MUSÉE TOMI UNGERER

The Tomi Ungerer museum is an unusual find in a beautiful bourgeoise house on the banks of the L'Ill in the centre of Strasbourg. Tomi Ungerer was an illustrator himself working in Paris, London and New York. He returned to his home town of Strasbourg whilst continuing to work and amassing his collection of illustrations and cartoons. The gallery constantly changes the works on display from the vast collection of well known artists of this genre in the archives.

He's still depressed! The waiter looking a bit feisty.

I've just included a few which are amusing in their simplicity. Thought the concept of the fish changing colour after passing through the rainbow that extends down onto the water a delightful idea.

Fish swimming through a rainbow.

There are many book and magazine illustrations as well as entire books both adult and for children.

The amorous artist.

If you venture to the basement, that is if you can find it. The collection is definitely X rated. Makes you think!

YES MORE MOUSTACHES

I thought we were lacking recently in moustaches. You probably did not have the same thoughts! Well just in case you felt a little un-moustached I came across a couple. A restaurant/brewery with a fun graphic image advertising a Brasserie and sporting a fine moustache.

'Au Brasseur', Strasbourg.

I really feel this next one is a bit dodgy. Why would you want to do that to a baby? With the caption 'You are never too young to grow a moustache'. Well perhaps you are. I'm saying that as a pro moustache person.

Sucette or dummy, not to be bought, from a shop in Strasbourg.

EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT

It's awesome, both what they do and the building. Definitely worth a visit. I know all the anti stuff about the EU in the British media not to even mention Brexit, but if you come to Strasbourg and go to the European Parliament you can actually see what they do. Not a biased British press version of what they say they do. The building itself is amazing and full of superlatives at every corner. It was paid for by the French and has been gradually paid back by the EU28. It houses the largest Parliament in the world with 751 deputies debating and voting. As an aside if we Brexit there will be 71 seats to redistribute. It's all done on a population per country basis.

The Parliamentary plenary chamber.

It's hard to photograph the main debating chamber due to its size and shape. The chamber is oval as from the Greek hemicycle. The shape is to ensure consensus politics rather than adversarial politics as the UK Westminster system of opposition politics, ie. the party in power facing/opposing the party/s not in power. Fascinating. 

The Agora, the internal courtyard.

For the architects amongst you the Agora is deliberately 'unfinished' on the upper layers. Obviously the building is actually finished but the design of the building appears unfinished especially from the outside. This is a visual reminder that the European Project is ongoing.

External view of the Agora showing the 'unfinished' elevation.

At the end of the visit you are invited to have your photograph taken with a variety of European Parliament backgrounds. We opted for the EU flag (photo cropped from original).

Dick and Geoff at the European Parliament.

CUISINE D'ALSACE

We've had some interesting meals recently sampling the delights of Alsace culinary specialities. Overall we were not very impressed, that is excluding the Flammkuche (Tarte Flambée) which is excellent and cheap. One of the main problems of the Alsatian 'cookery' is the lack of cookery. In a restaurant Dick decided to have a meal that did not have meat. What arrived was a few boiled potatoes, a slice of Munster cheese, raw onions, raw horseradish, a piece of lettuce, a slice of tomato, a few chopped up herbs and a litre of Fromage blanc. I ask you is there any appeal to this meal? No. Dick should have been warned off the choice of meal by the comments from the waiter. 'Are you sure about your choice? You realise this is a vegetarian meal with Fromage Blanc?' 'OK that's fine'. Make your own minds up.

Fromage blanc anyone?

I did not go vegetarian but I slightly wished I had, well not the litre of Fromage Blanc. A mound of choucroute (sauerkraut), boiled potatoes and pork 5 ways. Interestingly the pork was called 'pork trimmings', which I now know means slices or pieces of different types of pork products. Again no real cookery. Perhaps it's just me but when I go out for a meal I like to feel that someone, ie. the chef, has put some effort in, rather than pour out/plate up bought in produce. There must be Alsace culinary delights out there, they seem hard to find.

What can I say? It was filling.

MAMCS AND LEMON MERINGUE PIE

Musée d'Art Moderne et Contemporain Strasbourg, MAMCS, is definitely worth a visit. The musée is very deceptive as it is a lot larger than it looks there are galleries after galleries. A good place to go on a rainy day, which it was. Amongst the usual useless pieces there are some really good pieces by some well respected artists. A few that caught my attention were:

Torse des Pyrénées by Hans-Jean Arp.

I particularly like Arp's works and am always impressed to find that a lot of his notable pieces were created when he was in his 70's. So there's still hope! We were intrigued by the quite bizarre juxtaposition of the huge painting of Christ and the writhing contortions of the piece by Deacon. The photo does not capture the scale. The picture was at least 5 metres tall and the Deacon wooden assemblage at least 8 metres wide. The two pieces completely filled the gallery both visually and physically.

Quick, 2009 by Richard Deacon.

You always need a bit of surrealist art. The gallery did not fail. This work by Brauner, an artist I did not know very well, was notable. Very strange.

La Parole by Victor Brauner.

This last piece we actually thought that they were rehanging part of the gallery but we decided it was an installation. Well it might not have been as there was no information plaque to be found.

Pile of canvases by unknown artist.

Time was getting on and we decided to visit the ArtCafe for lunch. We envisaged a coffee and a quick sandwich. No chance, as it's France this proved to be fine dining. Waitress escorted to your seat and an excellent 2 course meal for €16.90. Not sure about the wriggley chip like things 'Späetzeles' a fried noodle of Germanic extraction. What's wrong with a few French fries? When ordering the meal I ordered a Lemon Meringue Pie for desert. The waitress said it was very popular so she would reserve me a slice. She did.

Reserved Lemon Meringue Pie for Geoff in the chiller cabinet.

VÉLO POLICE

Cycling along in Strasbourg city we were flagged down by the police and asked to pull off the cycleway. We were not the only ones, there must have been a dozen police with stopped cyclists and a film crew. We had been pulled over in order that our bikes could be checked for safety and legality. No panic they are only the police out in force. Questions were asked and a check sheet produced. In the end I had clocked up 3 illegalities! I did not have side reflectors on the spokes front and back or a white reflector on the front of the bike. I did not know these were legal requirements when cycling in France. The form was completed and handed over.

Completed form.

Each error solicited a fine of €11 hence a €33 in total. Fortunately this was an exercise in making the public aware of cycle safety and legal requirements, so a smile and a shake of hands and all good to go and no fine to pay. Off to the bike shop to buy a few reflectors. I'm quite pleased with the exercise as I know now exactly what is required for cycling in France and after a couple of tweeks we will be all good.

STRASBOURG - MEANDERING

Strasbourg is very pretty, lots of timber frame buildings, waterways, fine public buildings, the odd palace and tourists. Yes there are lots of tourists. Fortunately they are only in a small part of Strasbourg. Whether they are scared to go further or herded by their tour guides I do not know. Interesting to watch the tourists especially the Chinese. They all follow the tour guide almost step for step. The guide will even stop and point out a particular view to be photographed. They all obey. Cameras up and click. There is obviously no point in sharing photos back in the hotel in the evening. They all have the same!

One of the many timber frame buildings.

The 'prettiest' part is called Petite France and of course the Cathédrale environs. More about these areas later. We tend to bimble in all areas. I was particularly amused by this bar window comment.

Supertonic bar window.

Roughly translated it reads 'Gin and tonic has saved more English lives and souls than any doctor in the empire' as articulated by no less than Winston Churchill, apparently. If true it's a good quote and true to life.

Can't really pass an art gallery by without going in. In a small private gallery they were really taking bondage to a new level. Wouldn't want to enquire about their home life!

Contemporary art gallery offerings.

WATERLIFE

There is always something happening on the waterway. If it's not passing pleasure and commercial boats it's canoeists or wildlife. Pleased to see yesterday that our 'lagoon' has good water quality. An otter wandered passed totally unperturbed by our presence. It did not go unnoticed by the swans. The adult immediately made a bee line for it and launched out with a fierce peck. This was followed by the two cygnets, now full size, doing the same. The otter wasn't too bothered, all in a days meandering. It was good for us watching as the otter came right up to Soraya. We have seen them before but unfortunately usually at a distance.

Swan v otter. Score 'Love all' or as we say in France 'Égalité'.

On another wildlife matter, navigating along the canal we very often see herons stalking and catching fish. I saw a heron with something black in its mouth. As we drew closer I realised it was a young mole!! The mole was visibly distressed. So were we! Whether the heron ate the mole we don't know as we passed by. I feel the heron would have disgarded it due to all the fur? I don't know. They are known as opportunistic eaters and do sometimes eat small rodents, so I suppose a small mole could be on the menu. Certainly herons are off my list of likeable creatures.

We saw this small boat in the distance and could not make it out. I said jokingly it looks like a vegetable seller as you see on the small waterways in Bangkok. As is got closer we realised I was totally correct, it's the daily waterborne vegetable seller. All very handy straight off the back of Soraya. Not sure if it's a real viable business, there are not that many boats. Do they appeal to land based customers? We may find out.

The daily canal vegetable 'shop'.

STRASBOURG - OUR WINTER MOORING

We finally made it to Strasbourg despite alternative routes due to canal closures and breakdowns, of locks not Soraya. On the last day we were delayed as the 'last' lock was closed until 2.0PM. We were aware of this upcoming closure as we had been informed by VNF via email. This closure was to curtail boat movements along a stretch of Le Canal de la Marne au Rhin (Est) which runs literally around the European Parliament main building. There was a Presidential visit and for security reasons no river traffic was allowed. No problem moor up, and wait. When the canal opened again and we did get through we could see there had been a large protest with a massive police presence. President? We do not know. We navigated under the bridges and protests and a few miles further on moored at our winter mooring in Koejac Marina or Europe Boat Trading, not sure why it has two names.

Our winter mooring, courtesy of Koejac Marina website.

On the aerial photo above we are moored on the long empty pontoon sticking out into the canal. So it's now settling into Strasbourg and seeing what it has to offer. As you can see there is an excellent park adjacent to the mooring. Good for the early morning run, complete with exercise equipment. Any offers?

STAINED GLASS

Sarrebourg close to the canal is a detour we were advised to do mainly to see a stained glass window. We moored at Xouaxange, can't be too many villages with two 'x's in the name, crained Scoots off and set off for Sarrebourg 10 kilometres away. In the centre of the town there is a chapel with a long history, more recently in 1976 the Chapelle des Cordelliers had a makeover. Other associated buildings were removed as they were in such poor condition. The makeover in the chapel involved removing the end wall and installing a 12 metre tall stained glass widow designed by Marc Chagall. I am unclear as to the reason to involve such a famous artist. Famous that is if you are French, he is Russian/French. He does have a long history of impressive works both in France at the United Nations etc. I do not think he is as well known outside France. Could be wrong?

La vitrail 'La Paix' by Marc Chagall.

The commission was quite controversial mainly due to the cost but the city fathers insisted. Marc Chagall design the window and for its realisation he insisted on the collaboration with a famous stained glass creator Charles Marq from Reims. The result is certainly impressive and not overtly religious more about peace. Did I like it? Well it is certainly impressive, principally due to its size. I did find the overall artwork 'very cloggy'. The more you look and the closer you stand the more detail of biblical scene you see but I feel it becomes messy. It also used the technique, which is used in most religious stained glass windows of painting on the glass rather than the individual fragments of glass forming the 'picture'. I prefer the latter.

L'Espiègle by Jean Laniau.

There is a garden outside the chapel to reflect on La Paix and read quotations by Marc Chagall, a bit pretentious. However there was a beautiful bronze sculpture. There was no information as to why this one piece was there perhaps a visual key to contemplate.