Strasbourg on new year day
 

Hi, Planning a trip to Strasbourg on new year day with my family. Any recommendation on where to go and eat? Anything that i need to be aware of?

Strasbourg (and all of Alsace-Moselle) is totally dead on Sundays and holidays due to continued application of German law. Tourists will be fed, however.

Strasbourg (and all of Alsace-Moselle) is totally dead on Sundays and holidays due to continued application of German law.>

well kerouac lots of French French towns seem to be doornail dead on Sundays as well due to French law that mandates most stores cannot open - Orleans which I have habituated for months on end is a prime example - or is Orleans also under German law.

Please - seriously please explain the difference in Germanic laws in Strasbourg and those in places like Orelans - both roll up the sidewalks on Sundays?

Merci

Alsace-Moselle is governed by local legislation that derived from changes made to the law between 1871 and 1919, when the region was part of Germany. That local legislation is different from French law applicable elsewhere in France.

How that relates specifically to Sundays and holidays, I don't know. But I do know the city will be battened down tight on New Year's Day - been there.

And so will Orleans, under French law, presumably - what is the difference if both are totally dead. Do not blame it on the Germans if the French have the seemingly exact same laws?

Shops can open if they want to on Sundays and holidays in the rest of France (subject to certain rules). If nobody wants to open anything in Orléans on such days, that's not my problem, but in Alsace, they do not even have the option.

Nobody's blaming anything on the Germans, Pal. Catch up on the actual history - try google, for example. What happens in Orléans is irrelevant to what happens in Alsace-Moselle. Orléans wasn't ever a part of Germany as far as I know. As kerouac pointed out, what the Orléanais choose to do on Sunday is their business, bound by certain French laws but NOT the ones that businesses in Alsace-Moselle are bound by. Get the facts and see if you can process them.

One quirk in Alsace-Moselle (but this has nothing to do with shopping or activities) is that all clergymen there are civil servants and are paid by the government. If they did this in the rest of France, I think we would have their heads on spikes.

I think most cities are totally dead on New Years Day everywhere. They are pretty dead where I live in the US.

Shops can open if they want to on Sundays and holidays in the rest of France (subject to certain rules)>

I thought there were national laws that prevent places like Carrefour, such as the one in central Orleans that would bring folks into town - laws that prevent these grand surfaces from opening - am I wrong in that kerouac - are you saying it is only local law that prevent most stores in Orelans from opening?

I think labor unions may also play a role in keeping stores - most stores except Arab-run stores in Orelans at least - unions do not want their employees having to work on Sunday.

I do think I have read there are national laws dictating why stores like Carrefour must close on Sundays except some weeks before Christmas - some smaller supermarkets like InterMarche are allowed to open to about noon - but this is for food only stores - most other stores I think are ordered closed by law - national law my local contacts say or by unions who refuse to have workers work on Sunday.

<France (from Wiki)
France laws about Sunday shopping are complex. Although Sunday shopping is generally not allowed, there are many exceptions such as certain zones and municipalities of the metropolitan areas of Paris, Marseille, and Lille; as well as around 500 cities that were declared as tourist towns, including major cities such as Nice, Le Havre, Bordeaux, etc. Most major stores nationwide open every December Sunday prior to Christmas. Supermarkets (but not Hypermarkets) are allowed to open nationwide every Sunday morning until 13:00 for grocery shopping. The 2009 relaxation allowed all stores to open in tourist areas (before, only sports, toys and cultural shops were allowed). The most visible result is that now clothing stores open every Sunday on places such as Champs Elysees in Paris, La Défense, and downtown Nice.[8]
In 2008, the furniture chain IKEA was fined €450,000 (over $700,000) for trading on Sundays under the law of 1906.[9] With the current law, IKEA stores are allowed to open every Sunday. However only the ones on the Paris metropolitan area actually do so.>

The above comes from Wikipedia - and confirms that these laws are not local laws but enforced by the national government and apply throughout France - some exceptions for touristed areas are made but stores like IKEA and Carrefour are indeed forced to close by not local law but national laws.

The Alsace-Moselle laws are an exception - do you not understand that?

http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Droit_l..._et_en_Moselle

There is talk about bringing Alsace-Moselle in line with the rest of French law one of these days, but it is very dangerous territory, because that region apparently has better social security and retirement plans than the rest of France. Since one of the main rules in France is that you cannot remove "acquired advantages," this would mean giving the same advantages to the rest of the country regarding those aspects, and this is clearly not possible in view of current economic conditions.

The Alsace-Moselle laws are an exception - do you not understand that?>

Yes I do but you simply do not understand what I have been saying - so what if the laws are different if the effect is exactly the same - i e dear do not blame it on some Alsace law that most stores are forced to close on Sundays - it's also the national law that dictates that.

Do you understand what I am saying?

When your frame of reference is limited to Orléans, it's easy to understand why you don't get the point. The effect is not exactly the same everywhere, and that's because national law makes very different allowances than the Alsace-Moselle law.