In France, the school systems do this wonderful thing where
they give the students a week off in February (and two more in April!). So,
last Saturday my friend Grace and I left Arras to begin our February break in
Strasbourg, where we stayed until Wednesday morning!
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| Alsace |
We arrived Saturday night around 7:45 after an hour train
ride from Arras to Paris Nord, and then a two-hour ride from Paris Nord to Strasbourg.
Our first goal was finding our hostel, which was actually easier than we
anticipated, and once we checked in for the night we decided to stay in and
relax before starting our explorations the next day. Our hostel was decent; it
was very clean, we had two twin beds and a private bathroom, but unfortunately
no TV or Internet. It actually ended up being kind of fun without having any
outside connections to the world, yet it was also a bit of a bummer to not be
in contact with my friends or family. But, it all worked out and now I know
that I can go three and a half days without Internet, so that was comforting.
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| The River Ill with the mist! |
When we left the hostel Sunday morning (after eating a
continental breakfast that we paid 2 euro for), it was very cloudy and a little
foggy/misty. This added atmosphere definitely added to the beauty of this old
city. Nothing was creepy, it wasn’t a fog/mist from a horror film, but it
definitely made everything a little more ethereal and interesting. However,
Strasbourg is absolutely gorgeous. I can’t really say it any other way than
that, but it is so true. As it has historically been fought over between
Germany and France (it is super close to the German border), there are
influences from both countries on the architecture, culture, food, and the
language. The exposed-timber houses had a very old-world feel to them, the
street signs were all in French and German, and beer has a greater presence
than wine here.
Our plans were basically just to wander the city, visit a
couple museums, and try to not look too touristy and speak the language as best
as we could. I think we succeeded in this, as we really enjoyed all of the
(free) beautiful sights just from walking around and we never spoke English to
any one besides each other. Seeing as we were fed and well taken care of, I
believe that we were pretty successful too in our language endeavors.
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| Exposed-timber houses on the river |
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| German/French signs, also part of the canal lock system |
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| Petite France |
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| The church that came out from the mist |
The River Ill borders the main part of the city, and so
there are a lot of bridges and canals and boats in Strasbourg as well. We
walked a lot around the river and got to see more pretty houses and a really
cool church that kind of came out of nowhere after a slight turn of the river.
With this natural border, it was so much easier to navigate the city (which is
the ninth largest city in France) than I had anticipated; everything is located
in a relatively narrow diameter. For example, we went to Petite France on
Monday and we were totally surprised after we walked through it to see the
steeple of the Notre Dame cathedral so very close. A fun story about Petite
France: it is named as such because in the 14th or 15th
century, the citizens of Strasbourg would send anyone with syphilis to that
section of Strasbourg. Syphilis at the time was known as the disease of France,
and so that section was named “Petite France.” Fun times.
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| Petite France |
The Notre Dame of Strasbourg is stunning; when we first came
upon it Sunday morning in the mist, Grace and I were speechless. It is made out
of a red, orange, and brown stone and has so many intricate designs and
statues, and the steeple towers over everything else in the city. It
practically was disappearing in the mist and clouds that first morning, which
was pretty awesome and a great photo opportunity. I think that the façade is
more interesting than Notre Dame of Paris and that the Strasbourg Notre Dame is
definitely the most beautiful.
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| Our first glance of the cathedral |
We were able to visit a lot of really cool museums in
Strasbourg, which offered some nice student discounts too! At the Alsatian
History Museum we were able to be inside a traditional exposed-timber house
while also checking out different aspects of Alsatian/Strasbourg life
throughout the years. I really enjoyed just walking around the house itself
because the different rooms become a little complicated but are also really
pretty, and the structure of the house is so different from what we see in the
States. The Palais Rohan offered three museums in one building: the museum of
decorative arts, of Beaux Arts, and an archaeological museum with artifacts
from the Alsatian region. Grace and I enjoyed seeing the different rooms in the
decorative arts museum; she got a lot of inspiration for her future mansion.
The Beaux Arts museum had a lot of pretty frames, which sounds really dumb at
first, but the frames used from the Renaissance especially are absolutely
gorgeous to me. I was slightly creeped out by the archaeological museum, but it
was also really intriguing at the same time. They showed a lot of artifacts
from when the Romans controlled Alsace, in addition to different animal bones
and human skeletons, and the various pieces of pottery and jewelry. The final
museum we visited was Le Musée de l’Oeuvre Notre-Dame, which is located
directly across from the cathedral and is host to art from the cathedral dating
back to the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. We were able to see some original
statues that were on the façade, a lot of gorgeous stained glass, and some
paintings from the Strasbourg area as well.
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| Roof of the Alsatian history museum |
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| Courtyard at the Alsatian history museum |
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| Roman helmet |
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| Museum of Decorative Arts |
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| See!? Gorgeous frame |
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| An original statue from the cathedral |
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| So much detail in the stained glass! |
As we were trying to make our experience as French as we
could, Grace and I spent a lot of time in the cafes/brasseries/restaurants of
Strasbourg drinking café au lait and people watching. These places, however,
are the most confusing things in the world. Each restaurant has a different way
of ordering food and giving the check at the end of whatever you happen to
order. Once Grace and I went to a brasserie with the intention of ordering a
drink and some food, and we ended up only ordering a drink because we had no
idea how to order food. Some places don’t give out menus, and the waiters don’t
ask what you would like to eat after taking your drink order so it was
definitely a guessing game for Grace and I in this respect. We found a café
though that suited our needs very well, the Café Rohan, and we enjoyed a lot of
pizza, salad, wine, and café au lait there during our stay.
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| Pretty building |
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| Another delightful surprise! |
Strasbourg ended up having a lot of delightful surprises for
us in the way of culture. Storks are EVERYWHERE in this city. Well, the image
of a stork, not the actual bird itself. There were post cards, stuffed animals,
baby booties, hats, place mats, magnets, etc. that featured storks at every
souvenir shop. Apparently before 1970 they were really prevalent in the
environment, and so storks have become a symbol of the Alsace region. We also
found a lot of Mario-related graffiti throughout the city, and there were
pretzel, gauffre (Belgian waffles of a sort), and roasted chestnut stands everywhere.
This is an exceedingly long post, but I think I have covered
most of what we saw/experienced in Strasbourg for the three full days Grace and
I explored there. If anyone has any specific question or remark or anything
just let me know and I will add as much as I can! I’m also going to have a
separate post for the Loire Valley part of our trip, just to kind of break
things up a bit and to not be too tedious for a blog entry!
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| The steeple of the cathedral from Place Gutenberg |
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