A City of Two Tales

Strasbourg

Strasbourg France.  Yes, it is in France...

We came to Strasbourg as a bit of an afterthought.  Like most second thoughts it turned out to be the better thought.  I had heard that Strasbourg was a unique city, very beautiful and worth a visit.  All of which turned out to be true.

We found a Chinese Restaurant in the French City that looks German.

The French-German border is currently about 8 km to the east of Strasbourg.  Over the course of history that border has sometimes been to the east and sometimes to the west.  What that means is that Strasbourg is a homogenous mixture of German and French.  You can have Weinerschnizel with your Foie Gras. 

There is a high-speed train that runs between Strasbourg and Paris.  When I mean high speed, I mean 325 km/hr.  Why would anyone want to travel to Strasbourg at 325 km/hr.?  The city is not that large and it does not have an important port or major military installation.  Certainly the area of Alsace-Lorraine is well known for its wine but then so is the Loire and Burgundy and wine does not seem like a good reason to hurtle at death-defying speed headlong to the area where it is made. 

Well, maybe for some folks it is…

It turns out Strasbourg is where the EU is centered.  This is where the European Parliament is held and is where the administrative center of the EU is.  This is the home of the European bureaucracy.  Like all bureaucracies it is very important for the bureaucrats to hurry along with suits, anxious looks on their faces and carrying important looking briefcases so they can sit and wait. 

You need a high-speed train to do that properly.

In spite of my cynical view of bureaucracies everywhere I do believe the European Union is a great example of international co-operation.  Granted, their motivation is economic but the end result is a huge area with different languages, customs and philosophies all co-operating.  They are like a large disparate dysfunctional family -  but a family nonetheless. 

This could not happen in North America.  Mexico and Canada would probably be fine with it but the US is becoming more and more insular.  You would think it would work in North America with our language and customs being so similar.    The North American Free Trade agreement is a good example of how well we get along…

Strasbourg is beautiful.  Interestingly the town is so beautiful because it looks German.  Currently it resides in France and the language spoken here is mostly French but the architecture looks like a post-card of stylized Germany.  The most “touristy” and photographed part of Strasbourg is an area referred to as “Le Petit France” which looks like “Le Petit Germaine”.

Le Petite France...?

One of the interesting things about Strasbourg are the rivers.  The town is interlaced with rivers and canals almost like Venice.  They have a dam on one of the rivers which was used for defense.  When they were being attacked they would close the dam and flood the surrounding countryside making themselves impregnable.  Pretty clever, I thought.   There are not too many Knights with the ability to wade through ice-cold water in full armor to attack a walled city.  I have images of these suits of armor rusted into postures of attack in flooded fields rattling away from the knights shivering inside.

We took a boat tour of Strasbourg.  The weather was grey, wet and cold so we thought it would be a good way to get an overview of the city in the relative warmth of a glass-covered boat.  The tour had earphones so that you could hear the narration in your own language.  Unfortunately they had background music that was incredibly sleep inducing. I could look around the boat and see all these tourists nodding off. It was disconcerting hearing an Irish narration of a French city that looked like it was actually German. Since it was raining fairly hard the cover of the boat was like a window in the rain – lots of water drops and streaks – so often the interesting viewpoints were obscured.  I thought that a lot of people who were taking photos were going to be disappointed when they looked at the results and saw 50 photos of rain-streaked windows. 

Strasbourg has the most incredible Cathedral.  It took 400 years to build and I can understand why.  The stonework is so elaborate it is mesmerizing.  Unlike all the other Cathedrals we have seen it is not white – it almost looks rusty.  The stone it was made from is a pinkish colour which lends it a lot of character.  When it was finished it was, at that time, the tallest man-made structure in the world – taller even than the Great Pyramid of Cheops.  Again we are back to the “Mine is bigger than yours” philosophy… 

The Cathedral in Strasbourg.  An erection that took 400 years to attain.  

All over Strasbourg are the usual tourist shops all selling the same things.  However, in Strasbourg, you can shop to the sound of a Polka band playing on the street.  Can you get much more surreal than that?  Or more tacky?  Buying a rhinestone encrusted pink Eiffel tower to the sounds of “Roll Out the Barrel” being played on accordion and trumpet?

Since Strasbourg is our last stop in France we decided to treat ourselves to a fancy dinner.  We asked our host, Guillaume, where a good restaurant might be.  He said “Chut!”.  Which means “Shhh” or “Silence”.  So, I immediately thought that I had said something subversive and looked warily around before asking again in a whisper, “Where is a good restaurant”.  Again he said, “Chut!”  So I got a piece of paper and looking around very nonchalantly I wrote the question and flashed it at him and quickly ate the paper.

“Non, non, non, Miss yu, zat ees ze nom of ze restaurant!”

“Please don’t call her Miss Yu. We are married now - you can call her Mrs. Walsh or Telen!  How come people keep talking to her when I am asking the question?”

Shhhh... we found the entrance to the restaurant.

We found the restaurant.  It wasn’t easy.  In behind the Torture Tower and around the corner was a small doorway.  In a small clip on the side of the door was a typewritten piece of paper about the size of half a postage stamp that said “Chut”.  We went in and were met by two smiling little French ladies who looked like someone’s favourite aunties.  After a bit of flapping around and rapidly spoken French they led us to our table.  They gave us each a glass of wine gratis because the table was not immediately available when we arrived.   We spent two and a half hours enjoying incredible food.  I am not normally one for making sure my plate was cleaned up but I actually took pieces of bread and mopped up every last remnant of food and sauce.  My plate did not look as if it had been used except for the two gleaming duck bones rattling around on it. 

What a great way to finish up our time in France. 

 

Paris in the Springtime...

Parisian Daze

The first impression we got of Paris was that everything was grand.  I don’t think there is a French word for “understated”.  Coming from Canada where absolutely everything except the weather is understated it feels overpowering.

Nothing subtle about Paris

On our travels we have seen quite a few over-stated places.  Las Vegas comes to mind.  Comparing Paris to Las Vegas is like comparing Champagne to a movie-theatre sized Coke.  One is pleasantly intoxicating – the other just gives you gas.

The location where we are staying in Paris is a bit of a distance from the major attractions but it is very close to the Metro.  This is both good and bad.  The bad part is that it takes about 30 minutes to get to the tourist areas.  The good part is that it takes only about 30 minutes to get away from the tourist areas. 

Since we are neophytes to Paris we decided that the first place we should see is the Champs Elysees.  There are two reasons for that.  One is that it is where the Tour de France finishes and, although the Tour is not on yet, it is still a place I wanted to see.  The other reason is that it is written as “Champs Elysees” on the Metro map and we could read that.

The Arc de Triomphe at the head of the Champs Elysees

The Champs Elysees is a lot longer than I thought and the surface is cobblestone.  The Tour de France riders make 10 circuits of the Champs Elysees on their final day.  That must be torture.  They are already exhausted by 21 days of racing and now they have to race 10 times around the Champs Elysees on those cobbles for the glory of being the stage winner in Paris.  No wonder they take drugs.

At the top of the Champs Elysees is the Arc de Triomphe.  This was erected to celebrate the victories of Napoleon.  It was erected by Napoleon.  Why didn’t he just make himself a nice plaque and hang it up in his living room?  It would have been cheaper and, certainly after spending all his money on killing other people, it would have been whole lot easier on the treasury.  It is truly an impressive structure with a lot of intricate scrollwork and detail.  I guess Napoleon wanted everyone to be impressed with his erection.

The Champs Elysees is one of the areas of Paris that is dedicated to the high priced stores.  It has the world’s largest Adidas store.  We went in just to see what they had that other Adidas stores did not.  They just had more of what the other stores had.  It was worth a look, anyway.  One of the weirdest stores we came across was a two-storey shop dedicated to the Nespresso machine.  The Nespresso machine is an espresso machine that uses cartridges of pre-ground espresso coffee to make you a nice little cup of espresso coffee. How can you dedicate two floors to a little coffee maker?  They managed it.   And it was working – the place was full of people buying espresso machines and special wooden or leather sheaths of espresso pods.  Ah! Modern merchandising!

The next day we went to the Louvre.  If you are in Paris you are required to see the Louvre otherwise you cannot say you were in Paris.  The Louvre is truly awe-inspiring.  There is so much to see in there that it almost beggars the imagination.  The building itself is huge and it is jam-packed with works of art dating back to Ancient Egypt or even earlier.  The Louvre houses some of the most famous works of art in the world including the Venus de Milo, Michelangelo’s “Dying Slave”, the Winged Victory of Samothrace and, of course, the Mona Lisa.

Things you don't want to see at the Louvre

We managed to get right up to the guardrail in front of the Mona Lisa and were able to look straight into the steely gaze of the security guards.  It was hard to spend any time with Mona because of the other tourists pushing up against you trying to get their glimpse.  The Chinese Tour groups all wanted to take pictures of each other in front of the Mona Lisa and were not averse to shoving you out of the way to do it. 

Meet Mona.   Likes the outdoors and Renaissance Art.  Likes to hang around in the Louvre.   

We spent all day at the Louvre and did not see even a small portion of all there was to see.  We caught the highlights and we saw quite a few of the Dutch Masters like Rembrandt and Van Eyck whom I particularly like. 

Meet Venus de Milo aka Aphrodite.  Into Greek culture and food.  Not as handy as she used to be.

The next day we went to Chateau Versailles.  This is a monument to excess and decadence.  It was instrumental in the French Revolution so I guess it had its place.  It is hard to imagine the royalty living in such excess when the majority of the French population were trading recipes for rat.  It was certainly worth seeing but you get pretty tired of seeing room after room of posh furniture and paintings commissioned by the Royalty depicting the magnificence of the Royalty.  It was certainly magnificent in its grandeur and the architects and artists that created it were obviously exceedingly talented.  I guess the French people in general were not that impressed - they beheaded those that commissioned the work. As an artist that certainly does not look good on your resume.

My worst nightmare - standing in the famous Hall of Mirrors in the Chateau Versailles

We went to the Eiffel tower.  That is an impressive structure.  Like the CN Tower or the Seattle Space Needle it is a structure that stands straight up and whose sole purpose seems to be “ See - mine is bigger than yours”.  I think someone is compensating for something…  The Parisians are very proud of it and want everyone to come.  They have elevators that will take you to the top but they cost money and they cram you in there like cream in a doughnut.  So we climbed the tower.  Well, we climbed to the second floor – although that sounds wimpy it more impressive when you think that the second floor is actually 42 stories up.  After that you have to take the elevator.  Those elevators slide up and down the tower and periodically spew out streams of tourists…  (Ok, enough with the phallic symbol jokes…)  The view from up there was amazing and makes you realize just how big Paris is.

Telen being impressed by the world's most famous steel erection

The D’Orsay museum was my personal favourite.  It is a bridge between the Louvre and now.   Whereas the Louvre has artwork from the beginning of art to the 1800s the D’Orsay has artwork from the 19^th Century until modern times.  That means it has work from the Impressionists and post-impressionists.  Including work from Van Gogh.  It was a huge thrill to be standing less than a meter from his “Starry Night” – especially when we saw the exact location he was in Arles when he painted it.  Yes, I am a geek – you don’t need to rub it in!

OMG!  It's the D'Orsay!!!!

Too many museums, too much artwork, too much of Rand's blithering

We went to Notre Dame Cathedral – the location of the famous novel “The Hunchback of Notre Dame”.  Telen was less than impressed with me when I touched the holy water and started writhing on the floor, slavering at the mouth and screaming, “It burns, it burns!”  All right, I am exaggerating a bit – I didn’t slaver.  I am generally not that impressed with huge churches – which are examples of self-aggrandizement.  But, you have heard THAT story before…

The Famous English language bookstore in the Latin Quarter.  Haven't heard of it?  It's famous...

We wandered around the Latin Quarter.   We really liked that.  It was a maze of narrow, winding cobblestone streets crammed with small cafes, restaurants and weird little shops.  It felt like I thought Paris would feel like.  We liked it so much that we went back a second visit.  Telen was disappointed to learn that she could not get Nachos and tortilla soup there – I had to explain that “Latin Quarter” did not mean Mexican.  It was named the “Latin Quarter” because it was the home of most of the universities there and the language of learning in those days was Latin.  It turns out she could get her Mexican food. There were a number of Mexican restaurants there.

Looking for Tortilla Soup in the Latin Quarter

 Paris is known as the “City of Lights”, among other things, so we went for a nighttime stroll.  It really was beautiful with all the monuments and bridges lit up.  The Eiffel Tower was lit up but was not sparkling like I thought it would.  The tour boats on the river would go cruising past with banks of huge spotlights giving the riverbanks photonic broadsides and blinding the tourists walking along the river.  I guess it was fun for the tourists on the boats watching all the land-based tourists staggering blindly around and crashing into each other.

Paris at night.

Paris is a grand city.   I can’t think of a better adjective to describe it.  Everything is done “grandly”.  There are monuments everywhere – mostly invoking Greek or Roman mythology – so lots of large statues in heroic poses.  All the buildings are large and very ornate.  The music, art and food are plentiful and very rich.  We were there for nine days and there was still a lot that we did not see. 

Telen Writes:

Paris is huge - there are 2 million inhabitants in the central core.  The D’Orsay museum is just across the river from the Louvre but it can take 15-20 minutes on foot.  Apparently the first Napoleon ordered the building of huge monuments and spaces for military parades and at the same time, to impress the common people of his power.  Well, my legs and feet protested louder and louder as the days went by.  We walked and walked, at least 6 hours a day in Paris in order to take in the sights.  Yup, it is that huge. 

Our B & B is complete with a full kitchen.  This meant that I could explore whole- heartedly in the local food market for culinary ideas.  Here in France, bread is sold in the “boulangerie” and sweet treats are sold in the “patisserie”.  You buy meat from the “boucherie”, and vegetables and fruits in the “fruiteria”.  I just love going through these shops – Rand just follows along carrying my purchases like a donkey.  This is where you find friendly personalized service and fresh produce.  Yesterday in the Saturday market, Rand and I saw some huge mangoes reminiscent of the ones from Australia.  The vendor gave us a sample to taste and it was really good.  He took great pride and deliberation in picking out the best one for us.  It was just a lot of fun watching him.  The mango he picked out for us was indeed perfectly ripe and delicious.

Our host Celine and Jide are a couple of awesome people.  They are also keen travellers.  They made a point to have coffee with us to chat about travels and life in France.  

Twilight on the Seine