Liberté, égalité, fraternité
I have never been much of a Royalist. It’s not that I’m actively anti-Royal, I’m just ambivalent towards the whole exercise. Yeah they cost money, but compared to the cost of the mountain of PostIt notes and Bic biros parliament undoubtedly gets through they probably pale into insignificance.
So, when the royal wedding came up and it emerged that we would be getting an extra day off, I jumped at the chance to skip the country, and where better than France, a nation well know for executing it’s Royals?
Luckily for me I have coffeeandtv0, an old friend and resident of Strasbourg with whom I could go and stay. Perfect. So, I jumped on the Eurostar, and 6 hours or so later I was there. Obviously it took a bit more planning than this, but I like to portray it as a simple affair. Like in films. In all seriousness, the trans-European train experience was great, no hitches and it couldn’t have been much simpler, I encourage people to give it a go it’s much easier than flying.
Anyway, Strasbourg. It’s a beautiful, compact little city, which is somehow bigger than the sum of its parts. It has some wonderful historic areas, some fantastic modern buildings and what seems like a great pavement culture, all joined together by an enviable transport system. I’m sure the residents complain about it, but if London had a tram system half as good and twice the price it would be a marked improvement.
I was only there for a couple of days, and in that time coffeeandtv0 and I managed to pack what seemed like quite a lot in, most of which seemed to be eating and drinking, but I did manage a certain amount of my trademark intellectual masturbation.
So, I shall begin at the start.
I rocked up quite late on Friday and all I wanted was a decent meal and a beer. Strasbourg is in Alsace, which has been a part of both France and Germany in its history, so I didn’t expect food and beer to be a problem since one nation excels at the former, and the other, the latter. I was right, although beer is served by the mouthful in larger than average test tubes. Its lovely stuff, there just isn’t enough! This would grow into something of a theme for the trip.
The next day coffeeandtv0 had to work in the morning, so I was left to my own devices for the morning. This gave me a chance to do my architecty arts thing and not bore the pants off coffeeandtv0. Strasbourg has one of the finest cathedrals I’ve ever seen, it’s a late gothic masterpiece, a veritable orgy of figures and gargoyles all piled on top of each other and all carved from the very distinctive local pink sandstone. Apparently it’s also the 6th tallest cathedral in the world. Quite a thing, and I spent several hours in the early morning before anyone else woke up drawing a photographing it.
Strasbourg also has an exceptional modern art gallery (MAMCS), with a good collection of what we consider to be modern masters such as Kandinsky and Braque as well as a truly remarkable collection of Gustave Doré, who it turns out is from Strasbourg. The temporary exhibition was the work of Franck Scurti, which I struggled to connect with, although his work Empty Worlds, a series of gold-leaf lined terracotta pots, seeminly distorted with leather belts was a nice thing. More design than art in my opinion, but good to look at.
That afternoon I met up with coffeeandtv0 and dragged him on an architectural pilgrimage, quite literally to the end of the line. Something of a hidden, unloved gem is Zaha Hadid’s Hoenheim Gare, hiding at the far end of the tramline. It’s one of her earlier built works, but you can see the language of shards and curves is well established and the meticulous attention to detail in the various intersections of materials and convergences of imagined lines and planes is ever present. It’s looking a bit tired now, the concrete is stained and the vandals have been at a few bits of it, but the strength of the expression is still there, and the cantilevered benches and crystalline steel bins hold their strength. It needs some love, but it’s still a great piece of design.
Later that day we met up with some friends of coffeeandtv0 for something of a beer drinking session on a barge… oddly familiar. We them decamped into a fabulous vegetarian restaurant, something of an oddity in France as vegetarians are regarded as being ill in some way.
The next day was Sunday, which means everything (and I mean everything except bars and restaurants, is closed). Fortunately coffeeandtv0 had foreseen this and in a drunken haze the night before we have bought a huge box of Baklava. For future reference, Baklava, while being delicious in every way, is not breakfast food.
Given France was closed, we jumped on a train over the Franco German border to the quaint little town of Offenburg. Classically small and uniquely German somehow, this place is lovely. Also, they serve beer in sensible volumes and make a mean rosti. Cracking street furniture and sculptures too.
We went back to Strasbourg as the evening drew in and coffeeandtv0 took me to Petit France, the oldest part of the city, which looks positively Dickensian, but in a European way, I’m going to call it ‘EuroDickens’. We capped of the weekend with yet more pavement café beer and a round of sushi. The French interpretation of sushi is much like any other western interpretation, but as with all things, the French have found a way to introduce Nutella. Yes, you read that correctly, Nutella and coconut uramaki. It is something I will only eat once, to say it was odd would be understating things.
And that’s kind of it. As I said, we got a lot into 2 days. To sum up, Strasbourg is a fab’ city and coffeeandtv0 is a gracious host, thanks a lot!
~Theo
So, when the royal wedding came up and it emerged that we would be getting an extra day off, I jumped at the chance to skip the country, and where better than France, a nation well know for executing it’s Royals?
Luckily for me I have coffeeandtv0, an old friend and resident of Strasbourg with whom I could go and stay. Perfect. So, I jumped on the Eurostar, and 6 hours or so later I was there. Obviously it took a bit more planning than this, but I like to portray it as a simple affair. Like in films. In all seriousness, the trans-European train experience was great, no hitches and it couldn’t have been much simpler, I encourage people to give it a go it’s much easier than flying.
Anyway, Strasbourg. It’s a beautiful, compact little city, which is somehow bigger than the sum of its parts. It has some wonderful historic areas, some fantastic modern buildings and what seems like a great pavement culture, all joined together by an enviable transport system. I’m sure the residents complain about it, but if London had a tram system half as good and twice the price it would be a marked improvement.
I was only there for a couple of days, and in that time coffeeandtv0 and I managed to pack what seemed like quite a lot in, most of which seemed to be eating and drinking, but I did manage a certain amount of my trademark intellectual masturbation.
So, I shall begin at the start.
I rocked up quite late on Friday and all I wanted was a decent meal and a beer. Strasbourg is in Alsace, which has been a part of both France and Germany in its history, so I didn’t expect food and beer to be a problem since one nation excels at the former, and the other, the latter. I was right, although beer is served by the mouthful in larger than average test tubes. Its lovely stuff, there just isn’t enough! This would grow into something of a theme for the trip.
The next day coffeeandtv0 had to work in the morning, so I was left to my own devices for the morning. This gave me a chance to do my architecty arts thing and not bore the pants off coffeeandtv0. Strasbourg has one of the finest cathedrals I’ve ever seen, it’s a late gothic masterpiece, a veritable orgy of figures and gargoyles all piled on top of each other and all carved from the very distinctive local pink sandstone. Apparently it’s also the 6th tallest cathedral in the world. Quite a thing, and I spent several hours in the early morning before anyone else woke up drawing a photographing it.
Strasbourg also has an exceptional modern art gallery (MAMCS), with a good collection of what we consider to be modern masters such as Kandinsky and Braque as well as a truly remarkable collection of Gustave Doré, who it turns out is from Strasbourg. The temporary exhibition was the work of Franck Scurti, which I struggled to connect with, although his work Empty Worlds, a series of gold-leaf lined terracotta pots, seeminly distorted with leather belts was a nice thing. More design than art in my opinion, but good to look at.
That afternoon I met up with coffeeandtv0 and dragged him on an architectural pilgrimage, quite literally to the end of the line. Something of a hidden, unloved gem is Zaha Hadid’s Hoenheim Gare, hiding at the far end of the tramline. It’s one of her earlier built works, but you can see the language of shards and curves is well established and the meticulous attention to detail in the various intersections of materials and convergences of imagined lines and planes is ever present. It’s looking a bit tired now, the concrete is stained and the vandals have been at a few bits of it, but the strength of the expression is still there, and the cantilevered benches and crystalline steel bins hold their strength. It needs some love, but it’s still a great piece of design.
Later that day we met up with some friends of coffeeandtv0 for something of a beer drinking session on a barge… oddly familiar. We them decamped into a fabulous vegetarian restaurant, something of an oddity in France as vegetarians are regarded as being ill in some way.
The next day was Sunday, which means everything (and I mean everything except bars and restaurants, is closed). Fortunately coffeeandtv0 had foreseen this and in a drunken haze the night before we have bought a huge box of Baklava. For future reference, Baklava, while being delicious in every way, is not breakfast food.
Given France was closed, we jumped on a train over the Franco German border to the quaint little town of Offenburg. Classically small and uniquely German somehow, this place is lovely. Also, they serve beer in sensible volumes and make a mean rosti. Cracking street furniture and sculptures too.
We went back to Strasbourg as the evening drew in and coffeeandtv0 took me to Petit France, the oldest part of the city, which looks positively Dickensian, but in a European way, I’m going to call it ‘EuroDickens’. We capped of the weekend with yet more pavement café beer and a round of sushi. The French interpretation of sushi is much like any other western interpretation, but as with all things, the French have found a way to introduce Nutella. Yes, you read that correctly, Nutella and coconut uramaki. It is something I will only eat once, to say it was odd would be understating things.
And that’s kind of it. As I said, we got a lot into 2 days. To sum up, Strasbourg is a fab’ city and coffeeandtv0 is a gracious host, thanks a lot!
~Theo