Bonsoir, tout le monde!
Two weekends ago, I went to Strasbourg, France, with my friends, Anne and Judy. It's a city in northeastern France, very close to the German border. As you can see on the map, it's east of Paris, and it took a little over 2 hours on the TGV (train à grande vitesse = high speed train).
It is a beautiful city, and we could not have had better weather! (which was a fantastic change to the oddly rainy/chilly Paris we've been experiencing here so often...) Because the city is located so close to German, there are naturally several German influences, which you'll see from my pictures...
a view of part of the canal that runs through the city
our inexpensive, yet incredibly nice hotel (we even had a kitchen, unexpectedly!)
another view of the canal
canal, yet again...
Can you tell we liked the canals?
on way to dinner, trying to find the restaurant...
...so we stopped for a photo-op.
We found it! ("The Beer Academy")
Our 3 beers. [If you know me well, you know I despise beer, but I decided to be adventurous and try one.] Judy's apple beer is on the left, my raspberry beer (which barely tasted like beer) is in the center, and Anne's real beer is on the right.
a pretty little park in the city center
a flea market with a bunch of local artists
Notre Dame de StrasbourgThis cathedral, aside from St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, is the most magnificent church I have ever seen. It undoubtedly trumps Notre Dame in Paris, as far as I'm concerned. The pictures can't even begin to do it justice. Just trust me that it is truly grand...even a bit menacing on the outside...
We had to walk reallllly far back to attempt to take a picture of the whole thing. It is immensely TALL.
This picture probably gives you an idea of the height as well.
The exterior details are so intricate...and even a bit sinister. I wouldn't want to be there at night.
The interior is equally beautiful, but much less alarming.
a private prayer chapel on the side
an incredible statue of Christ and the disciples at the cross
a better look at the bottom portion of the scene of the statues
the alter
a column adorned with various saints, I believe...and stained glass in the background, naturally
the organ
After we saw the cathedral, we ventured back outside and took a boat cruise on the canals. The following pictures were taken from the boat...
Germanic architecture
a very strange-looking tree that caught my eye...
another great view of the cathedral
...and again
Council of Europe building! (...as in where the European Union convenes!) As you can see, it was advertising to vote in the election in early June
Strasbourg had a lot of pretty flowers. :-)Journey into Germany:
As you now know, Strasbourg is incredibly close to Germany. (In fact, many of its residents speak fluent German), so we couldn't pass up the opportunity to at least cross the border. Our original plan was to rent bicycles and ride across the border. However, that plan failed when we realized that the rental place closed at 6:30 pm, and we realized we would not have had enough time to return them. Thus, our solution was to walk over the border.
Before embarking, we went to a local grocery store, and stocked up on the typical French [or at least our interpretation] picnic supplies, including baguette, cheese, Nutella, and apples. Then, we tried to utilize Strasbourg's seemingly uncomplicated tram system to get us as close to the border as possible before we had to walk. However, even though this tram has very few lines and is not underground, it proved to be much more complex for us than Paris' metro system. In turn, we went the wrong way and had to double back, but finally, we found our way, got out, and started walking to Kehl. Once we got there, we were incredibly hungry, so we just decided to sit in the park on the other side of the river to eat our dinner and take in the scenery.
a view of the German side of the river
looking back at France
...and then we watched the sunset as we ventured back into France. What a beautiful evening. :-)
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