Bonjour! I am currently playing a little catch up with my blog. Since my last post I've been a little busy with bringing a new human into the world and learning to care for said human. But now that we have made it through the first three months, I'm starting to force myself to make time for the things I used to enjoy before my life revolved around this new little guy. Not that he isn't the most awesome thing on Earth right now, but setting aside time for my own self care has been quite refreshing. I have to shoutout to my wonderful husband who takes care of our little man while I get out of the house for runs and grocery store trips--who would have thought a solo trip to the grocery store would ever feel like such an adventure! We have our very first family trip planned for the end of this month, so wish us luck and stay tuned to see how we manage!

So let's turn back the clock a bit. This past October we took a magical weekend trip to Colmar, France. I had been wanting to visit this town ever since we moved to Germany because I read a blog post about it being one of the most "romantic small towns in Europe". Knowing we wouldn't have a lot of romantic trips in our near future once baby arrived, this seemed like the perfect last getaway before we became a family of three. I have come to really enjoy visiting small towns in Europe, oftentimes more than the major cities. I love taking my time to wander through the streets, completely engrossed in my surroundings without feeling the need to rush around and fight crowds in order to check a million "must-see" things off the day's itinerary. And you don't really move that fast at 8 months pregnant, so this trip really fit the bill.

This was the lovely view from our apartment. But it gets even better than this! We were about a five minute walk from the center of the old town, and the scenery just continued to impress as we made our way further into town.

Oh I forgot to mention that actually we did have a baby with us on this trip. Our fur baby, Allie, enjoyed walking the streets of Colmar too!

These cobblestone streets lined with colorful half-timbered houses are seriously straight out of a Disney movie. I was half expecting a lady dressed up as Belle to pop around the corner at any moment singing, "There must be more than this provincial life!"

Being so near the border of Germany, the town of Colmar has changed hands between the two countries a couple of times until finally being returned to France after World War II. Consequently, there is a significant German presence here, and all the locals seem to be fluent in both languages. I'm not sure where else you can get delicious mustard and pretzels, as well as crepes and croissants, all in the same place. Colmar really is a superb conglomeration of food culture. Oh and did I mention the wine? The Alsace region is known for producing some fabulous white wines. Of course I wasn't able to sample wine on this trip, but I did take back a bottle for my mom. I walked into the most adorable little wine shop and asked for a regional white wine that tasted similar to chardonnay. The lady who helped me handed me a bottle of Pinot Blanc, which I had never heard of, but I decided to trust her recommendation and purchased it anyway. Mom ended up loving it, so I guess I'll have to go back and buy more!

So that's the short and sweet summary of our trip to beautiful Colmar! We window shopped, took lots of pictures, and enjoyed filling our bellies with lots of delicious food. I'm looking forward to getting back into travel at the end of the month, and I'm sure it will be quite a new adventure with our little one in tow this time!