 1 Monday 14 June, 2010 Michele very kindly vacated her bedroom for us while she slept in a cardboard box in the basement. The next morning, aware of the big-eating day in front of us, we ate lightly at breakfast. |
 2 Monday 14 June, 2010 The red blotch on Jenni's chest is from the medication she was taking to get rid of skin cancer. The treatment was successful. |
 3 Monday 14 June, 2010 There is a village near Romanswiller called Wassellone and they were having a markets day. The three of us headed there after breakfast to have a wander around. |
 4 Monday 14 June, 2010 It was the usual array of mostly clothes and other girl stuff. |
 5 Monday 14 June, 2010 Markets don't do very much for me. The only interesting thing in this picture is the juxtaposition of the ancient half-timbered building with a satellite receiver attached. |
 6 Monday 14 June, 2010 The village of Wasselone is located to the east of Romanswiller in the rolling hills that form the foothills of the Vosges. |
 7 Monday 14 June, 2010 The rolling hills in the background. It is an incredibly beautiful part of the world. |
 8 Monday 14 June, 2010 This is an ornate half-timbered house of who knows how many centuries old. The corner posts are elaborately carved and I don't remember seeing many, or any, like this. |
 9 Monday 14 June, 2010 We stop for a coffee but Michele has some weird green Gallic concoction instead. I'm always suspicious of any foodstuff coloured green; it might be kale or worse; rocket! |
 10 Monday 14 June, 2010 While in Wassellone Michele bought a few small supplies for lunch |
 11 Monday 14 June, 2010 Michele bought three different kinds of ham for lunch but nothing smoked because she's knows I don't like smoked stuff. Isn't she nice? |
 12 Monday 14 June, 2010 We went home for lunch. As asparagus was in season, we had asparagus shoots accompanied by pancakes that Rene (Michele’s father) had prepared. We also had the three kinds of ham from the markets. After that, Michele brought out the dessert. |
 13 Monday 14 June, 2010 After lunch, we drove into Strasbourg and Michele showed us where we could safely park the car in the hotel garage when we go to Paris on July 7. She parked her car in the hotel parking lot and then we walked (I hobbled) across the River Ill that surrounds the old part of Strasbourg. |
 14 Monday 14 June, 2010 This part of Strasbourg sits on an island and is surrounded by a canal formed by the Ill River. As with all Western European cities, the public transport system is the envy of Australians. |
 15 Monday 14 June, 2010 The blue, square road sign shows that this is one-way for cars but two-way for bicycles. Tow-away restrictions apply in this part of the city for illegally parked cars. |
 16 Monday 14 June, 2010 The car lane and the bicycle lane are separated by parking bays. How good is that? The tower of the Cathedral is visible in the distance. |
 17 Monday 14 June, 2010 The interesting building on the far right corner is Galeries Lafayette, an upmaarket department store. This part of the city has all of the major designer-label brands located in a small, wealthy, area. |
 18 Monday 14 June, 2010 Thankfully, large parts of the old town are handed over to pedestrians and bicycles. |
 19 Monday 14 June, 2010 Not by accident, we arrive in an area called La Petite France. Many of the buildings in the old town of the Grande Île are of the fuchwerk (or half-timbered) style. Because buildings were taxed on the area of the ground floor, the upper floors were sometimes larger and are called jetties. |
 20 Monday 14 June, 2010 Elaborate half-timbered houses of the 13th through 18th centuries still remain in Strasbourg, Bourges, Troyes, Rouen, Thiers, Dinan, Rennes, Colmar and many other cities, but not in Provence or Corsica. Timber framing in French is known as colombage. |
 21 Monday 14 June, 2010 Petite-France is on the Grande Île (Main Island) where the river splits into a number of canals that cascade through an area of medieval half-timbered houses and baroque sandstone buildings. |
 22 Monday 14 June, 2010 The name "Petite-France" was conferred by the former German inhabitants because of the numerous prostitutes working here in the Middle Ages — prostitution used to be known in Germany as "the French business". |
 23 Monday 14 June, 2010 This is one of the prettiest places imaginable: Fuchwerk buildings on both sides of the River Ill. |
 24 Monday 14 June, 2010 Maison des Tanneurs (Tannery house) gives some idea of what this building once was. It is now a restaurant and the smells must be refreshingly different. |
 25 Monday 14 June, 2010 It seems that crooked beams became an architectural style out of necessity - long straight timbers became almost impossible to find. Inside the floors are level however. |
 26 Monday 14 June, 2010 Faïencerie A la Petite France has produced tin-glazed earthenware and pottery, with 18th and 19th century motifs, since 1910. The craft of Faïencerie was named after Faenza in Italy where it began. |
 27 Monday 14 June, 2010 What a magical place. This is so different to anything in Australia. Jenni shot lots of video here. |
 28 Monday 14 June, 2010 We are scheduled to meet Nicolas's mother and her husband here in an another hour or so. So we wander around for a while to take it all in. |
 29 Monday 14 June, 2010 The sluice gate for the river lock at La Petite Paris. |
 30 Monday 14 June, 2010 Our dear friend Michele is one of the most gracious people we know. |
 31 Monday 14 June, 2010 The lock system lifts tour boats up or down depending on the direction they are heading. It's a simple but effective system as we saw yesterday. The only power needed is to lift the sluice gates, the rest comes from the potential energy of the water levels. |
 32 Monday 14 June, 2010 The lock is a combination of old and not-as-old. It maintains the character of this area. |
 33 Monday 14 June, 2010 A tourist boat is being lifted to a higher level. We ride on one of these later in the day. |
 34 Monday 14 June, 2010 Excess water bypasses the lock and causes these swirls in the water. |
 35 Monday 14 June, 2010 Jenni wishes she could do some shopping. |
 36 Monday 14 June, 2010 The river Ill surrounds the old town area of Strasbourg and the name Alsace derives from the Germanic Ell-sass, meaning "Seated on the Ill". |
 37 Monday 14 June, 2010 This is the Pont St Martin pedestrian bridge that connects the main island to a smaller island. A restaurant is located at the water's edge and is named after the bridge. |
 38 Monday 14 June, 2010 We wander through the pedestrian plazas of Strasbourg. How nice is it to be able to walk without the noise and stench of bloody automobiles? |
 39 Monday 14 June, 2010 At the appointed time, we meet Chantal and Alex. |
 40 Monday 14 June, 2010 It was a beautifully emotional moment for Chantal. She had wanted to meet us to thank us for the help we had given to her son in Australia and she was nearly in tears when she met us. It was a lovely moment. |
 41 .Monday 14 June, 2010 We sat and chatted for a while before they gave us the keys to Strasbourg. |
 42 Monday 14 June, 2010 Alex is a Gendarme and very proud of the role he plays in French society. His English is vastly better than my French and we communicated quite easily. |
 43 Monday 14 June, 2010 Chantal is a really lovely, warm and friendly human being. She was married to Denis who looked after us only yesterday but they have been separated for many years. They are two wonderful people who, sadly, weren't meant for each other. |
 44 Monday 14 June, 2010 We walk towards the Strasbourg Cathedral and pass by the Eglise Saint Thomas, the main protestant church in Strasbourg. In 1524 the church became Lutheran with Martin Bucer, one of the most important figures of the Protestant Reformation serving as Pastor. |
 45 Monday 14 June, 2010 The largest of the new protestant denominations were the Anglicans (based in England), the Lutherans (based in Germany and Scandinavia), and the Reformed churches (based in Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Scotland). The most common dating begins in 1517 when Luther published The Ninety-Five Theses, and concludes in 1648 with the Treaty of Westphalia that ended years of European religious wars. |
 46 Monday 14 June, 2010 We enter Gutenberg Square where Johannes Gutenberg once had premises. |
 47 Monday 14 June, 2010 Gutenberg's invention of mechanical movable-type printing started the Printing Revolution. It played a key role in the development of the Renaissance, the Reformation and the Scientific Revolution. It created the basis for the modern knowledge-based economy and the spread of learning to the masses. |
 48 Monday 14 June, 2010 Gutenberg moved to Strasbourg from Germany in 1440 where he perfected the printing process and in 1455 he produced the Gutenberg bible. |
 49 Monday 14 June, 2010 Our first glimpse of the Strasbourg Cathedral is from Place Gutenberg. The Cathedral was built from 1190-1439 and is dedicated to the Virgin Mary (as are many other French Gothic cathedrals). |
 50 Monday 14 June, 2010 Strasbourg Cathedral de Notre-Dame stands on the site of an ancient Roman temple. The first church was started in 1015 but fire destroyed much of the original Romanesque building. The cathedral was rebuilt at the end of the 12th century using red stone that was cut from the nearby mountains of the Vosges. |
 51 Monday 14 June, 2010 The main portal of the west facade is about the life of Jesus and his passion.
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 52 Monday 14 June, 2010
Most of the statues now in situ are copies, the originals having been moved to the Musée de l’Œuvre Notre-Dame. |
 53 Monday 14 June, 2010 Notre Dame - Our Lady - means this is a catholic church dedicated to Mary. During the Reformation, in 1521, the cathedral became a Protestant church. After the incorporation of Strasbourg into France in 1681, the cathedral was returned to the Catholics and dedicated to the Virgin. |
 54 Monday 14 June, 2010 Standing in the nave looking towards the high altar. |
 55 Monday 14 June, 2010 Strasbourg Cathedral's pulpit is visible at the left front. In many Christian churches, there are two speakers' stands at the front of the church. Typically, the one on the left (as viewed by the congregation) is called the pulpit. Since the Gospel lesson is often read from the pulpit, the pulpit side of the church is sometimes called the gospel side. |
 56 Monday 14 June, 2010 A suspended organ is in the upper left. The beautiful red stone in the columns was mined in the Vosges and a quarry near Michele's place. |
 57 Monday 14 June, 2010 The suspended pipe organ on the north side of the central nave. The organ case dates from 1385 and 1491 while the mechanism and registers were made in 1981 |
 58 Monday 14 June, 2010 During World War II, the stained glass windows were removed and stored in a salt mine near Heilbronn, Germany. After the war, the windows were returned to the cathedral by the Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives section of the United States military. |
 59 Monday 14 June, 2010 On the high altar, the wooden busts are of the Apostles and date from the 17th century. |
 60 Monday 14 June, 2010 The "Pillar of Angels" (on the left) and the Astronomical clock (on the right). According to legend, the creator of this clock had his eyes gouged out afterward, to prevent him from reproducing it. Similar legends are told for other clocks, such as the astronomical clock in Prague. |
 61 Monday 14 June, 2010 The cathedral was originally planned to have two towers but it was later determined that the foundations could support only one. |
 62 Monday 14 June, 2010 At 142 metres, the cathedral was the world's tallest building from 1647 to 1874, when it was surpassed by St. Nikolai's Church in Hamburg. Today it is the sixth-tallest church in the world. It is possible to climb to the top of the tower, but . . . well it costs €3 and . . . |
 63 Monday 14 June, 2010 One of the shops we passed in this area was a Swarovski Crystal shop. We commented how nice the crystal cat was and promptly forgot about it. But our hosts took note and when Chantal and Alex visited us in Sydney a short time later, they presented us with that very Swarovski cat from that very store. What a wonderful gesture; what amazing people. |
 64 Monday 14 June, 2010 Nicolas and Louise were travelling around Australia at the same time that we were in Strasbourg. |
 65 Monday 14 June, 2010 The trees look wierd. Each branch has been lopped even though there are no overhead power or communication lines. It's difficult to see that this was done for aesthetic reasons. |
 66 Monday 14 June, 2010 Louise had recently been to Kakadu National Park and complained that she hadn't seen a crocodile there. I had great joy in sending her an email, with this photo attached, that said I had seen plenty in Strasbourg, her home town. |
 67 Monday 14 June, 2010 Beautiful pastries |
 68 Monday 14 June, 2010 Beautiful sweet things |
 69 Monday 14 June, 2010 Magnificent cakes - sigh. Why do they have to make it look good as well? |
 70 Monday 14 June, 2010 We circle back past the cathedral where we are due to meet Marcelle, Louise's mother. |
 71 Monday 14 June, 2010 We met Marcelle in front of the cathedral as planned. She's a very charming woman who we both instantly liked. |
 72 Monday 14 June, 2010 Another big surprise was that Chantal, Alex and Marcelle had arranged for us to do a boat trip around the main island. |
 73 Monday 14 June, 2010 This meant that after leaving the quay, we entered a lock and rose to the next level. The commentary was via headsets where you could choose your language. |
 74 Monday 14 June, 2010 Strasbourg is the seat of over twenty international institutions. It is best known for the Council of Europe and the European Parliament, for which it is the official seat. Strasbourg is the legislative and democratic capital of the European Union, Brussels is the executive and administrative capital, and Luxembourg the judicial and financial capital. |
 75 Monday 14 June, 2010 On the tour we were told that the Marseillaise was composed by Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle in a house visible from the canal. The music was based on Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 25 but the lyrics are gruesome and gory. |
 76 Monday 14 June, 2010 A roof as you would find in a fairy story by the Grimm Brothers. |
 77 Monday 14 June, 2010 The Kammerzell House is one of the best preserved medieval civil housing buildings in the lands that were once part of the Holy Roman Empire. It was first built in 1427 but rebuilt in 1467 and again in 1589. |
 78 Monday 14 June, 2010 It is situated north-west of the Strasbourg Cathedral. The building's interior has been decorated with lavish frescoes by Alsatian painter Léo Schnug (1878-1933). It now houses a restaurant, which to our great delight, is where we were taken for dinner. |
 79 Monday 14 June, 2010 Our second big surprise in as many days: taken to Strasbourg's top restaurant. Chantal is seated next to the window, Marcelle is in the middle and Alex is about to take his seat. One of Alsatian painter Léo Schnug's frescoes is visible behind our hosts - and he died in 1933. |
 80 Monday 14 June, 2010 From the best seats in the house, we had a stunning view of the cathedral. |
 81 Monday 14 June, 2010 My favourite German/Alsacian meal: pork knuckle and bacon served with sauerkraut (or choucroute as they call it in Alsace) |
 82 Monday 14 June, 2010 Although Michele was with us for most of the time, she had work commitments and was unable to join us for dinner. |
 83 Monday 14 June, 2010 I commented to our hosts that you go to many restaurants and have many meals in your life, and remember hardly any of them. But this was an experience I would never forget. |
 84 Monday 14 June, 2010 I also proclaimed that I finally understood why all the fuss was made about French food. Finally. It was one of the best evenings ever. |
