2026-06-11 Colmar

 Thursday, June 11, 2026

One more visit to Colmar. Today is Pat and Chuck's last day here. Tomorrow they take the train from Strasburg to Paris around noon. Pat wanted to see Colmar's La Petite Venise. The day is sunny and the temperature is in the high 60s. Dave has the route down pat now and parked just half a block from the bridge over the river Lauch.

The bridge was our first stop. It's one of the most picturesque spots in Little Venice. However, there's something new there today. I noticed a new sign on the bridge and all the "locks of love" were gone. Hmmm....I've always suspected that some store was selling the little red locks because they all looked the same - except for the dates/initials written on them. But now, placing a lock on the bridge will cost a 300 Euro fine. "Vedy Interesting" as Arte Johnson would say on Laugh-In. 

There are tons of tourists in town today. Patience and taking turns is required.

the new sign

Pat and Lynn at the bridge. Notice - no locks of love

View from the other side of the bridge

We walked along the canal as far as the covered market. You can see from the pictures that Colmar was full of tourists all doing the same walking tour as us. A brief stop at "les toilettes" and we headed toward the Place de l'Ancienne Douane (Former Customs House) where we planned to have lunch at Schwendi where we first tasted "tarte flambée"

Dave, Pat, Lynn

Dave, Chuck, & Pat

On our way to the restaurant, we passed the Ancienne Duane (Former Customs House) A very good guitarist was busking under the arcades

Schwendi was just opening for lunch (12:00 noon) and we easily got a table with a view. French folks tend to eat a bit later than Americans, so the restaurant wasn't full either when we left. Although it was a bit cold and many chose to eat inside rather than outside. Chuck and Dave ordered one of the roestis options - shredded potatoes, kind of like hash browns, but not fried. Pat wanted sauerkraut, so she ordered knockwurst (think "hotdog") and Lynn ordered a meat pie.

Pat & Chuck show off all our meals

After lunch, we had a bit more energy to walk a few more Colmar streets. Colmar is clearly a destination for bus tours and the streets were crowded. 

This is called the Pfister house.

sculpture in the courtyard of the Bartholdi museum (you know, the guy who made the Statue of Liberty)

This Bugtatti caught Chuck's attention. It was made entirely of chocolate. (It was in the window of the chocolate museum)

Finally, we reached the Muenster (pronounced Minster, signifies an important church, but not the seat of the bishop) named for St. Martin. Of course it's majorly under construction like so many others we've seen. 

the stages of construction of St. Martin's church

This window of candy was, obviously, not in the church. At 1 Euro ($1.18) per piece, you could go broke buying chocolate!

Pat wanted to see the church in Logelheim, so we did a quick tour of town on the way back to the house. The church was locked, but Pat was able to walk around the outside. In the church graveyard, French graveyards, especially those in church yards, are family graves. One stone is etched with names as family members die and are buried. Small tokens of love are often placed on the vault.