The Alsace region in north-eastern France is close to the Rhine River, right on the border with Germany. You can see the German influence in the half-timbered buildings, and German is widely spoken in the area. We were staying in Colmar, with a wine growing family at the Martin Jund Guest House. While we were checking in, in English, an Italian man was next to us and our host was translating between us all. Suddenly there was a small commotion on the street; she jumped out from behind the counter, went out and helped a lost German find his way (in German). All of it seamlessly. And French is her first language.
I realized right then how little I really know.
We were given a big, quaint and simple, old fashioned room, and a bottle of the family wine which we enjoyed later with some bread.
Colmar is actually on the Launch River, with canals diverted through the old town. The water used to power mills and industry, and was a handy place to flush the waste, but now it is cleaned up and you can take a canal boat ride through the tunnels and along flower lined banks of the canal. This area is called the Petite Venise, and we took a ride with a fun, young guy who was continually rolling cigarettes, tucking them behind his ear or in his pocket as he told us about the city. Most of the stories were English, with bits of Italian, French, German or Arabic thrown in when he got stuck on a word. It was a great little trip.
One interesting thing we learned from him was that, if you look at the timbered houses, many have red or blue lines tracing the outline of the plaster. This was how you let people know if you were a protestant or catholic family. You know: I can do business with you, can't talk to you, and so on. Also, the color of the house indicated what sort of profession you had: wine producer, boatman, food, and so on.
Somehow Colmar was not destroyed in the war, so the houses date from the 1400 or 1500s on. When they first invented indoor toilets, it was simply a toilet in a room that stuck out from the side of the house, over the canal. You can still see some of those rooms today, though they now have plumbing. The original beams still support the houses, and it is interesting to see how they have warped and bent over the centuries.
In the main town square is the huge Saint Martin church, made of reddish and yellow – brown sandstone. It is beautiful in the pattern of the natural colors and blocks. There is still some un-repaired bomb and bullet damage from the war.
We were snacking in the late afternoon on some cheese and wine in the café below, when the bells started to toll to mass. Again, it was one of those deafening, five minute interludes, where your whole body just absorbs the magnificent sound.
When we returned home from this trip, it was one of the things I missed most: the sound of the bells.
On our way out of Colmar, we ran into the Statue of Liberty, the second one of the trip. (The other was in Paris, on an island in the Seine.) The sculptor, Bartholdi, was born here in Colmar, and they are proud that he designed the statue.
We made a short stop in Strasbourg, the next city over, to see the huge Cathédrale de Notre Dame and its famous astronomical clock. Built in the 1400s, it still works keeping accurate time, moon phases, month and date and astrological sign. It also has a cool mechanical set up, kind of like a cuckoo clock on steroids. The bells chime, twelve apostles march around and say hi to Jesus. A rooster crows three times, a baby angel turns over an hourglass, and everyone is amazed.
Think of it: built over 600 years ago, and still ticking.
The show is best at noon:thirty. Tickets cost €2 at the time.
Because I parked at the train station lot, it was easy in and out of the city for us.