CHAPTER 11. FRANCE-PICARDY TO ALSACE CONT.

Before going south along the Alsace Wine Route we go to Strasbourg for four nights. As in most large cities, we park the car in a garage and leave it there for the duration of our stay. This garage is underground in Gutenberg Place near the Gutenberg Hotel where we had called ahead for reservations. The hotel is close enough to walk to most things we want to see.

We eat at A l’Ancienne Douane twice and find the food good, but the service terrible. We have one good meal each at the Au Pigeon Restaurant and the Flour de Chine.

Our first afternoon in Strasbourg is spent washing clothes at a laverie, and after we find a presse that has the Herald Tribune, reading and resting in the hotel room. We usually eat lunch in a restaurant each day and have snacks in the room in the evening.

We walk to the Musee de l’Oeuvre Notre Dame. It dates from 1347, and has art and statues, many from the Strasbourg Cathedral, and shows stages of cathedral construction from Roman times to recent. It has very nice displays of stained glass, old columns, and doors put back to use. The Cathedral is very impressive with its stained glass, statues, carved retables, etc., but not at its best on a cold dark day.

The Palace of Rohan in Strasbourg has elaborate rooms and some nice furniture. Ceramics are displayed, as are clock works and faces. In the Royal Apartments upstairs are art galleries with one El Greco and some Rubens. In the basement are local archeological finds from Roman times onward.

We have one day with some blue sky and warmer weather, but with some clouds and sprinkles later. We use it to walk by the old city and St. Thomas, thru Petite France, and on to see the covered bridges. Petite France is very pretty with flower boxes and half timbered houses.