Strasbourg in September (by kerouac2)

[Deleted]

Strasbourg has always been one of my favourite cities in France for a variety of reasons. For one thing, it is quite beautiful, but that isn't enough to make you like a city in itself. The people of Strasbourg are a major plus. They have been through so much, tossed back and forth between two countries, but they are friendly without being submissive. It is also perhaps the most ecological city in France, with the most bicycle use and a tramway system that inspired the other cities of France, when it cancelled plans for a subway system and proved that not only can you have excellent transportation with a tram, but you can also close off huge parts of the centre to motor vehicles and keep (almost) everybody happy anyway. And of course, Strasbourg feels very exotic -- so different from most traditional French cities with even its own regional language that is very much alive.

So I hopped on the TGV Wednesday morning at Gare de l'Est and was in Strasbourg at little more than 2 hours later -- after all, the TGV goes 315 km/h most of the way, making it the fastest way to get from city centre to city centre from Paris. Air France will no longer offer flights from Paris at the end of the year, because it just isn't worth it anymore.

Yes, I confess that I take the train in 1st class from time to time. If you book long enough ahead of time, it is just as cheap as 2nd class. In this case, I paid 35€ for the ticket.

The station looks typical at first, but neophytes are in for a surprise.

I can't imagine that the bubble was accepted easily in the municipal council deliberations, because municipal councils are generally quite conservative, and this is the most conservative region of France, but I can imagine two arguments that probably helped to get approval. 1. "Think of the weather in January and February" and 2. "The building is still there -- the bubble can be dismantled it doesn't work, no harm done."

I have never had the opportunity to discuss this feature with locals, so I frankly do not know what their opinion is -- but I do know that they are generally in favour of anything that makes the bitterly cold winters more bearable.

Air France is not the only airline no longer flying to Strasbourg.



The station area is totally surrounded by bicycles.



And then I was off to patrol the city.





Some places are the same as in Paris.

[Deleted]

One good thing about Strasbourg is that the inner courtyards are often open to allow exploration.

In Provence or Languedoc, dual language streets signs are often easy to decipher in Provençal or Catalan. Not so to read the names in Alsatian if you don't speak German or Schweizerdeutsch (the closest language to Alsatian).

     

     

     

     

[bjd]

I went to Strasbourg several times when we lived in Besançon, but not since. That was before the bilingual signs.

I think I disagree about how nice the Alsatians are -- I have met a few people from Strasbourg and they are not the friendliest, a bit rigid. And a guy here who works for MeteoFrance was sent to work in Strasbourg for a year and hated it -- said his Alsatian colleagues would exchange jokes in Alsatian, acting as though he wasn't even in the room. Lots of National Front voters too.

All that said, Strasbourg is indeed a pretty city, with a magnificent cathedral. Quite Central European looking compared to most of France.

[Deleted]

I didn't say that Alsatians are nice -- I wrote that the people of Strasbourg are nice. Interestingly enough, central Strasbourg is the only Socialist nugget in the entire region, and it is totally surrounded by conservative extremist areas. For some reason, the formerly right wing cities of France -- Paris, Lyon, Metz, Strasbourg and some others have gone to the left in the last 20 years although these are the places facing "urban problems" the most -- the tranquil little villages all over France who have never seen crime or even an immigrant except on television are the right wing strongholds. (Bucking the trend is Marseille, which went from left to right, but apparently things will reverse again at the next municipal elections.)

Anyway -- Strasbourg is located on the Ill River, which splits and surrounds the central part of the city. The same as a lot of people, I used to think that the Rhine ran along the eastern side of the city, but it is actually more than 5 kilometres away. The city limits technically extend to the banks of the Rhine, but it is all flood plains and industrial zones.

In any case, Strasbourg has a multitude of flowered bridges.





















There are some navigational locks, because there is a 1.70 metre difference in the water level through the city.

[Deleted]

Naturally, the typical Alsatian architecture is one of the biggest draws to the city.







Germans represent about 80% of the tourists in the city.











A lot of the tourists are looking for food for some reason.

















Place de l'Homme de Fer is the main tramway interchange, just off Place Kléber.





Place Kléber is the largest square in the centre of the city.



The old city hall is here, now living a new life. I forgot where the new city hall is.

[Deleted]

Due to bad winter weather, protective arcades are appreciated.























At last, a glimpse of the cathedral...!

[bjd]

Thanks for all this -- I had forgotten what a pretty city it is.

[mossie]

A very medieval feeling, and a very pretty place. So different from Paris.

[lagatta]

And different from the nearby German cities of any size, as they were all bombed to shit.

I presume Strasbourg escaped most shelling (though of course places can be rebuilt).

And wonder if there will still be a shuttle from Frankfurt Airport once the TGV extends to that city... I imagine there is a train or tram from the Airport to Frankfurt Station.

[htmb]

Lovely. Thanks for this report. I've often thought about taking the TGV to Strasbourg. Looks like there are many beautiful streets to wander.

[Deleted]

Some of the cathedrals of Europe have a large square or plaza in front to enable proper photography of the building. Others do not have this luxury. Notre Dame de Strasbourg does not have much space in front, but it also has a very tall spire, making a photograph even more challenging.

However, getting shots of some of the details is quite easy.

The cathedral of Strasbourg was the tallest building in the world from 1647 to 1874! It is the second most visited cathedral in France after Notre Dame de Paris. During the period of annexation of the Third Reich, Hitler forbade Catholic religious services in the cathedral, because he wanted to turn it into a German national monument, since it was claimed by both the Catholic and Protestant churches. In 1944, the cathedral was severely damaged by American bombs.

Everything is back in order now, so time to go inside.









Some of the damaged windows were just repaired in 2010, but I don't know which ones.







This side chapel is where people can pray -- the rest of the place is turned over to the tourists.













The organ is a bit over the top in design.



And we're out again...

[Deleted]

Medieval-style shop signs are very popular in Strasbourg.

           

           



           



           

           

           

           

[mich64]

I enjoyed going through each individual shop sign, such unique ideas.

The Cathedral is breath taking, the columns, stained glass, the carvings all so very detailed.

A nice selection of menu slates as well Kerouac!

We depart tomorrow for Paris!

[Deleted]

Even Strasbourg has Space Invaders.











This German-Turkish family was digging into take-away Flammekueche, hardly a hallal snack.















Hmmm, here's a thought... what if I took the tourist boat? Maybe later...









Johannes Gutenberg invented the concept of typesetting in Strasbourg in the 1440's. Place Gutenberg honours him.







The wooden beams in the buildings are sometimes intricately carved.









Musicians in Alsatian costumes going to work...



Goethe lived in Strasbourg for 2 years.









Okay, my feet hurt. I am definitely going to take a boat!

[Deleted]

So, I went and bought my ticket for 9.20€. You have a choice of closed boats or open boats. Closed boats were immediately available, but I wanted an open boat, so I had to wait an hour (on a weekday in September!).

This is where the tickets are sold.



The water of the Ill looked so much cleaner than most urban rivers.



I watched other boats as I waited.



Let's look at some other stuff while we wait.

I was quite impressed by the audioguide headphones on the boat. The commentary was available in 12 languages, including Esperanto, and on top of that, there was "commentary for children" available in 6 of the principal languages. And I also found the commentary to be more intelligent than usual.

Anyway, off we went...





It took 5 minutes to get through a lock, not bad.

















This used to be one of the barriers controlling access to the city.









This used to be the central prison.



In a boat, you become a spectacle for the people up above.





Another lock...









The bridges often get in the way when you are trying to take a picture!









There goes the tramway.

[Deleted]

When I used to drive to Strasbourg to see my friends, this was my landmark. "I'm not lost anymore!"









We were heading out to modern areas. This is the headquarters of Arte, the Franco-German cultural TV station.



We approach the European Parliament.









This is the European Court of Human Rights, where anybody in the world can take a case concerning human rights.





The boat turned back to give different views of the parliament. The city of Strasbourg financed the construction.

[Deleted]

Back to dry land to keep admiring things that I saw...







What do people buy? Gingerbread is a local speciality.





This place sold fancy sweets.





Here was another inviting courtyard.











There were some local pastry items with which I am not familiar.













Marzipan items are another local speciality.

[lagatta]

Well, actually there are versions of Flammekueche and la Tarte à l'oignon alsacienne without lardons (pork), that go back to the longstanding Jewish community on both banks of the Rhine. But who knows what the Muslim-German family actually ordered.

See that Strasbourg Cathedral had been more damaged than I thought, though probably less than say, Cologne Cathedral (quite a long way downstream on the Rhine) or most of Frankfurt.

Je veux une tourte au Riesling!

[Deleted]

It was late in the afternoon. This is the first week of school in France, and kids were just getting out for the day (at 5:15 p.m. *shudder*).







Place Kléber is a big hangout (McDonald's....).



I decided I need to go back to the hotel for a bit. Galeries Lafayette is of course one of the main department stores.



Most cities in France have a municipal cinema to ensure that people have access to something other than crap.



It was next to one of the main downtown cinemas.





Some wonderful old cinemas have died and become supermarkets.



I waited for the tram. The schedule information is excellent.

[Deleted]

Significantly refreshed, I ventured out again as dusk settled over the city. I took the tram again.

I specifically wanted to see the Place de l'Etoile area, where I had not been for a few years. The only thing that used to be there was the UGC cinema megaplex in the middle of an industrial wasteland bordering an industrial canal. However, I am well aware that no such company would build such a place in France unless there are all sorts of other development plans to attract people.

It appeared rather intriguing.







There was a huge shopping mall (closed at this time of day) running the length of the canal.



A former cargo crane structure remained to recall the history of the site.





There were still some unused industrial buildings which I recalled as being the former Fischer brewery.





Soon to be luxury apartments!





I took a look inside the cinema.







And then back on another tram line to see some of the rest of the city at night.







Along the Ill, the bars were in full swing on this balmy evening.









Kids who can't afford the bars create their own solutions.





It's a pretty city even in the dark.

[htmb]

Kerouac, I'm still enjoying your delightful photo report. Did I spot an alligator in the last photo of number sixteen, or were my eyes playing tricks?

[Deleted]

We don't have alligators, just crocodiles.

[lagatta]

What is the odd little bretzel-wielding creature in the photo after the tram schedule? A strange little dog? Or a very shy and retiring small bear?

Did you have a nice dinner?

[bixaorellana]

This is charming, lovely, & a great deal of fun.

When I looked at the first section, before the boat ride was posted, I scrolled down pretty quickly through the pictures and noted something delightful. Kerouac, I don't know if you did this consciously or unconsciously, but the the photos are sorted subtly and beautifully into shapes and types!

First there are the big curves of the train station, bus, bicycles, and tram lines. Then there are the upright flat facades of the buildings on the narrow streets, immediately followed by more curves of arches, turrets, and streets. There's a little break with the street signs, and then everything opens out into water vistas and riots of greenery and flowers. Another break with the relatively staid menu boards, then a plunge into the really glorious variety of the city.

Huge admiration for this excellently organized, well photographed, & most interesting report!

I recommend going through the whole thread once, then scrolling back up and doing it again to give everything its proper due.

"the TGV goes 315 km/h most of the way" -- I keep meaning to ask about these fast trains: can you feel how fast they're going when you're inside?

I love the way the tramway exchange looks in the midst of all that ancient brick.

What are the very medieval buildings you show that butt up to the cathedral -- are they part of it? Gad, the cathedral itself ~~ so soaring, so gorgeous. Seeing the photo of it all destroyed by bombs makes the stomach flip over, even with the previous photographic evidence of it being intact now.

Speaking of stomach -- those pastry shops!     So what did you eat besides sushi & Mexican food? ;D

The river does indeed look clean & what a lovely option to have boats to see the area. Of the many wonderful reports people have made on anyport of highly touristed places, this places seems to have the least annoyingly congested feel -- more as though everyone happily showed up for the same party.

Well, I could burble on all day. So enjoyable & I really want to go there now.

[htmb]

I don't know about others, bixa, but I feel the accelerations of the TGV. I usually take some gum when I travel, as my ears tend to pop. Sipping a little wine helps, too.

So, Kerouac, any idea why there'd be a croc in Strasbourg?

[fumobici]

This is a sumptuous report, so many beautiful scenes captured. I'd love to find myself there on an unseasonably nice day off-season when the tourist hordes have gone back to Germany. Probably not a whole lot of lovely off-season days though that far North and inland.

[htmb]

Kerouac, what a beautiful city! Thank you for this fabulous report. I am struck by the lovely architecture, both old and new. And I love all the beautiful flowers and greenery. Normally I might not be interested in a tourist boat, but it appears the ride you took, along with the nicely done report via headphones, was really worth the time. It appears that you had fabulous weather, also. The cathedral is amazing and would be worth a trip to see just on its own. I had always heard Strasbourg was a beautiful place. Your masterful photo report proves that to be true.

[Deleted]

The train station is interesting to see in the dark.

[Deleted]

The next morning, there were still a few things I wanted to do before taking the train back to Paris, one of them being to ride the tram at random. I had bought an unlimited 24 hour pass for 4€ and I wanted to get my money's worth!

I started out going to the European Parliament to see it from solid ground.









The point of the architect? "Europe is an unfinished work in progress?"



There were some demonstrators getting ready for the day.



I moved along to another part of town.



The fate of the old synagogue should be mentioned. The Germans had built it in 1896.

And the Nazis destroyed it in 1940. They removed the organ and the furnishings, then the Hitler Youth burned the building. It was dynamited in 1941 to remove all trace of its existence.

On the same site is now the 1980's Place des Halles shopping mall, but the tram and bus stops still carry the indication "Ancienne Synagogue."

Strasbourg German architecture has very "heavy" balconies.

















The main library is being renovated.







This is the Opéra National du Rhin, Strasbourg's opera.



Général Leclerc, the liberator of Paris and Strasbourg has a monument at Place Broglie.



He did several other things, too. Although Paris was liberated in August, Strasbourg had to wait until November.



It was market day at Place Broglie.





Behind the roasting chickens is the city hall annex where I attended my friends' wedding.

























Have you noticed the little openings in so many roofs?

These giant attics were an architectural requirement over the centuries in Strasbourg, because the residents were supposed to stock as much grain as possible at all times "in case of war."

They had every reason to believe that there was always a war in their future.

[Deleted]

There was one last thing I needed to do, which I had not done since I was 12 years old. I wanted to climb to the top of the cathedral -- I would have done it the previous day, but I found myself facing a sign that said "exceptionally closed at 14:30 today."

I have felt guilty about that climb at age 12 all of these years. My brother and I had spent the year in France with our grandparents, and then our grandmother was taking us back to America on the S.S. France. But she needed to get her visa renewed, and this meant a trip to the American consulate in Strasbourg. My brother had no interest in going (what a jerk), but I jumped at the chance to go with her. I think the train got there by mid morning and we went straight to the consulate.

That lasted about 5 minutes, because they opened my grandmother's passport and told her "you don't need a new visa; you have a permanent visa." We had about 3 or 4 hours ahead of us, so we did a little tourism, heading straight for the cathedral. Strasbourg was a very strange city, because absolutely nobody spoke French in the street. They would answer you in French if you asked a question, but clearly it was not their preferred language. (That has changed almost completely now.)

So we saw the beautiful cathedral, but that didn't take forever, and I saw "hey, you can climb the tower!" My grandmother absolutely did not want to do this. For one thing, she was 66 years old at the time, and for another, whenever she was on "official business" she dressed up, as people tended to do back then. So she would wear a pair of patent leather pumps that would absolutely kill her feet since they were worn so rarely.

My grandmother, being the most wonderful person in the world, could not say no to me, so we climbed the steps. She was nearly dead by the time we reached the top. Luckily there were benches there. In the end, I think she was kind of happy to have done and to see the panorama, and she certainly would never have made the climb if I had not forced her. Somewhere in the family archives, there is actually an old 8mm film that I made of this climb -- even back then, I couldn't stop myself from photographing everything. And there are probably some colour slides from my Instamatic 100 as well.

So, even though I have not yet reached my grandmother's age at the time, I knew that this climb would probably give me divine punishment for what I had done to my grandmother.

Here we go!

That was easy! Oh god, I was so happy that nobody was following me on those stairs, because there was no place to pull aside to let anybody pass. I could hear a couple of people ahead of me huffing and puffing and asking each other "are you all right?" and the other person lying and saying "yes." Sometimes it sounded like I might catch them (ha ha) but I never did.

When I finally reached the platform, I saw that they were at least 25 years younger than me, so I didn't feel too bad. How did my grandmother ever make that climb? I sat on a bench and allowed rivers of sweat to run down my body (you saw that the weather was nice and warm in Strasbourg), and this made me see how lucky I had been in my timing, because after about 5 minutes a school group of about 40 German teenagers came bouncing up the stairs with their teacher.

This is the teacher.



Yes, the view of the city was quite nice.













There's the European Parliament again.





Major construction alongside the cathedral. I hope it's not something horrible.



The spire is not accessible, thank god.



But the stairs are there for anybody who needs to go.



Graffiti has been a problem for a long time.











Time to go back down...