KEHL, Germany — Strasbourg sells itself as a symbol of European unity, but when night falls on the EU Parliament’s sessions many German lawmakers show more allegiance to a cheap night’s sleep and a home-cooked meal.

Rather than stay in the picturesque Alsatian capital, they direct their chauffeur-driven cars and taxis across the Rhine to Kehl, passing seedy bars, drab architecture and roadside sex workers on their way to no-nonsense bed-and-breakfast accommodation.

They've made Kehl — a German border town where gambling is legal and the cigarettes are cheap — their penny-pinching alternative to Strasbourg.

"In Strasbourg, the hotels are double" the price, said German MEP David McAllister, a vice president in the center-right European People's Party bloc who prefers to stay at the Hirsch hotel in Kehl rather than fancier accommodation closer to Strasbourg's European Quarter. "You get a better deal in Germany."

Since the end of World War II, Strasbourg has cemented its reputation as a European hub — even if many MEPs complain about the monthly excursions there as an unnecessary waste of time and resources.

The regular plenary decampment from Brussels to Strasbourg is supposed to be a reminder of the founding spirit of the EU — a kind of class trip to a city that insists it represents the remarkable achievement of getting France and Germany to stop attacking each other.

With a main street lined with casinos, shops selling tobacco, dodgy bars and rundown hotels, Kehl is little bit like Tijuana to Strasbourg's San Diego.

But the plenary sessions are also an economic boon to the city, one of the main reasons France has refused calls from other countries to keep the Parliament in Brussels full time.

Once a month, MEPs descend on Strasbourg, not just for debates in the futuristic glass-and-steel European Parliament building but for schmoozing in cafés and on riverside terraces in the city's medieval quarter. Later in the evening, MEPs, staff and lobbyists wobble their way along cobblestoned streets to the Les Aviateurs bar in the old town or the Code Bar speakeasy near the imposing Cathedral de Nôtre-Dame.

Many hotels in the city inflate their prices during these plenary weeks, making it not just difficult to find lodging, but also expensive. The three-star Le Grand Hotel is charging €450 per night during the peak days of this week's plenary. The high prices have led many in the German delegation to find more sensible alternatives.

Even the Parliament's president, Martin Schulz, stays about a half-hour's drive away from the European Parliament in the village of Nussbach, according to an aide.

That's in contrast to Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and his team, who prefer to stay at the Hilton hotel close to the Parliament. Rooms there go for more than €250 per night but the hotel is nearly always fully booked during plenary weeks.

Highway to Kehl

Across the river in Kehl, it's a different story.

"It's much cheaper than the bigger hotels in Strasbourg that charge double during plenary weeks, while we charge the same," said Erica Lehr, who owns the Hotel Gastehaus Lehr in Kork-Kehl, a historic German timber house that was a saw mill in the 18th century. "We don't give discounts but we're full this week."

Strasbourg and Kehl are connected via a pedestrian bridge, a road and a railway. But while the smaller German city has historic links with Strasbourg and boasts a similarly rich history, it doesn't quite have the UNESCO World Heritage Site vibe that the French city flaunts.

With a main street lined with casinos, shops selling tobacco, dodgy bars and rundown hotels, Kehl is little bit like Tijuana to Strasbourg's San Diego.

Even before you reach the city, the road has a slightly unsavory feel.

On the French side of the border, women stand by the roadside, trying to lure clients looking for a good (but illegal) deal before they reach Germany, where prostitution is legal and therefore regulated and taxed.

In Kehl itself, near the city center, a Soviet-style apartment block towers over the visitor center. The Malibu lounge offers "shisha & müzik & cocktails" near the train station. Nearby, weeds spring from the sidewalk — something you don't usually see in Alsatian villages — and in the cracks of the street's dirty white buildings.

Despite the city's proximity to a major European center, few people at the lounge (or the hotels or tobacco shops) seem to speak English. And unlike the bustling heart of Strasbourg, the center of Kehl feels half-deserted.

Most German MEPs stay a few kilometers away from the town's main drag in Kork, a quaint village that barely registers a pulse when the lawmakers are not in town. On a recent Sunday afternoon in October, the only sign of life was an elderly couple raking leaves on their lawn.

Transportation isn't much of a concern. MEPs can use the parliamentary chauffeur service for the 20-minute ride; for staffers and others with business in Strasbourg, a taxi ride costs €40.

But the hotels are family-run, the beer flows like the Rhine and the meals are usually home-cooked.

At the historic Hotel Ochsen, which boasts a beer garden decorated with portraits of Napoleonic generals, a single room will set you back at €49 per night. Not far away, the three-star Landgasthof Schwanen is €67 with breakfast. The Hotel Hirsch offers a standard room at €69.

Home cookin'

But price isn't everything.

"The guests say the hospitality is better," says Marc Needell, whose family owns the Hirsch hotel. "Some of the [MEPs] we've known for 10 to 15 years, we know what they want," he added. "In Strasbourg, they just don't need you because five others will come."

The lure of simple German cuisine and some off-the-beaten-track collegiality is hard to resist for some politicians. "On the German side, you have dinner with your colleagues in a typical German family-run place," McAllister said.

Most of the rooms in these inns are basic but clean, with pinewood furniture and wall-to-wall carpeting. The German families who own these hotels take pride in their no-frills establishments and many don't even advertise on hotel booking websites.

The MEPs who stay in Kehl and Kork have even organized a shuttle service from the hotels to the Parliament. A tram, slated to take just eight minutes from center of Kehl to Parliament, is under construction.

"We don't want to pay for stars," said Hotel Gastehaus Lehr owner Lehr, who was born in the house and says the online images with its website are all that's needed to show prospective guests. "We have real honest pictures. That's the important thing, to have real honest pictures."

Not every place in town is cheap. At the four-star Grieshaber's Rebstock, rooms begin at €113 and the European People's Party President Manfred Weber is booked in for the year.

Transportation isn't much of a concern. MEPs can use the parliamentary chauffeur service for the 20-minute ride; for staffers and others with business in Strasbourg, a taxi ride costs €40.

The MEPs who stay in Kehl and Kork have even organized a shuttle service from the hotels to the Parliament. A tram, slated to take just eight minutes from the center of Kehl to Parliament, is under construction.

In fact, Kehl may be getting too popular. MEPs have pre-booked the family-run hotels in the area for plenary weeks through 2016. Even on the main strip in Kehl, the Hotel Europa, sandwiched between car dealerships and a McDonalds, boasts of being booked by MEPs for the year.

It might be time to find some place even farther from the border.