Spring is back. After 3 months of sleep, the beautiful city of Colmar finds visitors from everywhere. The birds of the Champ de Mars are singing, the storks are back and the half-timbered facades of the old city take on colors under the spring sun. Every year and for a fortnight around Easter, Colmar celebrates the return of the beautiful season with its Spring markets and its music festival.

Flowers, eggs and Easter hares …

It is with a pleasure still intact that we find the place of the Dominicans that we had left to sleep softly a few months ago, at the end of the Christmas markets. It’s the weekend, the sun is at the rendezvous, the crowd too …

The gardeners of the city of Colmar brightened up the place with colourful flowers, giant pots with olive trees, daffodils, crocuses and other primroses … Small characters of the season populate the landscape: straw chicks just out of the egg, geese, rabbits and hares.

With its long experience of urban animation on the occasion of its famous Christmas markets, the City of Colmar launched the markets of Easter and Spring in 2011. In a few years, the event has become the reference in Alsace and brand now the opening of the new tourist season and the return of visitors. But the Colmarians and the inhabitants of the neighboring villages do not shun their pleasure and are the first to join the crowd. I go back there regularly.

2 markets, exhibitions and music …

Here is a short summary of the highlights of these two weeks of entertainment. To this must be added shows and street concerts, especially on Saturdays and Sundays.

• 2 markets of Easter and Spring with 70 exhibitors give the opportunity to enjoy the first rays of sun in the enchanting city center. Dominican Square and Old Customs Square. Monday to Sunday, from 10:00 to 19:00
• 3 exhibition / sales are to be seen at the Koiffhus (Old Customs) with the most beautiful achievements of local craftsmen-creators.
• the “Music and Culture Festival” invites all audiences to 14 concerts of jazz and classical music where virtuosity and good mood will be on the program!

As soon as the thermometer becomes more indulgent and the sun comes out, the café terraces are stormed. It’s time to taste the Alsatian wine or treat yourself to a freshly brewed March beer (bière de printemps). The stork of Alsace is back from migration and is active in its nest. Stuffed storks, of all sizes and sometimes decked out with funny and varied headdresses, resume their maneuvers of seduction towards passers-by.

A pirouette at the end of the Dominican Square allows me to reach the picturesque Merchant Street which leads me to the Grand Rue and Koïfhus through the Bartholdi Museum and in front of the famous Pfister House.

Under the wonderful Koïfhus building, a passage leads to the site of the second spring market that stretches along the banks of the Lauch river. I still walk with such pleasure in these historic districts free of cars and accessible to pedestrians only. The colourful cottages and maisonettes of the Easter market offer their treats on the former Customs square and along the brook.

Useful links

Official website of Spring in Colmar with the program of animations.