next to a ski run, I quickly understood the vibe. Despite the unusual concentration of very wealthy skiers in this resort, I loved skiing there - the snow was so soft, there were plenty of easy runs for us to try and beautiful views of pine trees and ski chalets.

On our fourth day, we decided to visit Val Thorens. We took the same lift that we would take to ski through Meribel-Mottaret (Tougnete 1) and skied into the village before getting another lift (Plattieres) up to the top of the mountain. There aren’t any green runs at the top heading into Val Thorens so we built up some courage and skied on blue runs the whole way into the village. It wasn’t without difficulty (Asher did fall over a couple of times, one of which involved me skiing over his detached ski and crashing myself) but it was worth the challenge. Unlike Meribel and Courchevel, Val Thorens doesn’t have any trees - just snow as far as the eye can see! The snow was super soft and the sun was bright, the perfect combination for a great day of skiing. We managed to complete a few runs at Val Thorens before making the journey back up on the Pionneers and Three Vallees lifts and skiing on blue runs most of the way back into Meribel.

We spent our fifth and final day back at Courchavel to enjoy the last of the lovely soft snow and tried out a couple of new runs. I absolutely loved skiing on this trip and am desperate to go again! All five days of skiing were so much fun and while we are not amazing skiers by any measure, we found plenty of really fun green and blue runs to try in the Three Valleys and certainly didn’t try them all.

We also tried some delicious Savoyard food while we were in the alps, including a three-cheese fondue and tartiflette. Neither dish is particularly healthy but they’re both such a nice treat after a day of skiing. The restaurants in Brides-Les-Bains mostly serve the same type of cuisine and everywhere we went to had great food. Until next time!