Our New Life in Colmar

It is Monday afternoon in Colmar, and once again, Rust and I are piled on to the couch in our gite, working. It’s a gorgeous day outside, nearly 70 degrees and sunny. We were out and about earlier, on our daily two mile stroll. Today we meandered a bit on the way to the Monoprix, the supermarket we have deemed as “ours”, despite there being a small grocery just across the street from us. The Monoprix is larger and has everything we could ask for, and more. It’s also a department store, so if we need a new bra or pair of jeans, art supplies, or a hair dryer, that’s the place. They also have a nice butcher on site, a plethora of cheeses (this is France, after all), and a bakery. We picked up some salad, some cheese for grilled cheese later today, and some hamburger for tomorrow’s dinner. We could have gotten bread at their bakery, but instead we opted to choose a boulangerie just up the street. It was just too lovely not to try.

Slowly but surely we are finding our way around this beautiful town, figuring out which stores we love, which restaurants look the most promising. We are currently over budget, but that’s mostly my fault…I can’t pass up anything that looks delicious. Being a food blogger is both a blessing and a curse – it’s really hard to say no to pretzel bread or pastry. The budget will just have to recover somehow. Luckily, we aren’t too far off the mark, and, we have a kitchen full of incredible ingredients to get us through the next few days.

Speaking of the kitchen, I realized we’ve not shown you around the place. As we have done for the past few months, we booked ourselves into an AirBnB here in Colmar. We did the same in Marrakech, Budapest, and Poppi, and we’ve got at least two more stays booked for later this year. While all have been a great price and comfortable, I am going to have to rank our home here in Colmar as my potential favorite.

We are located in the very heart of town, a short stroll to Little Venice (where everyone takes the photos), an even shorter walk to the Covered Market, and less than half a mile to anywhere we want to visit. Our apartment is tucked off the Grand Rue, between the bells of the Catholic Cathedral and the Protestant Church, high on the third floor of an historic walk-up. Yes, we walk up three large flights every single day, at least once!

Once we arrive at our door, we are greeted by a lovely open concept living room that leads into the dining area and kitchen. Our host, Sophie, is an artist, and has decorated the apartment with charming colors and artworks, soothing grey tones with pops of red throughout. Down the hall is our small but very functional bathroom (with washer/dryer!) and our queen bedroom. I wish I could say we slept well here, but as of now, we are still both really jetlagged for some reason – worse than Thailand. It seems we can’t sleep until about 4am, and stay sleeping until 1 in the afternoon. Hopefully, that will lessen as our month goes on…we are trying to get on a better schedule!

Later today I guess I will be giving these newly bought cheeses a try by making grilled cheese sandwiches to go along with the pot of duck soup I made on Saturday. No going out tonight – remember, I ruined our budget, lol! I do wish all of you could see what life is like here in Colmar, but hopefully, you can get an idea of what it’s like just by reading and seeing the pictures. It’s such a wonderful thing to experience – new countries, new ways of living, new languages, new people and customs. Travel is so important to Rusty and I, and I am lucky to have a partner who understands it. He’s a keeper! (and he still hasn’t killed me for the accident of buying all that nougat, which yes, is still mostly here. For now, lol!)

Have a great week everyone!