Walking through the streets, beside the canals and through the squares of
Strasbourg, one word will come to mind again and again--"charming."
Though very much a modern city, Strasbourg has retained the atmosphere from its founding, hundreds of years ago.
Located in France's Alsatian region, just two miles from the German border, Strasbourg has at times been under German rule. That legacy is now seen in shops and restaurants sporting German names and some stores accepting either French or German currency. Yet nowadays most of Strasbourg considers itself firmly French.
A 3-4 hour pleasant car or train ride from Paris or an hour's trip from Germany's Karlsruhe, Strasbourg makes for an enjoyable two or three day stay. Despite being the seat of the Council of Europe and the European Parliament, having an important University, designer boutiques and a population of 250,000, a visit to Strasbourg is like a trip back in time.
The Cathedral of Strasbourg
Located on the island that serves as the city's center, Strasbourg's Cathedral
impresses even in a land of many impressive cathedrals. Built from locally
quarried rose-colored Vosges sandstone, the Cathedral rose up over 400 years taking its present form in the 1400's.
As you walk in, you'll see beautiful tapestries suspended underneath the arches along the nave. Don't rush by these depictions of Biblical scenes. My favorite was "The Wedding at Cana" but each deserves attention.
Passing under the Baroque organ, you come to the ornately carved stone pulpit and then, at the eastern end, the choir section which rises up to a gorgeously painted dome. Turn around to see the spectacular Rose Window over the Cathedral's main portal, one of many superb stained glass renderings. To the left of the choir is a moving sculpture of Jesus on the Mount of Olives.
The Cathedral's piece de resistance is its Astronomical Clock first created in the 16th century and given new mechanisms in the 1800's. Still keeping perfect time, its Swiss makers knew what they were doing. I especially liked the chariots that move two centimeters an hour to tell what day it is. Jupiter drives Thursday ("jeudi" in French), Venus helms Friday/vendredi, Mars rides Tuesday/mardi, Saturn's on Saturday's and the Sun and the Moon are on Sunday and Monday/lundi.
Although it chimes every quarter hour, the big show of the day is at 12:30pm when carved figures perform on the face of the clock. Death's Skeleton tolls the hour, the apostles parade before Jesus who "blesses" them and a cock crows three times. Crowds gather daily and they stop selling tickets (5 francs) at 12:25 so if you want to see the clock do its thing, be there by 12:20pm. Frankly, I was expecting a bit more but oh well ...
For a franc (17 cents), you can illuminate the clock, the pulpit, the choir section or the Mt. of Olives statue for closer inspection or picture taking. Afterwards, you can climb the Cathedral's tower, the tallest monument in Christendom until the 1800's, for a panoramic view of the area. The view is very nice; the Cathedral is magnificent.
The plaza outside the Cathedral hosts two special occasions each year. During December, a Christmas marketplace is set up with booths looking like little wooden chalets selling everything from nice handicrafts to clothes to crepes to plastic chotchkas. In July, on Bastille Day (the 14th) and the days leading up to it, there's a wonderful son et lumiere show on the facade of the Cathedral. Big crowds, but worth it.
Museums
Strasbourg has a number of museums; although small, their
collections are exceptionally fine. All are very close to the Cathedral.
The 18th century Palais Rohan contains three separate museums: an archeo-logical one, one featuring decorative arts and the original apartments of the Cardinal of Rohan, and one of fine arts. In the fine arts museum (Musee des Beaux-Arts), you'll find works from the 14th to the 18th centuries including paintings by Tiepolo, Rubens, Lorrain, Van Dyck, El Greco, Correggio (Judith and her Servant) and a spooky triptych by Memling, Vanity.
From Michiel Sweerts, a Belgian artist of the 1600s, there is a rather homoerotic Men Bathing as seven nude guys hanging out by a stream are visited by two fully dressed men. Yet my favorite in the collection is Boulogne's Musicians and Soldiers from the early 1600's. In it we see three children/teenagers playing a tambourine, violin and recorder in a tavern as two soldiers busy themselves with their drinks. The musicians' faces, revealing their awareness of the inconsequentiality of their efforts in a culture dominated by war, makes for a haunting existential work.
The Musee de L'Oeuvre Notre-Dame houses an excellent assemblage of Romanesque, Gothic and Renaissance works in a 14th to 16th century mansion. Highlights include a series of reliefs (Nativity, Adoration and Circumcision) from the Carthusian Monastery in Strasbourg and The Dead Lovers, an eerie painting in which snakes, frogs and flies feast on a couple in Twilight Zone fashion. There's also an Altar of St. Sebastian which, if enlarged to life size, would cause the saint with the arrows to have two of the biggest nipples ever seen.
For those interested in the region, the Musee Alsacien is situated on quai St. Nicolas. And until February 8, contemporary Spanish artist Javier Perez has a show of his conceptualist art in the Ancienne Douane (Former Customs House). Later this year the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art will reopen and in 1999 the Historical Museum will complete its renovations and reopen.
Around the Town
Strasbourg is very much a walking town and most visitors head
to La Petite France, the old tanner's district. Restaurants and shops nestle in among residences and churches while a number of canals cut through this area. It doesn't get much more charming.
A promenade along the quays will give you a sense of both the old and the new as modern office complexes look across the canal at 100+ year old buildings. Tour boats float by on the canals along with an occasional kayak.
Head to Place de la Republique to see the Rhine Palace, the former German Imperial Palace (1889), now home to governmental departments. Facing it is the National Theater of Strasbourg which presents a varied repertoire.
Cross the bridge back to the main island and Place Broglie, site of the Municipal Opera Theater and the Hotel de Ville (Town Hall), which has rotating exhibits in some of its gold-leafed rooms. In one of its courtyards, there's a plaque in honor of De Lisle who wrote the Marseillaise, curiously given by the city of Milwaukee (1918).
Eat, Drink & Be Merry
Good restaurants abound in
Strasbourg, proud of their
Alsatian heritage. At Au Pont St-Martin you can have a scenic view overlooking one of La Petite France's canals. I enjoyed their wonderful Torte Escargot and Coquelet Reisling.
Friends took me to Au Pont Corbeau (21, Quai St. Nicolas) and when they translated some of the dishes-Tete de Veau or jellied head of calf, confit de joues du porc or cheeks of pig-I thought Macbeth's witches were doing the cooking. I decided to play it safe and ordered a typical German dish of sausages with potato salad. Silly me. Courtesy of my friends, I was able to try the above dishes and they were absolutely delicious, especially the pig's cheeks. Who knew?
The French drink wine the way we drink iced tea here-expect to have it with every meal. If you are a wine-lover, you may want to check out some of the "winstubs," typical wine bars serving regional specialties.
If your French isn't great but you want to go to the movies, Le Star and Le Gallerie will usually have one or two films in English. Recently, The Full Monty has been playing all over France.
As for the gay life in Strasbourg, well, there ain't a lot of it which seems surprising for a fairly large Catholic city with a university. There are no gay bars per se. A few clubs are fairly mixed with Sunday generally being the gay night. Sous-sol with its techno/house music attracts a young crowd but everyone seems welcome there. A couple of gay bathhouses are located by the railroad station. But that's about it. No wonder most gay Strasbourgers try to get to Paris regularly.
Yet if you want to be in a city without the big city feel for a few days, it doesn't get much more charming than Strasbourg.
