Tomorrow will be my last full day in Strasbourg. Our flight for Rekjavik leaves Friday morning – we arrive in Halifax on Monday.
So, the tour’s over for now. There was an awful lot that I wanted to blog about before leaving – why the Marechal de Saxe is buried in Strasbourg even though he had no connection to the city, the location of the most ghoulish playground I’ve ever seen, the reason why there are three churches named after St Peter within a mile of each other in Strasbourg, the reason why the Cathedral bell rings every night at 10:05 – but I simply don’t have the time.
So, as my final Strasbourg city tour post actually from the city (though I make no promises that it will be the last ever), I give you Petit France.
Petit France is a neighbourhood of historic Strasbourg, and is the second-most visited attraction here after the Cathedral. It’s chock-a-block with the half-timbered architecture that characterizes the villages of the countryside, most dating from the 16th and 17th centuries. Their flower-laden profiles reflect in the waters of the many canals that run through the area.
The canals actually are the reason why the houses are still here, rather than being torn down in favour of the stone buildings that dominate the old town. These canals powered the mills and leatherworks that comprised the industry of old Strasbourg. However, these industries were distinctly smelly, and staffed by lower-class folk. The neighbourhood thus was avoided by the better class of people, who clustered together at the other end of the island, while Petit France was left to moulder: the landlords renting to the working class residents couldn't be bothered improve their properties. They were therefore saved from the wrecking ball.
So why the name? Petit France was so-called long before the French took possession of the city. It was, in fact, the German soldiers of the Holy Roman Empire that gave the neighbourhood its name. There was a hospital in the area, specifically there to treat those soldiers that had contracted syphilis - “The French Disease” – from the neighbourhood’s professional ladies.
And thus, Strasbourg’s most photographed neighbourhood is a former slum named after a venereal disease.
3 comments:
I've barely commented in the three years you've been banging these out, but I have been reading. And enjoying. And frequently laughing. I know you and Amynah will miss Strasbourg and the lives you built there. I will miss Strasbourg too... it is where Mark and Amynah live. At least for the next day or two.
Enjoy your last hours in the city... we loved sharing it with you last year. It is a wonderful place to be with friends.
With much love from this side of the Atlantic... Safe journeys and see you next week.
I've already publicly lauded this fine blog and I'm not going to do it again -- don't want your head getting too swelled. I am worried about what an LA-based blog might end up looking like, though.
"Here is a photo of a palm tree. Here is another palm tree. Here is a washed-up former child actor sniffing solvent. And here is another palm tree..."
Thanks guys - I'm sure I will have lots of things to write about in LA. Though I'm sure the photos won't be nearly so compelling ("And here we have the city's oldest overpass: built in 1961, it bears the hallmarks of the early automatic cement mixing techniques then coming into vogue.")
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