Strasbourg, Wednesday October 8

The day started out kind of dark and rainy, but we went ahead with our plans to head in to Strasbourg for the weekly Untour orientation and general ‘how's it going’ meeting (and free lunch). We did feel quite well oriented already, but there was still lots for us to see and do in Strasbourg, and it was a chance to reunite with the two participants in last week’s drawing class and see how things were going for them.

Our plans to again take the train from Sélestat fell through when we discovered that the parking spaces near the station were totally filled up, except for those limited to just over two hours. Commuters no doubt. But Sélestat is on the way to Strasbourg, so we just kept going in our car. Strasbourg parking was easy, thanks to a sign at the edge of town pointing us to a conveniently located garage and announcing that there were over 200 vacant spaces available at that moment.

The garage was located just across from the lower left corner of the Grande Île as shown on the map in last Saturday’s blog. The bridge we chose to walk across was actually a two-story building with floodgates beneath it. In the event of siege they could open the gates and flood the approach to town. The main floor of the building was now used for display of ancient artifacts such as gargoyles and statues preserved from buildings that apparently are no longer in existence.

 Retired gargoyles

 

 Strange mixes of people and mythical animals

My kingdom for the other half of my horse!

We had plenty of time before the noon meeting, so we walked around the cathedral area for a while and then settled in at the nearby Maison Naegel for coffee and hot chocolate, a bit of pastry, and a chair to sit in. The food offerings there were very attractive, but we knew that a good lunch would be coming up soon and didn’t want to spoil our appetites too awfully much.

But we couldn’t resist capturing some of the goodies in the window to feast upon here in our memories. Note the three types of eclairs:  vanilla, chocolate, and coffee, with matching custard on the inside. The big fruit tart in the second photo certainly looks worth $36 to me! 

Also tempting was this display of bretzels at a shop across the street.

But we moved on to our appointed meeting place in front of the cathedral, seen here in the background of this drawing done by Sue Anne at the corner of the square.

Below is her quick sketch in markers of the Maison Kammerzell, 1427 AD. It is a show off building of the era. With lots of scuptures, carvings, paintings, and windows. Evidently the only glass available was tiny round ones, sometimes called bulls eyes. That is why you see all those circles. They were a fun challenge to draw.

 

There we met up with the two women from last week’s art class, who reported success in their recent artistic efforts. Shortly afterwards Alicia from Untours arrived, and we learned that the four of us comprised the entire attendance list for the day. It turns out to be the end of the Untours season in Alsace, and we are the final participants till next spring.

Since we all felt well oriented, the ‘meeting’ was a short one. We walked to the other square at the side of the cathedral, took in the view from there, and studied the monument to the stone cutters and masons responsible for this and so many other glorious buildings. Note the various tools of the trade in evidence in the carvings. But the mason himself doesn’t resemble any Masons that we have ever met.

A happy coincidence while we were there: an expat friend of Alicia’s happened to walk by, stopped for a chat, and turned out to be full of interesting historical facts about the cathedral. As is the case with so much we have encountered in Alsace, its background is quite unconventional in comparison to that which one encounters in the rest of France. It wasn’t built by the church but by the top tier of residents in the city, the ones who controlled the various guilds and the local government. It did of course take a few hundred years (400) to complete. It started out Roman Catholic, but then became Protestant for a time, and then went back to Catholic, echoing the various swings in which country controlled the place. We learned more about the class and government structure later in the day at the Musée Historique.

Then it was just a short walk to the Café Restaurant Le Gruber, where lunch was in full  swing.

 

 The first two floors were utterly crammed with customers, but the staff led us up to the third, where we had a room to  ourselves. For a few minutes. We were cautioned that it too would fill up very soon, so we got our orders in before the remaining crowd arrived.

The meals, ordered individually from the menu this time, were delicious and the conversation enjoyable.

Then we headed back to the square, capturing this zoom lens view of one of the people there at the moment. We then bid au revoir and merci to Alicia, and decided to see the inside of the cathedral.

 

This time there were no signs forbidding photography or even flash.

The organ was magnificent!

 

 The technological marvel at the far back of the church was this astronomical clock. We lost track of how many things it was computing and ended up buying a book to explain it all.

The area became illuminated just before the 3 o’clock performance of moving figures up at the top, but the performance itself was a dud. Two figures moved a very short distance, and one of them rang a bell on the way by. Did there used to be more action when the clock was first created, or was 3 PM just nap time for the moving figures?

 Here are the gears and dials associated with just one piece of it.

And a view of what time it was everywhere in the world.

Other displays showed date, astrological sign, and lots more.

Then it was au revoir to our two artist friends, and back toward the car with a stop at the very interesting and informative Musée Historique. Our English language headsets provided an excellent narration as we walked through many centuries of Strasbourg.

 The exhibits were very informative, and even hands-on in some cases. Bruce tried on a steel battle helmet (well secured against theft by a chain) but concluded that heads must have been smaller back in those days. It sure was heavy. They even had a set of horse armor on display.

We learned that in the early times there were six social classes, legally defined and among other things required to dress in prescribed clothing styles appropriate to their station. The group at the top constituted the heads of the guilds and high officials of the local government. Upward mobility was certainly not a feature of the times, although a later exhibit did stress the rise of the common soldier Jean Baptiste Kléber to the position of a well respected General in the French Revolution. Kléber was also quite a ladies man. Tall, blond, handsome, he is said to have observed (paraphrased from memory) that “Any man who remains farther than 20 centimeters from a woman is an imbecile.”

Quite amazing was the giant 18th century relief map (3D model) of the city, accurate to the level of streets, buildings, paint colors, and window treatment of the entire place, commissioned by the King Louis of the time. Marvelous narration was provided ‘in the voice of the engineer responsible for its creation’, even speaking in English! And illustrated with holograms. He led a team of people who surveyed every square meter of the city, produced accurate drawings of everything (Urban Sketching on a large scale), and then recreated the place in paper maché at a scale of 1:600. The king had commissioned many of these maps, which he employed in his planning of wartime defenses.

The tour brought us through the many back and forth swings in government, language, religion, and social structure of the place, culminating in the recovery from World War II and the forming of the European Union, whose headquarters is here in Strasbourg—a city symbolic of upheaval and reunion.

Then it was back to the car. This time we chose to take the recently created (50 years or so ago) walkway across the top of the barrier building. There were great views as we bade farewell to Strasbourg with this panorama of the confluence of the River Ill, and settled in for the rush hour drive home to Bergheim, our village.