The Ramparts of Strasbourg

In Strasbourg it is all about diplomacy. Militarism and war are far out of sight and mind in the city of today. However, there are vestiges of a less peaceful past. This post is picking up where the last one left off.

In 1870, Strasbourg was still considered a substantial fortress on the Eastern frontier of France. The defenses constructed by Vauban had served the town well for 300 years or so...at least until August of that year when when the Prussians began their siege of the town. Soon it was obvious that the old walls couldn't stand up to the new technology.

When the walls were built, their task was to stand up to cannon balls being bounced against them from a distance of 500 yards or so. In August 1870, the Germans set up their new carbon steel Krupp artillery and lobbed shells from a mile or so away... over the wall into the heart of the town. Over 200,000 shells in total. The bombardment of Strasbourg was the humanitarian crisis of its day. It was not the first time that civilians were targeted in order to break the will of the army. But it foreshadowed that improving technologies of war would increasingly put the population centers in play and at risk.

Anyway, Germany won the war in 1871 and claimed Alsace and Lorraine as a prizes. One of the first things that the new conquerors did was to re-fortify Strasbourg as a frontier stronghold against the French. In the 1870s, they quickly rebuilt the city defenses to incorporate postitions for modern artillery and machine guns. They encircled Strasbourg with an "inner defensive ring".
Today, very little of the German-built defenses are visible. Much, it seems, was torn down when they built the major highways around the town. However, there is a section of the old wall that remains- beginning near Cronenbourg and extending behind the Strasbourg train station. The outward facing side of the wall looks like big tree covered hills. The areas around it are covered with walking paths and public vegetable gardens, as shown in the picture below.
In between the gardens, however, you can find pretty significant traces. The opening picture shows the Kriegstor (German for War Gate) that would have linked Strasbourg with Cronenbourg. (Kronenburg in those days...spelled the same as the beer.) The second picture shows a blinded gun emplacement, one of several that seem to be placed every few hundred yards apart.

The pictures below show the casements on the interior side of the wall. The casements provided storage for shells for the artillery positions on top of the wall or access to the blinded emplacments on the other side of the wall. The first picture below shows one of the casement doors with the construction date of 1878 appearing at left. The second picture shows one of the larger casements that is still used today as a depot by the local police. The third picture below shows the remains of a bastion...on top of which would probably been a battery of artillery pieces.

They Germans also realized that, to prevent a repeat of the 1870 bombardment, they needed to keep any invading army from getting close enough to Strasbourg to lob shells into it. Consequently, they designed an "outer ring" of detached forts to keep opposing forces at a safe distance. They built a dozen or so of these forts in a circle around the city. Some of them they built on the German side of the Rhine. The remainder on the French side. (If you are truly interested, then you can work your way through this French site dedicated to the forts.)

There is actually one of these detached forts, Fort Uhrich, about a mile or so away from the site where I work. It is abandoned and overgrown and you have to hike through the woods to find it. Most of these forts are forgotten and only seen on topographic maps. Or you can recognize them from the air by the tell-tale water works that encircle them, as shown by this example and this other example.

The Citadel of Strasbourg

Strasbourg claims to be the capitol of the new Europe. Besides hosting the European Parliament, the city works hard to draw the international crowd in both business and tourism. In the past year of living and working around Strasbourg, we've been impressed with the ease that one can pass into Germany and Switzerland and Belgium. It's like borders have become a thing of the past.

In the past, though, it was quite different. For much of its history, Strasbourg has been an outpost on the frontier. As an independent free city in the middle ages, it was surrounded by city walls. These walls were designed to hold back people and spears and arrows. All that remains of those walls are the towers of the Ponts Couvert, or covered bridges near the Petite France district.

In the 1600's, after annexing Alsace to France, Louis XIV fortified Strasbourg as a frontier fortress against the German Princes and Hapsburgs to the East. His military architect Vauban redesigned the defenses to withstand the new high-technology of cannons and musketry. The old city walls were razed and more modern (for those times) fortifications were rebuilt. The centerpiece of the new defenses were the citadel - a five-sided star fort built on the East side of the city. That old citadel stood for 350 years or so, overlooking the Rhine and in its time seeing changes in technology and national borders. It was destroyed by the Germans in 1870 and then rebuilt by the conquerors to protect their newly claimed land from the French. In the end, the old star fort was destroyed by urban expansion and rising property values, I suppose.

All that remains of the old citadel today is one of the five walls, preserved as the centerpiece of the Parc de la Citadelle. The old water zones, moats by any other name, are preserved in the park as part of the landscaping. All these photos were taken in the park on Saturday, October 21.As a side note, the fortifications of Vauban were everywhere. In this blog alone we have documented visits to Luxembourg, Neuf Brisach, and Bitche. Freiburg, in Germany, was also fortified by Vauban back in the days of Louis XIV.

Things Seen Around Freiburg

Not only at the cathedral, but all around the town of Freiburg there is an attention to detail. Like the gilded statue of Saint George that sits atop the fountain in the Münsterplatz. The following are just a few photos of these simple things.A window with flower boxes.Doorway to the Rathaus, or city hall.A street sign leading to the city hall plaza, or Rathausplatz.
A side walk Weinstub.

Things Seen Outside the Freiburg Cathedral

Freiburg's cathedral is surrounded by a large, wide plaza (the Münsterplatz). The building is not boxed in tightly by the rest of the town, as are Cathedrals in Rouen or Toledo, Spain. You can really get a good view of the exterior and the details of it's craftsmanship.

This post contains photos of the gargoyles that decorate the roof and serve as downspouts for rainwater. The opening photo shows perhaps the most unique gargoyle that I've ever seen. Double click on it to enjoy a larger view. Then enjoy the rest below.

Things Seen Inside the Freiburg Cathedral

The Cathedral at Freiburg (Münster in German) looks like a slightly smaller sister to the Strasbourg Cathedral. Freiburg's church is built of the same pink sandstone as Strasbourg's and many of the gothic details look the same. In fact, the two churches shared some of their architects and I'd bet money that they shared stone masons and carpenters as well.

On the inside, Freiburg's Cathedral has impressive art pieces, much more so that Strasbourg. I believe this is because the building never traded hands during the protestant reformation and, consequently, was never purged of it's idolatrous depictions of saints. (You can play with an interactive photo of the interior at this site.)

The intro picture is a woodcarving (almost lifesize) of the last supper. I could only get half of it in the camera's viewfinder and you need to double click on the picture to enlarge. This carving turned out to be the major topic of conversation for the Da Vinci Code readers. To the extreme left is Jesus at the center of the table. Immediately to His right is a figure with a clean face and long hair with head on His lap. Is this Saint John the Evangelist? Or Mary Magdalene? You be the judge.

The remaining pictures below are of the stained glass and statues. As you may have noticed from previous posts, I'm a sucker for stained glass. The Freiburg Cathedral has some really sharp colors...vivid reds and deep blues. The figures are also well-executed and are almost always dressed in the garb of the middle ages. Even the folks removing Jesus from the cross (first picture of stain glass, above) look more like German burghers from 1400 than they look like Israelites of 33 AD.In the last picture, note the scissors in the center window. I believe this is a symbol of the tailor's guild. Many of the windows bear such symbols - pretzels for the baker's guild and barrels for the wine makers.

Shopping in Freiburg

Freiburg, Germany is just about an hour down the road from Strasbourg. On Saturday, October 21, a several of the ladies conspired to head down there to go shopping. Theresa, Gabi, Lucia, Cindy, and Mindy were the conspirators. Joe Grabczak, who was visiting from Indy, and I went along for the ride. Picture below is of the group (with Gabi behind the camera) after sucking down a lunch of traditional German food.
Theresa and I had been to Freiburg before, for the Christmas markets. On this October day, the weather was a marked improvement from the last trip. It was sunny and in the 70s - a welcome change to the rain and the cold and the fog of the past few weeks. It seemed that everyone in else was out enjoying the weather too. The town center was buzzing with people.Freiburg is one of the great university centers of Germany and the town has the artsy-fartsy-upper-income feel of most centers of higher learning. It's kind of like Madison, Wisconsin except the people have a stronger accent. The town center has a long pedestrian boulevard with tons of shops lining the street. The intro picture gives a glimpse of this strip with the old town gate tower in the background. Just off to one side of the boulevard is the Cathedral. The picture above shows the Cathedral with crowds milling about. In the surrounding plaza, there were a number of markets stalls selling new wine, sausages, baskets, and farm produce (as shown below).There was almost a carnival atmosphere because of all the street musicians and performers who were taking advantage of the warm day to try to earn a few coins from the shopping crowd. Some aerobat had errected a 250 foot tower next to the Cathedral where he was performing tricks and doing high-wire acts.
Wherever there are street performers, we always seem to find the ubiquitous Peruvian Pan Flute Dudes. When ever we travel, we seem to find these guys. Lo and behold, they were in Freiburg on Saturday.

The Driving Test

As mentioned previously, we took the written test for our French driving license about two weeks ago. Having passed that, Jill Hagan and I were scheduled to take the driving test on Friday, October 20. Over the past couple of weeks there have been several lessons with a driving instructor to prepare for the big exam.

After 30 years of driving, the act has become a reflex much like breathing. The thing about reflexes is that the worst thing you can do is think about what you're doing. Try it...try to concentrate on breathing....and after 5 minutes you'll hyperventilate. A similar thing happened when I was put in a car with a driving instructor telling me to think about every thing I was doing. After 5 minutes, I became the most dangerous person on the road.

The intro picture shows our driving teacher, Tarik. Tarik is perhaps the kindest and most patient man I've ever met. He speaks four languages and is a passionate about nature and has several children, including a son in the foreign mission of International Red Cross. Over the past two weeks, the phrase I've heard Tarik say most frequently is "why did you do that?"

"Why did you do that?"
"Do what? "
"Wait so long to pass that bicyclist?"
"Because I was trying to drive safely?"
"But you almost made that car back there crash into us."
"I'm sorry"
"It's no problem. Don't drive so slow. Just relax and drive with confidence"
"Ok, I will"
"Now why did you do that?"
"Do what?"
"Pass that bus? You're supposed to let him come out when he signals left"
"But I didn't want to be to tentative and he signaled at the last minute and I didn't want the guy behind me to hit us."
"It's no problem. Don't drive so fast. Just relax and drive with confidence."
"Ok, I will"
"Oh James, why did you do that??"
" Do what?"
" You were supposed to stop? Didn't you see the sign?"
"No...
"Why not? Weren't you paying attention?"
Yes..I was so busy paying attention to bicyclists and buses and cars behind me...I forgot to look in front of me..."

Somehow, we survived without serious injury.

Tarik prepared us for the test in the sharp, sassy little Citroën C3 shown below. He prepared us for the mechanical questions such as how to open the hood and the location of all the fluid reservoirs and the sticker with the tire inflation instructions and switch for turning off the passenger-side airbags. We were set. Good to go.

So, Jill and I took our driving test on Friday morning. I can't tell you whether we passed or failed because you have to wait for 2 business days before calling the prefecture for your results. Neither one of us was mistake-free, so it's anybody's guess. But for now, it's nice to relax and drive again with all my old, bad habits.

Things Seen Outside and Inside

Here are a few random pictures of things seen outside and inside the apartment. The intro picture was taken from the guest bedroom window. There should be a law against kayaking on week-end mornings before noon.

The picture below was taken inside. This is a local brand of beer called "L'Alsacienne sans Culotte". If your eyes are good enough to make out the label, then you've probably already figured out the translation..."the alsatian girl without panties". (Actually, this is a pretty decent dark beer.)Picture below was taken outside. This is how we dispose of the stale bread. (This is the problem with french bread....it only lasts for a day before it goes stale and after two days it is like a rock.) This picture was taken the other day when Theresa was feeding the old bread to the ducks from the bedroom window.
The picture below was taken inside. This is my chicken. Theresa bought it for me at the European Fair. I think he is beautiful. Functional too. He is filled with Cognac.

Cabbage Harvest Time

We have measured the passing of our year in Strasbourg by the produce at the farmers markets. When you see asparagus and peas and spinach, it is the spring time. When you see the green beans and the cherries and gladiolus it is the early summer. When you see the tomatos and corn, it is late summer. Apples and plums foretell of fall. Squash and pumkins and potatos mean that winter is coming.

Our year is almost over. Time has flown.

They are even harvesting the cabbage in the big fields out by Molsheim and Krautergersheim. Krautergersheim, after all, is German for the village of the sauerkraut makers. (The opening picture is the sign on the autoroute, just to prove there is really such a village. The picture below, also taken from a moving car, is of the cabbage fields.)
When they drive the harvester through the cabbage fields, the heads fly through the air like popcorn popping. The harvesters leave the roots and the big, base leaves in the fields to rot. So, from Strasbourg to Molsheim the smell is of rotting cabbage. This is the smell of Alsace when November is approaching.

The Toughest *$%#^& Test I Ever Took

This is a story of bureaucracy run amok. It's a story of how the little guy gets blown by the winds and whims of government employees. It's an example of blind policy at the expense of logic.

You see, in early August, I found out that I needed to get a French driver's license.

Now, we knew before we came that France required visitors to get a French driving license after they'd been in the country for more than one year. But since we were only scheduled to stay for about 15 months, we expected that this would be a minor inconvenience. I figured that, at worst, the risk was a 100 euro fine if one got stopped with an expired license. After all, if the nation of France could trust us to drive for 12 months, surely 15 months would not pose a serious risk.

About the middle of July, Joe Moeddel (one of the Americans in Strasbourg) did a Google search out of curiosity. There was a lot of conflicting information on the web, but it became clear that one was supposed to get the license before the 12 month anniversery of the "debut date" of one's French visa. And what is the pain if you don't get a license? Come to find out, it means your auto insurance is null and void. So, to cut to the chase....

• No auto insurance means no car. The leasing agency wants the car back if your insurance lapses.
• You can't buy supplemental insurance to make up for it. Not in France. Not in the US.
• Not a big problem because I got my work visa in December of last year so my license is good until December.
• Except for the fact that the French Government screwed up and stamped it with a debut date of September instead of December.
• And, of course, if you call the government they agree that it's a mistake... but they can't correct it because there is no process for correcting it because, officially, they don't make mistakes.
• Then we learn that each state in the US has the option to sign an agreement with France to get reciprocal recognition of driving licenses.
• Not a problem, since most states in the US have such an agreement so that all you have to do is trade in your US license for a French one.
• Exept for the fact that Indiana is one of the states that has not signed a reciprocity agreement. Ohio has. Michigan has. Illinois has. Not Indiana though. Probably someone forgot to return the letter.
• Anyway, without a reciprocity agreement the only option is to go to the French equivalent of the BMV and take the test.
• Not a problem, because we had a couple of months to get that done. Surely one can get a driving license in two months..... Surely???

The nice man at the local driving school, Mr. Schlub said that he had never gotten anyone through the process in less than 3 months. Normally, it is a 4 to 6 month process.

You see, in order to get a driving license in France you have to pass a "theoretical exam" and a "practical exam". The "theoretical exam" is a test over the laws of the road ...a multiple choice test in a classroom setting. You have to make an appointment with the prefecture to schedule the test. If you're lucky they can get you a place within 6 weeks. The "practical exam" is actually driving on the road with a public examiner. You have to make an appointment for this also, but only after you've passed the practical exam.

So it came to pass that we were scheduled on October 5th to take our practical examination regarding the laws, regulations, and good habits of driving a car in France.

This is the toughest test I have ever taken in my life.

And I have taken a lot of tests. This one really, really sucked. There is no other way to describe it. It was more difficult than final exams in college. It was more difficult than getting my professional engineering license.

If you go to the Indiana Department of Motor Vehicles, the little booklet they give you is about 50 pages long. This is everything you would ever need to know for the Indiana driving test. If you memorize the two pages with the signs, you are going to be fine. The booklet in France is 310 pages. You pretty much have to memorize the whole thing - chapter and verse. And within these 310 pages there is much room for interpretation. We took preparatory classes. During classes, we argued the true meaning of the French driving manual much like fundamentalist preachers arguing the true meaning of the Bible or rabbis argue the Torah.The practical exam consists of 40 questions and you are allowed to get 5 wrong. The questions cover the areas of:

• Signs and signalization.
• The laws of road
• Good driving practices.
• Accident risk factors and statistics
• Penalties and fines for violations.
• Auto mechanics and the physics of driving

For example, did you know that in France you can transport up to 8 people in a car other than the driver, unless you are transporting children under 14 who count as half of an adult for the first five so you can transport up to 14 total people as long as all have seat belts and the children have necessary car seats and so long as any child in the front seat is facing backwards with the passenger side airbag disabled?

Did you know that you are required by law to drive with high beams at night outside of a city unless it is foggy or snowing or rainy in which case you can use your low beams and fog lights but only your front fog lights if it is raining because rear fog lights are only allowed for fog and snow but not rain?

Did you know that if you approach an intersection for which there are no stop signs or yield signs or stop lights to indicate right-of-way then the car that has no other car to it's right is allowed to go first? Did you know that the French put up warning signs in order to clarify intersections that have no stop signs or yield signs? Wouldn't you think that instead of sign to warn you that there are no other signs they could just put up a doggone stop sign?

Did you know that the stopping distance in dry weather is roughly the square of one tenth of your speed in kilometers and hour and that your reaction distance is approximately 3 times one tenth of your speed and your following distance should be your reaction distance multiplied by 2?

And, by the way...did I mention that the test is in French?

In the end, I passed the theoretical exam on October 5. In our session, two out of nine people passed. Next comes the practical exam. After 30+ years of driving, I have to prove to a French government employee that I can drive. Oh la la.

For your enjoyment, I've includes sample questions for the theoretical exam.

The intro picture asks, "what is the order of passage of the cars through the intersection?". The answer is B. First goes Red, then Blue, then Green. Since there are no signs at the intersection (other than the "X" sign that warns you that there are no signs) then it is a pure right-of-way situation.

The next picture asks, "We are on the 11th of the month. Parking is allowed on the right or left side of street? and can one make a U turn to park?" The answers are B and C. Parking is allowed on the left because the "no parking" sign on the right carries a "1-15" specification that means that parking is only allowed on the right side for the second half of the month and since it is the 11th we will have to park on the left side. And since there is no other sign prohibiting a U-turn we are allowed to make one to park on the left.

The next question asks, "if the speed is multiplied by 2 then the centrifugal force is? Also doubled? or multiplied by 4? or multiplied by 8?". The correct answer is B...multiplied by four. This is because every French driver is familiar with Newton's first law of physics which implies that for circular motion there must be a centrifugal force equal to the mass times the square of the velocity divided by the radius of the curve. Thus, a doubling of velocity with all other variables held constant would result in a 4 times increase in force.

The third questions says, "I am driving at 90 km/hr. To pass a vehicle that is driving at 70 km/hr it will require about: 5 seconds or 10 seconds"? and the distance required to pass will be about 100 meters or 250 meters?" The answers are B (10 seconds) and D (250 meters). This is because every French driver knows that they must provide a 55 meter zone of security around a vehicle to be passed, which at the speeds specified will require 55 / [(90-70)/10 *3]or approximately 10 seconds for the passing maneuver. And, at 90 km/h one will travel (90/10)*3 or 27 meters every second which will equal about 250 meters for the 10 seconds required to pass the other vehicle.

The final picture asks the queston, "This sign (white circle with the black slash) puts an end to the prohibition caused by which of these signs that may have appeared earlier?" The answer is A, B, and D. The sign ends the 50 km/h speed limit (A) and also ends the prohibition against using the horn (B) and the prohibilition against passing (D). Every French driver knows that it does not put an end to the prohibition of parking or stopping (sign C).

As a final note, the sign shown in the last question - the white circle with the black slash - is a very happy sign in Germany. When you see this sign on the autobahn, it means that all speed limits are off. It is the "blast off" sign.

Fête du Vin Nouveau: The End

Time to wrap up this series on the Fête du Vin Nouveau. First, I leave you with the picture of Theresa and I, above. Cindy Eaton was kind enough to take this for us. We haven't posted too may tourist pictures of us as a couple. So, here is one to make up for that.

Finally, as I said way back at the beginning, the Fête du Vin Nouveau is the Festival of the New Wine. The star of the festival is the newly pressed grape juice, or Vin Nouveau, that is available in every winery or from street stands. This is not your normal supermarket grape juice though. It is alive.

If you buy some to take home, the people selling will advise you to leave the screw cap off the bottle. If you screw the cap on tight, the bottle will explode.

You see, the grape juice is fresh and will start to ferment all by itself. Bernard Raulin, my Alsatian friend advised that the best thing about Vin Nouveau is that it changes it's flavor each day. On the first day or two, it is very sweet and tastes like high quality grape juice. Then, it starts to get a bit fizzy and tastes like grape soda. Then, it continues to be fizzy and picks up a distictive hint of alcohol...like a hard cider. Each day it will get a little harder.

The first picture below is some vin nouveau from Eguisheim. It is a mixture of Muscat and Edelswicker grapes and it like no white grape juice you will ever buy at the grocery. The second picture shows some vin nouveau we picked up in Germany. There, we were able to find both white and red varieties.

The trick says Bernard, is that you have to drink it before it starts to have a hint of vinegar in the taste. At that stage, the worst part is not that you have to throw the remaining juice away. The worst part is that it becomes a very, very effective laxative at that point.

Fête du Vin Nouveau: Part Cinq - The Things Hanging Over the Doors of Eguisheim

The old tradition was for merchants to mark their shops by hanging signs of the door that symbolized their trade. The symbols were important because most folks couldn't read. The signs also had to hang out so they could be read from far up and down the narrow streets.
Eguisheim has a lot of these cute little signs. I doubt that they are authentic. They've probably been hung in the past 10 years to add to the atmosphere of this little tourist trap. But still, they are colorful and I like them.