Colmar

[catinasplashofsunshine]

Has anyone been? Is there a lot of German spoken or is it thoroughly French?

Colmar is in France, it is completely French and we speak French. People can learn German at school and some speak Alsacien (which is a German dialect) at home, especially the politically active. People old enough to have been at school during WWII all speak German fluently but generally choose not to.

I know it's in France :) we were in another part of Alsace recently (Saverne) and everyone in a public facing role automatically spoke German to us. Handy, in a way, as we speak German, but DD wants to practice her French I'm trying to figure out how far over the boarder from Germany I have to take her for the German tourism influence to fade out.

Maybe people thought you are German or speak better German than English. I am French but I speak German, nobody in Alsace has ever spoken German to me, but they have slipped into Elsässisch when they have been talking privately.

Maybe they did, my German DH and kids swap languages randomly though I make a point of only speaking English to the kids, but these days I sometimes fail to notice which language they spoke to me in... Maybe we were being more German than I was aware... I assumed it was because there's a significant income from the German tourist trade and that in "boarder" areas many people were bilingual.

I work in Colmar. You are right a significant proportion of the population is French/ German bilingual. Most schools have bilangue section where the school week is split across the 2 languages, in my local school it's 50/50 monolangue to bi.

My French is ok but not brilliant and I am told I have a strong English accent but at least once a week someone will hear I have an accent and switch to German. It's pretty frustrating as I don't speak German .

But I think you will have the same problem where ever you go in the Alsace.

Thanks Chilli - I think Colmar isn't going to be the right destination to take a child who speaks fluent German but wants to practice her school French! I think we're going to have to wait til we have enough time to go way down south another year to achieve that specific aim. We only have a few days available this year.

Colmar looks nice though, maybe we'll go one day

Thanks for the information!

May I hijack?
@Madamfrog
We are going to Colmar this summer for two nights on our way to Germany. Any insider advice welcome! Especially restaurant recommendations (not gastronomic).

@catinasplashofsunshine
In my experience everyone speaks French around Rheims. Is that too far?

There's the Wistub Brenner, la Table du Brocanteur, le Petit Bidon, all central and good and not haute gastronomie... there's a place which does nice things for tea which is open at lunchtime as well called Jadis et Gourmande, le Quai 21, and L'Epicurien which is a wine bar, and la Fleur de Sel which is tiny but has a good terrace by the canal. Bon appétit!

Thank you!