The Cathedral Illuminated

On the summer nights in July and August, the city of Strasbourg stages a number of "illuminations". Basically, they wait until the sun goes down and then they put on some loud music and project images on buildings. Many of the illuminations are kind of artsy-fartsy deals with wierd music and even wierder imagery. Some are good and some are not worth stopping for.

I suppose this is just as much for the locals as for the tourists. The sad fact is that many folks come out at dusk to get out of their steaming hot apartments and to get some cooler evening air. It's a chance to walk, and let the sweat dry, and see people, and be seen.

The most popular of all illuminations is that of the Cathedral. Here, they don't screw around with avant-garde. The music is Mozart. There are no images projected, but rather the lights just highlight different areas of the facade. They mix up the colors and the brightness to match the mood of the music. The plaza and street in front of the portals is packed for the 10:30 start and not too many leave before it is finished. (You get a feel for this in the bottom picture. Note all the silhouettes of peoples' heads.)
It's a nice show. Sorry that the pictures don't do it justice. (Hey, you try taking pictures at night and see how they turn out. )

The Great War at Thann

An earlier post described a WWI battlefield, called Le Linge, that we stumbled across one week-end. It was a quiet, remote place on top of a mountain in the Vosges. Why anyone would fight over that ground, I could not understand.

While visiting Thann we got a few clues. I apologize in advance if this gets boring.

I mentioned before that Thann faces a flat strip of land that runs down toward the town of Belfort. This strip of land is about the only easy place for an army to march either to or from the heart of France. It is a passage between the mountains of the Vosges, and the Jura, and the Alps. It is known as the Belfort Gap.

The village of Belfort was heavily fortified by France to guard this opening. In 1870, the German army marched past Thann and then besiged Belfort and then marched on to Paris. Shortly after their victory, they drew some new borders for Germany and France. Thann was just inside the border of the new German territory of Alsace and Moselle. Belfort remained, just on the other side, at the Eastern edge of France.

On August 3, 1914, France and Germany and just about everyone else went to war. On August 7, 1914 the French marched out of the fortress of Belfort in hopes of reclaiming Alsace. Their first stop was Thann, which they liberated on that same day. The museum at Thann displays a flag made to commemorate the time.They next day, the French army marched into the city of Mulhouse and reclaimed the 2nd largest city in Alsace without a fight. It was looking to be a very short war. At least until the next day, when the Germans took Mulhouse back. At that point, the fighting settled into what became known as the Battle of the Frontiers. The Germans pushed the French back. The French pushed the Germans back. Then everyone dug trenches.

Thann ended up 3 kilometers inside the French lines. The good news was that it was liberated in 1914. The rest of Alsace would have to wait for 4 more years. This was not a happiest of situations, though. The village was shelled mercilessly. The museum told us that shelling occurred on 350 days during the 4 years of the war. Over 10,000 shells fell on the city and over 120 townspeople were killed. This included at least one poison gas shell which, in May 1918, killed 13 at one time.

Except for the flag, all photos in this posting come from the site http://www.firstworldwar.com/. I believe that all are in the public domain. All photos were taken in the Alsatian areas. I don't know what village the picture below comes from, but if that house is still there today then I'd bet it is covered with flower-filled window boxes. The intro picture shows a map from 1916 of the trench lines across the European front. If you double click to enlarge, you will see that the lines ran all the way from the North Sea down to Basel, in Switzerland. In Alsace, the lines ran over the tops of the Vosges through places such as Le Linge. They map also shows the 1870-defined borders and lists the Alsatian towns by their German spelling. (Strassburg, Kolmar, Mulhausen).

The picture below chills me to the bone. I don't know that it was taken at le Linge, but it was taken somewhere nearby in the Vosges. In this picture, the French troops are on the high ground and defending themselves from an assault from below. The guy standing, second from right, is so desperate that he is thowing rocks down the mountain to defend himself. The guy on the ground, at the extreme right, may well be under one of the thousands of crosses that to this day mark the graves in the mountains.

The Flowers at Thann

You've probably caught on to the fact that the Alsatians take their flowers to be a matter of pride. The people of Thann had plenty to be proud of. You can get a taste of the village and its flowers from the pictures below.

The Museum at Thann

Most every city in Alsace has a historical museum of some sort. Thann was no exception. For 2 euro you could get out of the sun and wander through the old three-story structure that serves at its museum. Following are some selected items for you.

Historically, Thann has been a wine village. At one time, the most influential group in town was the wine guild, a group of select village men who looked after the business. The intro picture shows a wine guild plaque from 1618. The second name listed is a "Baltzer Weber". I doubt that he was a relative...even a distant one. The surname "Weber" seems to be as common in German speaking countries as "Smith" is in English. But it is fun to speculate.

Evidently, the wine guild kept a chronicle of each growing season and harvest. The plaque below is the record for the year 1763. The writing on it is German. The French translation told us that "1763 - Humid spring. Flooding. On the Feast of Corpus Christi, a man fell from the summit of the tower while walking across the roof. Wine was good." Somehow I suspect the fellow who fell from the tower was into the wine that day. (The town, like all in that time, had a protective wall around it. The tower - a look out post - remains today despite the disappearance of the town wall.)

On the second floor was a big exhibit of sewing machines. Why? I have no idea. But it was OK. The pictures below show the exhibit and then a close-up of a model called "the Alsatia" made in Mulhouse.Finally, no home in the Vosges would be complete without a wood-burning ceramic stove to heat it during the winters. The model below was certainly one of the more up-scale. If you go to the pottery-making village of Soufflenheim, you can still buy these stoves. Actually, not so much to buy as to arrange to have one built into your home.

The Church at Thann

Thann is a small town at the southern end of Alsace. It marks the end of the Alsatian wine road as Rhine valley turns Eastward toward Basel and into Switzerland. Thann sits at the base of the Vosges mountains and faces the relatively flatter land that runs in a ribbon down to the fortress town of Belfort.

This post is share a few pictures of the little church in Thann. It isn't the biggest or the most ornate, but it has its charms. For example, the intro picture shows how each of the sections of roof are decorated with ceramic tiles in different patterns. The three pictures below show the ornate carving on the main portal, a sampling of the stained glass, and a statue from exterior.
Finally, the picture below shows the thing which, to me, is the most interesting feature. The dark tubular things under the pews are radiators for hot water heating. Guess they wanted no one to stay away because of the chill.

Picnic on the Grand Ballon

On Saturday, after shopping for a few things at the markets, Theresa and I took an afternoon drive into the Vosges Mountains. We ended up making a picnic on the top of the Grand Ballon, which is the highest mountain in the range at 1424 meters. (around 4300 feet).

Understand that the Grand Ballon isn't Mount Everest. There are no cliffs or rocky peaks. After all, the mountain's name translates into English as "the big ball". At the top is a grassy field that is used as a summer pasture for cattle. You can drive right up and park your car.

But it is a nice place to have a picnic. The views are tremendous and the temperatures are about 15 degrees cooler than in the valley below.

Bastille Day

Friday, July 14 is Bastille Day. This is roughly the equivalent of the Fourth of July in France. It is a public holiday, which means no work and a three day week end. Most everyone else headed out of town for extended trips. Joe, Wade, Patrick, and Andrea took a plane to Istanbul. Gabi, Irma, and Lucia went to Spain for a wedding. Chris and Jill went to Normandy. Theresa and I stayed in Strasbourg. I was too lazy to make plans and Theresa was too tired to argue.

Actually, staying in town was a good option. Strasbourg, and I assume all the villages, throws a public party for the 14th. Not during the day, mind you, because people sleep late and spend the afternoon barbecuing. In the early evening, though, the streets started to come to life. The sausage and kebab and beer vendors drag their trailers into the streets again. They put up a band-stand in Place Kleber and held a public dance. (I was told that public dancing is the tradition for Bastille day. I was promised waltzes and tangos, but in Place Kleber all I got was disco circa 1979.)

The red, white, and blue of the French flag could be seen everywhere, as seen in the intro picture taken in Place Gutenberg. Around 10:30 pm they put on a very good fireworks show in the skies over the old fortified bridge in the Petite France quarter of town. Lots of families with their kids came out as an end to a long day of food and relaxation. If not for the funny language, it could have been the Fourth of July in any town in America. It felt very familiar. It was good.

L'été & les Canicules

Things have slowed down in the past week. With the Tour de France has moved on to the South of France. The World Cup is all over, except for the lingering depression of the French fans. I just realized the other day that it is the middle of July. Summer is half gone.

Regarding the title of this post - L'été & les Canicules. Forgive me if it sounds pretentious, but these two words are the topic of much discussion these days. The French word for Summer is "été. If you do crossword puzzles, then sooner or later you learn this word. "Canicule" is the french word for "heatwave".

The springtime was very mild this year. Days were cool (60s) and rain was frequent. This lasted into the first week of June. Then the summer finally came to stay. For the past 5 or 6 weeks, the days have been sunny and the skies mostly clear. The normal daily high temperatures have been in the upper 80s or low 90s.

Now these temperatures are fairly normal for the summer....but theys still qualify as a heatwave. You see, most of the country does not have air conditioning. When the heat of summer comes, the people adjust their lifestyle rather than their thermostat. If France is known for its outdoor cafe's, then it is with good reason. No one wants to sit inside ... it's too hot. Similarly, if it seems that the people dine late...say 8 pm or 9 pm... then that's because it is more comfortable to come out at that time of evening.

The intro picture shows Theresa and Irma (Gabi's mom) re-hydrating in a cafe. Irma returned to Strassbourg the first week of June and will now stay until it is all over...sometime in December probably.

The picture above shows two ways that Alsatians adjust to summer. The first is that they leave their doors open. The second is they drink cold beer. Regarding the second point, it seems that wheat beers are more popular during the summer. Don't know why. Regarding the first point, we are lucky that our apartment was built for the heat of summer. If we open all the doors and windows, we get a great cross breeze going that keeps things tolerable both day and night. Excepting on humid days, when no amount of breeze will cool. On these days, you have to find refuge by going to the movies or driving in an airconditioned car.Finally, it amazes me that one can measure the passing of the summer in Alsace just the same as in Indiana. The first cutting of hay was in early June. The corn is doing well - more than knee high by the fourth of July. The cherries and strawberries and peas are beginning to fade from the markets and are now being replaced by raspberries and blueberries and green beans. The wheat harvest has been going full force the last week or so, as shown by the picture above.

A Good Week-end, A Nation Disappointed

Throughout the remainder of last week, the entire nation of France was swelling with pride and expecations for their national team in the final game of the World Cup. That was all there was to talk about. The game was scheduled for Sunday night at 8:00pm. Everything else was just killing time until that moment of truth.

Now, there is a common European complaint that Americans are overly patriotic and that we wave the flag too much. I don't buy it. I have never seen so many flags as I have in France the past two weeks....as the national team has gone from being a joke to being a legitimate contender for the championship. The window box above is the rule, and not the exception. All were waving the flag and waiting for Sunday.

On Friday night, Theresa and I went to Karlsruhe, Germany, to meet our friend Lakis for drinks and dinner. As luck would have it, there was a street festival going on in Karlsruhe (actually in the village of Durlach, which is nearby.) It was a perfect evening of street musicians and sausages and exotic beers. Perfect until the rains came and soaked us all. Below is a picture of Theresa on the Right, and then Michael and his family in the center, then Lakis, and then Holger Roeder. (Holger is on the project with us in Fegersheim. Lakis and Micheal are good freinds who work for one of our software vendors in Karlsruhe.)

Saturday was a day of shopping and napping. Germany played Portugal for 3rd place in the world cup...and won. Good for Germany. Yawns throughout the rest of the world.

On Sunday, Gary Philpy and his wife Jan came to town. We went, of course, up to Mount Saint Odile. The picture came out fuzzy so I will not post it. Then we went to the village of Eguisheim to do a little tourism and wine tasting. As the picture below hints, the town and all its windowboxes were in full bloom. Flowers, flowers everywhere.

One entertaining moment came when a soon-to-be-married young man passed through on his bachelor party. He is the one dressed in the Santa outfit. His friends are on the bicycles. His mission is to beg gifts from everyone and anyone in the town for his upcoming wedding. The blue thing strapped to his back is what the grape harvesters would wear. In his case, he was tossing all his beggings into his back-basket.After a beautiful afternoon in Eguisheim, we returned to Strasbourg. Headed to Murphy's Pub at 6 pm to stake out a table for the game. Five hours later, after France and Italy had played to a 1-1 tie, the game and the championship was decided on shoot-out of penalty kicks. France missed one. Italy missed none. And in a matter of minutes, all of the elation in France became depression. Italy had won the world cup. Millions would soon be celebrating in Rome and Milan and all points Italian. In Strasbourg and all of France, the people were folding up their flags and heading home for the night.

Holger, our friend mentioned above, says that soccer is just like life. You can do everything you're supposed to do and do it perfectly....but still lose out to someone else in a stroke of fate. This is what happened to France. The dominated the game in every way but could not score a goal when then needed to. To the lucky goes the victory. To the victor goes the spoils. It will be a week or two until the French come out of their funk of disappointment. But such is life. C'est la vie.

How Do You Say "Pull My Finger" In German??

You see signs like the one above everywhere in Germany. On the highways, in parking garages, in public buildings.

Ausfahrt

This is, roughly, the German word for "Exit".

The 13 year-old in me laughs every time I see it. Pull my finger and I'll Ausfahrt.

Sorry, but I just had to get this guilty pleasure off my chest.

World Cup Update - France Advances to Finals, Germany Left Broken-Hearted

At the beginning of the week, the World Cup was down to four teams in the semi-final round. Germany and Italy squared off on Tuesday. France and Portugal on Wednesday. These two games determine the contenders for the final match on Sunday, July 9.

On Tuesday, we went to Offenburg in Germany to watch the German match. Offenburg has set up a giant screen TV in the town square and local folks turned out in droves to support the German team. I don't know how many people were in the square but it was a lot. The air was thick with German Flags waving and bellowed songs (fueled of course by the beer that was being sold in huge quantities.)

The German team played Italy to a tie through the 90 minutes of regular time and then through 28 of the 30 minutes of overtime. Just when everyone was getting prepared for a sudden death shoot out, the Italians scored 2 goals in the last 2 minutes to win. You have never seen so many people go so quiet so quickly. The entire nation was crushed. Italy advanced and Germany was left to dream of 2010.

On Wednesday, the French had better luck. We watched the game again from Murphy's Irish Pub because they tune in the BBC broadcast of the game with English commentary. France scored at the 30 minute mark and basically hung on for 60 more minutes to win the game. Once again, Strasbourg errupted. Place Kleber again had thousands of people out with flags, railroad flares, climbing the statues, and tearing down flagpoles. This time, however, the city was a bit better prepared. They stopped all traffic into the city when the game started and had the riot squads pre-positioned.

All in all, Strasbourg was well-behaved. Better than in Paris where one person was killed and many injured in the celebration overnight. Most of the injuries seem to come when people fall off of statues.

The cars were driving by the apartment honking until probably 2 am in the morning. Today I am dying from lack of sleep. Also, the legs are really sore as a result of standing for 3 hours for 2 nights in a row watching games.

Sorry, no pictures. Here is a link to Le Monde's photo coverage of the celebrations. Text is in French and pictures are from Paris. But it doesn't matter....was pretty much the same in Strasbourg and every other city in France after last night's victory.

Again, the final match is on Sunday. By midnight, all of France will either be celebrating or mourning. We shall see how it turns out. But it will be very interesting either way.

Tour de France - Stage 1

Sunday, July 2 marked the first full day of the Tour de France. The day before was just a time trial to warm up the riders and the crowds. Sunday was the first road course and it covered a route of 185 kilometers (about 115 miles). The riders left Strasbourg in the early afternoon, headed west toward the Vosges mountains, curled around and headed back East into Germany, and then crossed back over the river into Strasbourg for the finish.

We headed downtown to see the start. The opening picture shows the riders parading up past the Cathedral to Place Gutenberg for the opening ceremonies. After the riders left town, Theresa and I went back to the apartment to watch on TV. This was kind of fun as the race passed through most of the villages that we often drive to go up to Mount Saint Odile. Then in the afternoon, we headed over toward the University to catch the arrival.

A cycling race is not the most exciting thing to watch. They wiz by at 40 miles an hour...which means that you stand waiting for a couple of hours to see about 10 seconds of action. Still, it was worth it to experience the atmosphere and the theater of the event.

After Sunday's stage, the riders were all trucked over to Obernai for the 2nd stage on Monday. With this stage, they headed North to finish in Luxembourg. The tour had left Alsace and it looked promising that things might get back to normal. I was even park in front of the apartment again.

The Perfect Ending to a Perfect Day

Above is a picture of the statue and the flagpoles in Place Kleber. Hang with me and I'll explain why I include this picture.

Theresa's birthday had already been jam packed with the Tour de France. First the Caravane and then the Prologue and then the birthday party. However, as if that weren't enough, the entire nation of France was just killing time until 9:00 pm. That is when France played Brazil for the right to go to the final four of the World Cup of soccer.

The set-up for this story requires that you understand two things. First, the Brazilian team is far and away considered the favorite to win the tournament. Second, the French team is a bunch of old men (in their mid-thirties) who have had one foot in the grave in every game they've played. On paper, Brazil should have massacred the French team.

Though not necessary for the story, I want to make one more observation. American sports fans need to sing more. Soccer fans burst into song spontaneously whereever you find them. The Brazilians and the Spanish dance in the streets as they sing snappy latin songs. The Germans can't spend 15 minutes on the street or in a bar without bursting into a rowsing chorus of "Deutchsland" or some other beer-drinking song.

The French aren't the best singers but they still put Americans to shame. This year, the chorus is "allez les bleus"....basically translated as "go blue". Blue, of course, is the color of their team's uniforms. They also burst into singing their national anthem, Le Marseillaise, at the drop of a hat. (I suspect that folks from the USA would do the same if we had a national anthem that could be sung without opera training.)

But I digress. The key point is that the French won the match 1 - 0. David beat Goliath. Do you believe in miracles......yesssss.

So as I said before, the opening picture is of the statue in Place Kleber. When we left Place Kleber at around midnight Saturday after the game, there were about 15 people climbing on the statue. They were part of the thousands of elated "bleus" who came to the square to celebrate. There was a conga line of about a hundred folks. Railroad flares were being waved around. Cars were being bounced (but not overturned). The last of the four French flags was being ripped from the flagpoles for the crowd to parade with. If it wasn't a riot, it was getting close. The riot police were taking up positions and putting on their shin-guards. Time to leave.

This victory, mind you, was only to get into the final four. On Tuesday, Germany plays Italy. On Wednesday, France plays Portugal. If France wins, the country will go crazy. If Germany wins, the country will explode into song. Should either France or Germany (or both) get into the final game, then it will be very interesting indeed.

Tour de France - The Birthday Party

Saturday was Theresa's birthday, after all. A good number of our friends came over to celebrate. If the food didn't attract them then the facilities probably did. Our bathroom isn't the cleanest in the world, but I think it was a preferred alternative to the public port-a-johns that were brought in for the Tour.

Opening picture is a bone I throw to my family. Got some complaints that none of the pictures included me. You can see half of Andrea's head, then me, Lucia, Wade, and Rosario. Rosario was a nice surprise. He is Italian and worked previously with us in Geneva. He came up for the day with Andrea's husband, Tim.

This looks like murderers row. At this point, folks were camped out watching the world cup soccer match between Portugal and UK. From right to left are Joe, Mindy, Daniela (Lucia's niece), and Gaby.

This is the view out the window of the apartment. Gives you a feel how far we had to go to watch Tour.

Finally, Theresa decided she was going to fly the colors of the USA. She found a flag and hung it in front of the apartment. Following is a picture of Patrick posing for the folks at home. (Note: The hat was one that was thrown from the caravane that passed before the race. It advertises Skoda, the official car of the Tour de France.)
Theresa was rooting for the Discovery Channel team since that sounded the most American of all the teams. Come to find out, they only have one person from the USA on their team.

Tour de France - The Prologue

Ok...if you are interested in bike racing then here's a bone for you...as a continuation of the last post. There actually was racing going on. Saturday was officially known as "the Prologue of the Tour de France". It was a race against the clock. Each rider was turned loose onto a 7.1 kilometer course (about 4.4 miles) and expected to cover it as fast as possible. Sixty seconds later, another rider is turned loose. This continues for 170 or so riders.

When I say "turned loose", that is exactly what I mean. Each rider is released down a ramp kind of like a ski jumper. The opening picture shows one of them just after release.

Though the prologue counts in the overall standings it is generally considered to be a puff piece for the fans. Real racing, they say, happens over a 150 mile course in the mountain stages. The city circuits are for the sponsors.

Regardless of the puffery, it's still good theater. Each rider is preceded by a police motorcycle, then sometimes a television cameraman on a motorcycle, then comes the cyclist, then comes a chase car with about $100,000 worth of equipement strapped to its roof.

The big news this year, at first, was that Lance Armstrong had retired after winning 6 times in a row. It's not fair to generalize... but it can be accurate. One can generally say that Lance Armstrong was despised in Europe. Despised may actually be too weak a word. Every purist on the continent was looking forward to the winner being either Ivan Basso (Italy I believe) or Jan Ulrich (Germany??). Then, on the day before the race, a big doping scandal broke and the favorites were banned from the race. The purists weep.

If you want to see other pictures of the Prologue of the Tour de France, you can go to this link or also to this link.

Theresa Has a Birthday, France Throws a Party

July 1 is Theresa's birthday. This year for her birthday, she got up at 9:00 am and took four folding chairs down to the street. Then she sat on the street in front of our apartment until about 4:00 pm. Before you think her crazy, you need to realize that there were a few hundred thousand other people who did the same thing.

This past Saturday, July 1, was the opening day of the 2006 Tour de France bicycle race. (Actually, opening day is for baseball. For bicycles, they call it the "Grand Départ".) Oddly enough, this year the Grand Départ was in Strasbourg. Odder still, the start / finish of the opening day time-trial was about three blocks from our apartment. The riders all passed down our street and then returned again after making the 7+ kilometer circuit.

The bikes are a big deal, but the really big deal is the "caravane", or the sponsor's parade that starts two hours before the first rider. The caravane includes over 200 vehicles that toss out tons of junk to the crowd. And I do mean tons. If you're not watching, you could get nailed in the head by a single serving package of coffee or a mini-salami. The caravane went on for about 90 minutes. No one can pay attention to flying promotional items for that long.

It was a hot day. Luckily they were giving away hats. I think each of us ended up with 5 or 6. The opening picture is Theresa getting sprayed down by the Aquarel water mobile. That's how she dealt with the heat.