“A monarchy without tyranny, an aristocracy without factions, democracy without turmoil, wealth without luxury and prosperity without arrogance." Erasmus, speaking of Strasbourg, back in the fifteenth century. And now five centuries later it is the seat of European Union.
Monday, and the Peugeot stayed at the station at Barr and the fly went to Strasbourg for the day. (Eichhoffen is so tiny that very few trains stop here.) Strasbourg has celebrated its bimillenium – in 1988. The old city is built on an island in the River Ill, and there are long, glass-covered, flat bottomed boats to take the tourists around to be shown the main features. Very helpful this, one becomes oriented to the place and knows where to walk when back on land. Days and days will be needed to explore all of Strasbourg. It has a lovely feel also, there are tens of thousands of uni students – one of the oldest of the European Universities – many of them international. They all, it seems, get around on bicycles, as do many old men in navy berets (no helmets here.) They drift along the cobbled streets and occasionally graciously make way for the very sleek modern trams. Pedestrians weave around too, and it is all very comfortable.
The Cathedral is magnificent, but the absence of the second spire is a perplexity for the fly. Nothing in the guidebooks to explain that story. An online site about the Cathedral says: “The spire, so much of a symbol of the Cathedral now that the oddity of its having no twin seems insignificant”. There are of course lots of cathedrals with one spire, but they are centrally positioned. At Strasbourg, the one spire is on the left, and there is space where the right hand one should be. . Wonderful old old half-timber buildings face the Cathedral square, their roofs so steep that there are three stories of attics on many of them. A huge statue of Gutenberg overlooks the Square named for him – he invented his printing press here in Strasbourg.
The University has marvellous buildings spread through the city - it is one of the oldest in Europe (1538) and the largest in France (43,000 students, 4,000 researchers). The Library in particular will need exploring. Maybe they will have a job for an Australian-Irish librarian with a European Union passport?
Strasbourg is the capital of the European Union, and the bateau took us up the River to where a cluster of impressive contemporary buildings stand on either bank – the Palais de l’Europe, the European Parliament Buildings, The Human Rights Building, - all in shiny glass and steel.
AND, Strasbourg also claims to be the ‘capital of Christmas’. The first documented Christmas tree was set up in the Cathedral in 1524. There are huge craft markets at Christmas in the Cathedral Square and surrounding streets, - looking forward to that. There are lots of concerts too, including in the cathedral; which will give fly a chance to hear the magnificent organ in full voice perhaps. Every village also has its Christmas markets, and there are shops everywhere which stock Christmas decorations etc all the year round, particularly the more touristy villages. And here, Christmas means red and green, with a touch of gold. None of the “change the colour theme every year to get the people to buy a new set of decorations” that is the dictum of commercialism elsewhere. Here in my street in Eichhoffen, one of the houses already has its Christmas tree illuminated in the window at night.
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