Strasbourg

Ever since we got back to France at the end of April, we wanted to take short trip. We looked at Edinburgh, but that turned out to be impractical as the required COVID-19 quarantine period would have been twice as long as our intended stay. We considered to go to Vienna instead, and while the French had no problems with us leaving and coming back, the Austrians couldn't guarantee that we could enter Austria without an EU vaccination card (we were vaccinated in the United States). Finally, we decided to stay in France; we picked Strasbourg in Alsace and chose to travel by TGV on July 8, returning on July 12. Of course, we had been to Strasbourg several times in the past; there are even a few pictures of the city on this page of our web site. Other photos of Alsace may be found on our Riquewihr and Colmar pages. This time, we chose to see things we hadn't visited before, for example the European Parliament and the Parc de l'Orangerie. Another benefit of having chosen this destination is that my cousin Béa and her partner Erich were able to join us for a day as they live in nearby Basel.

The old town and La Petite France

The pictures in this section were taken over the course of our stay in Strasbourg and are not shown in chronological order. In our meanderings through the old town, we naturally hit the same areas several times (the historic center is not that big), and whenever we had more than one photo of a particular place, we picked the one we liked best regardless of when it was taken.

Click on any image to see a larger (2400 x 1600 pixel) version!


View from the Pont du Marché to the Pont de Saverne	On the Place de l'Homme de Fer


The Église du Temple Neuf	Backyard off the Rue des Orfèvres	Inside the Strasbourg Cathedral


On the Rue des Orfèvres	On the Place de la Cathédrale


The Kammerzell House was built in 1427	Taking a closer look at the façade


Strolling down the GrandʻRue	View from the Pont Saint-Martin in la Petite France

This scene of la Petite France with the Maison des Tanneurs (Tanners' House) is probably the most iconic view of Strasbourg


On the left, the lock of the Anciennes Glacières in la Petite France	The Place Benjamin Zix


View of the Ill river from the Pont du Faisan	The Rue des Moulins


View to the covered bridges of Strasbourg and the Heinrichs-Tower	On the Rue du Vingt-Deux Novembre


The side of the Strasbourg cathedral	The Place du Marché aux Poissons (Fishmarket square)


Looking across the Ill river to the Quai des Bateliers	Interesting façade on the Rue du Jeu-des-Enfants


Old Saint Peter's Church	In the church	In the church


On the Place Saint-Pierre-Le-Vieux	View across the Canal du Faux Rempart

The European Parliament

We are very much pro-EU. The European Union is a unique experiment in human history that aims to improve life for the citizens of its 27 member nations. Is it perfect? Of course not. It is still work in progress, but we fully subscribe to the values of the European Union, be it the area of social safety nets, medical care, human rights, and the free movement of citizens and goods across what used to be far more closed borders. All the more surprising, then, that we had never before visited the European Parliament in Strasbourg. Strasbourg is the official seat of the European Parliament, and most of the plenary sessions take place here while the majority of parliamentary committees meet in Brussels. We were able to tour the building on our own and were handed a tablet with audiovisual presentations when we reached the huge plenary session hall, the hemicycle.


The European Parliament Building was completed in 1999	The Bronisław Geremek agora inside the building


The Parliament Building is also called the Louise Weiss building	It is constructed of steel, glass, and wood


There are always exactly twelve stars in the European flag	Inside the European Parliament building

The hemicycle with its more than 800 seats is the second-largest in the world, only topped by one in China

The two rows of booths next to the four large screens in the center are where the interpreters work. The EU has 24 official languages (Bulgarian, Czech, Croatian, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Irish, Latvian, Lithuanian, Maltese, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Slovak, Slovene, Spanish, and Swedish); a member of the EU parliament can address the session in any of these languages while interpreters provide simultaneous translations into the other 23 langages. It's truly amazing!


The hemicycle seen from the visitor's gallery	The coffee shop was deserted when we were there


At the far end, one can enjoy a view over the water	Time to head back down


Inside the EU Parliament building	Inside the EU Parliament building	Inside the EU Parliament building

The Parc de l'Orangerie

This is the oldest public park of Strasbourg and a favorite destination for locals and tourists alike. Within its 64 acres, there are playgrounds for the kids, a small zoo, a picturesque pond which one can explore by rowboat, and several scenic walks. The park is also home to an amazing number of storks; these beautiful birds, almost extinct a few decades ago, were successfully reintroduced into the wild. Over 800 storks have been born here since the early seventies. Storks may be observed in the park on any day of the year. Many people in Alsace install wagon wheels on the roofs of their homes; laying flat, these provide perfect platforms on which storks can build their huge nests. The Pavillon Joséphine was built in 1804 and named in honor of Joséphine de Beauharnais, empress of France and wife of Napoléon Bonaparte. It is used for a variety of cultural activities, such as art exhibits.


Colorful buildings on the Rue de Vienne on our way to the park	In the Parc de l'Orangerie


The small but picturesque lake	Rowboats may be rented


Many people enjoy spending a bit of time on the lake	Le Temple d'Amour, the wooden 19th Century "Love Temple"


Fountain	Waterfall	Statue

Le pavillon Joséphine, Josephine's Lodge


Note the stork nests on the roof!	The stork is the symbol of Alsace


Preening	Working on the nest	Socializing


Dropping in for a visit	Meditating

On our way back, we passed the European Court of Human Rights

The photos on this page were taken from July 9 through July 12, 2021 with our Fujifilm X-T30.

This page was last modified on September 1, 2021
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