STRASBOURG - ANOTHER KIND OF CHRISTMAS

janvier 10, 2016

The end of the year is not the best time for me. It’s not as if I am down in the dumps, but Christmas and the New Year seem to have become frenetic commercial symbols and the « buy, buy, buy » syndrome just leaves me cold. Swanie, my granddaughter was not in the mood for the silly season fêtes either. I took her to Strasbourg for her « Christmas Present ». It’s a city virtually on the German border which has a long and rather sordid history: part of Alsace or part of Germany. The Alsaciens have their own dialect which is close to German. Perhaps the present generation has not adopted it but my generation still chatters on in the street….

Strasbourg is one of the nine largest cities in France with nearly half a million inhabitants in a metropolitan area spanning across the river into the German city of Kehl, on the eastern bank of the Rhine.

The city itself is the seat of the Council of Europe, the European Court of Human Rights, the European Ombudsman, the Eurocorps, the European Audiovisual Observatory and, most famously, the European Parliament which also holds sessions in Brussels. All these buildings we saw from a boat. Impressive too.

The, Cathédrale Notre Dame. Built between 1176 and 1439 and with a 142 metre tower (the highest cathedral tower in France), the cathedral is undoubtedly Strasbourg's finest architectural highlight. We decided to go to a Christmas Service on the 25th. Neither of us had experienced a Roman Catholic event but it was so « sad » and felt more like a funeral gathering that anything else!

La Petite France is the name given to the small area between the rivers, just south of the Grande Île. It is home to some of Strasbourg's prettiest and most photogenic streets and buildings, with half timbered townhouses (maison a colombages) leaning out over the narrow cobbled streets

Look at those birds!

The Old Mill and where the river divides

Christmas markets can be found in many places, but the most important are place Broglie and place de la Cathédrale, although they are crowded. They are the best places to drink hot wine (vin chaud) and to eat Christmas cookies. Neither of which we did! In fact, let’s face it, we were both disappointed with the Christmas market. I had booked for us to go to Strasbourg on the 24th or Christmas Eve, so we only have a half day to visit. At one time it was the most traditional European Christmas market, today it seemed without interest. There were virtually no stalls with local hand work but most of them were filled with local foods and spices. What was suprising perhaps were all the Teddy Bears which seemed to decorate the shop fronts.

Our restaurant, The Gruber for the evening meal

During the day

Naturally too, when the city was decked with Christmas lights it had another charm.

Swan in front of a tree

Another Church

The University

Leaving the restaurant

Not many people eh?

Lit up

It’s a beautiful city though. The weather was divine. People were sitting in outside cafés. Despite all this, it was a strange ambience. Supposedly because of the recent terrorist events, the security control had been reinforced and perhaps there were less people than usual.

Coming out of their barracks

Walking back to the hotel from our Christmas dinner in the evening, there was not a soul around and the following day left the centre and old part of Strasbourg quite empty. It was like any other weekend in a provincial town. I could never live in a place like that.

One day, Swan took herself off for the morning and I went to the Modern Art Museum. I was alone. This is not the first time I have visited the centre as have done a couple of day trips to see exhibitions.

I was to see Tristan Tzara (1896-1963)

He was a founding member of the Dada movement, a poet, an art critic, a theorist, and a collector, and was present for all the momentous events in modernism, along with his friends Jean Arp, Kurt Schwitters, Max Ernst, Francis Picabia, and Man Ray. This retrospective on an unprecedented scale in France retraces the extraordinary path of this committed artist — or impassioned, as some have said— from Bucharest, through Zurich, and on to Paris. More than 500 works of art by Tristan Tzara and his circle of friends are on loan from some of the most prestigious public and private collections and have been assembled in an original scenographic project. (Internet quotation )

What for me was so interesting about the exhibition as I had recently seen a series of documentaries on « Les Aventuriers de l’Art Modern » The Dada movement which is fascinating perhaps but can be more surrealist than the Surrealists. This particular exhibition was very interesting as the different artists of that period became even more alive than before. No Photos and there are not so many on Internet either which were shown in the exhibition. So many came from Private Collections. So what do I do? Buy the catalogue