I will never complain about having to go to France, especially when I get to visit somewhere new.
It’s that time of year again when I get together with my team members for a whole week of work and fun.
This time, our in-person meetup happened in Strasbourg, France. I’ve been to France a few times before, but never to this part of the country.
Strasbourg is the capital city of the Grand Est region, formerly Alsace, in northeastern France. It’s also the official seat of the European Parliament and sits near both the German and Swiss borders.
The trip started off a bit strange. I left Toronto around 6 PM (local time) and got to Paris at about 6 AM (local time), which means I didn’t sleep at all during the flight. Well, I never really sleep, but I do take naps here and there. This time, it was just too early to even nap, and when I arrived in France, there was obviously no chance to sleep.
I had bought my train ticket to Strasbourg with a 5-hour buffer, just in case of delays. I had planned to leave my luggage in the storage at the train station and go for a walk in Paris, since it had been a while since my last visit there. However, I was so tired that all I could do was find a coffee shop inside the train station, have a cup of coffee (because that’s the first thing you should do anywhere), and sit there until my train left.
I also got to enjoy some live music. I absolutely love listening to people playing randomly at train stations.
The train ride was smooth and fast (not the case for everybody in the team, unfortunately). We stayed in a really quirky and cute hotel called Hôtel Beaucour.
The hotel was super comfortable, well-located, close to everything, with amazing staff. The breakfast wasn’t bad, either. We could walk everywhere, plus they have a really nice conference room that accommodated our team of 14 quite comfortably.
That said, all I could do when I got to the hotel was take a shower and sleep until the next morning.
The good thing about all this is that it took me exactly one day to get rid of the jetlag. The morning after, having slept for 14 hours—which never happens unless I’m sick—I was ready for anything in the UTC+ timezone.
The week went by super fast, as it usually does in these meetups. We had an amazing and productive time during the day and lots of fun after the work day was over.
The city is super cute and cozy, and despite of some rain, we were able to enjoy everything.
For our activity day we visited the cathedral and climbed the 336 steps to get to the top (worth it). Visiting the cathedral is free but you pay 8 Euros to go to the top.
It is a masterpiece of Gothic art. The construction of the Romanesque cathedral, of which only the crypt and the footprint remain, began in 1015. The spire of the current building, in a Gothic style, was completed in 1439.
The cathedral also hosts a nightly light show that illuminates its Gothic architecture with a blend of music, color, and projection. The show typically begins around 10:30 PM.
Food-wise, France in general is not the best place for people with a Gluten intolerance, but also not the worst. Only a few restaurants actually mentioned allergens in their menu. There were a couple of GF bakeries (very good ones) and all restaurants we went were happy to accommodate and make changes to their dishes, which is always welcome.
The two highlights for me were Mama Bubbele which is a resto specialized in tarte flambee, a specialty of the region. It is basically bread or pizza dough, rolled out very thin, instead of tomato sauce, you get crème fraîche, and toppings. Usually, cheese, bacon, mushrooms, etc.
Mama Bubbele had GF options, so I welcomed the carbs as I do on rare occasions. It’s good. I had mine with both comté cheese and muster cheese, also a specialty of the region, onions and bacon.
I also tried escargot for the first time
It tastes better than it looks.
And L’Eden Libre de Gluten, a really nice bakery 100% GF. They have some pretty good looking things. I had a quiche Loraine.
Other than that we went to a karaoke place called Groove box and we liked it so much we went two days in a roll. I must admit, it was the best karaoke group ever. I had no idea everyone in my team was so good. Ok, we have a few people who sing semi-professionally and that helps. But boy, they are good. We had the best time. It was amazing seeing some good friends again, meeting some of them in person for the first time and connecting. I was a great time.
Like Damianne said in her newsletter today (you should follow her newsletter), “We’re all doing serious stuff and have serious lives. But I focused on joy this season of my podcast, and I’m constantly finding new ways to open myself up to it.”