June 10 - Verdun

Frustrated note: I have been doing battle with blogger and I'm just not getting how to manage it. Part of the problem is that it is designed to place the most recent entry first. I've kludged solutions for navigation. Perhaps Becky will be able to figure out a better way.

This is the final post.
Our first post on this trip is the intro, May 31-June 10, which includes a trip map.
The full Picasa album

We left Metz early, in order to make a stop in Verdun, the site of years of bloody and pointless fighting during World War I, taking up nearly all of 1916. I had somewhat prepared myself by reading Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front, which isn't about Verdun, or any other battle, in particular, but about the life of soldiers engaged in trench warfare.

The Verdun Memorial is a serious and unpatriotic memorial, paying proper respect to the lives lost. A centerpiece of it is a museum with exhibits that include the background of the war, and life-size model of a bunker.













The battlefield sites are not bunched together, but spread out over the large area of battle, and now separated by trees and fields. It is quiet. In some places there are signs forbidding picnicking and other recreation.

One famous sight is a memorial built (by Americans) around a trench where men had been buried in a blast; their remains were discovered because of the guns projecting from the dirt.














Elsewhere, there is a machine-gun bunker in a hill. Now the hillside is green, but during the fighting it must have looked like a scene from hell. The day we were there was grey and drizzly.









Finally, in front of an enormous French military cemetery, there is the Douaumont Ossuary, built in the 1930s, which contains bones, unidentified remains, of a great many French and German soldiers. The conspicuously phallic tower, said to be in the shape of a military shell, is a place from which to view the entire battleground. We did not have time to enter.














We only had a couple of hours to spend in what could certainly be a full day of meditation on a grim piece of history.

The drive back to Charles de Gaulle was not difficult, just tedious, finally, to get back to the car rental place and then to get our gate.

our trip Picasa album for all photos
blogger: intro to our trip
June 9 Alsace to Metz

June 9 - Alsace to Metz

Wednesday
We walked/ran on the roads behind the hotel, had breakfast (the place seemed understaffed and a little ignored, the breads etc. were just so so, but there was a stellar cheese plate), then set off for our last wine country visits.

In Traenheim we took one more vineyard walk. The vineyard had views in all directions, and a few stands of cherry and elderberry.











Then we stopped at Frederic Mochel, a well-respected vintner in Traenheim and one of Oz Clarke's tips, for a tasting in the well-appointed cellar. This time there were several other people tasting wine too, including a wine buyer from Holland who was shopping for his home stock. He knew what he was doing, and tried quite a few wines, so we tried more than we would have. But we could only buy one bottle, we tried more than we might have. It was a shame we couldn't buy more.


We stopped in the village of Westhoffen to get some very good blueberry pie from a bakery, then continued toward Metz. Our stops were not so notable - as we say, not peak experiences.

We stopped in two towns: Saverne for a rest, by a 19th century castle by a river (hot, no place to sit, etc.), and then, for lunch, a little further on, Phalsbourg, Lorraine, a big square, where we bought rye-wheat bread, cheese, some pasta salad or something, to eat outside with a draft beer.

We stayed off the big highways - the N-roads are usually just undivided and two lanes, but in very good shape, mostly bypass towns, and pleasant driving.




Metz was busy, parking by the cathedral was a little crazy, weather was iffy, the tourist office had one very frustrating young man, and we weren't sure how to play out the last day, but we decided to stay at the Cathedral hotel, right across the street, which was actually quite nice, full of character and nice furniture, and windows actually facing the cathedral. This is the actual view. Our car is in that parking lot.












Next to the cathedral was a big covered market. I could not reside this display of berries, produce so typical of the area.
































The interior was, like the Reims Cathedral, light, but colored with both old and modern stained glass. There was also a modern sculpture installation. I don't remember its title and I wasn't convinced by it, but there it was, very prominent, and I always want to give some credit for the employment of artists.












Undeniably wonderful, though, were the Chagall windows.














Metz is divided by a river and bridges and islands, over which the city spreads. Not uninteresting. We walked for a while, but when it started raining in earnest, we went into a very busy Irish pub for a break.













We had dinner at a comfortable lively bistro near the hotel included three courses, including a first course of what was apparently a chicken giblet salad (surprise, Jimmy!) and a salad with pieces of a small fish; a kind of coq au riesling and a some kind of fish casserole; and dessert - I can't recall what, which happens sometimes when I don't photograph. But it was a very gemutlich place.












We walked by the cathedral, which was lit up beautifully, and then to our room, where we could look at the cathedral some more.












In the last post, we bid goodbye to France.
June 10, Verdun
Previous: June 8, Strasbourg and the cathedral

June 8 - Cathedrale Notre-Dame-de-Strasbourg

Before I say anything else, let me say that neither my words nor our photos can convey the impact of the Strasbourg Cathedral. We were so enjoying the wine country that we almost didn't bother going into Strasbourg. This cathedral is definitely worth a detour, if not a journey.

After a rest at the Biblenhof, we drove to one of the public transportation lots that are positioned along the feeder highways. There, for 2.80 euros you can park all day and get a round-trip tram ticket for everyone in the car. Brilliant solution to congestion. The trams run pretty often, and we were in the center of historic Strasbourg by early evening.






The gothic cathedral, even the partial view that we first saw down the street, was staggering. Overwhelming. It is very big and very ornate. We stopped at a cafe in view of it and shared a really fine pastry, then explored the cathedral.




















The inside has fine stained glass, and an enormous mechanical astronomical clock, built in the 19th century, that is only set to strike once a day (for its own good) - viewings require tickets.































Jimmy walked up the cathedral tower and got some great alternative views.













Strasbourg is an important center for the EU, and I wanted to see the European Parliament building. The simplest way to do this was on a boat tour going up and down the Ill river and canals.






We ate dinner at a very friendly bistro near the cathedral. I ordered the marrow bone - a gorgeous long bone with pastry tube squirts of perhaps potato chantilly, and escargot, on top - a strange one-time treat. Jimmy had fish with the seasonal white asparagus.















We had a last look at the cathedral before we took the tram back to our car.




Previous: June 7-8, continuing north on the wine route
Next: June 9, Alsace to Metz