Good morning from the top of the Strasbourg Cathedral! (Fun fact: for 227 years in the Middle Ages, this was THE tallest building in the entire world. Now it's kind of small potatoes ... but that's okay.)
Showing posts with label churches. Show all posts
Showing posts with label churches. Show all posts
Thursday, June 19, 2014
On Top of the World in Strasbourg
Jeudi, 19 juin.
Good morning from the top of the Strasbourg Cathedral! (Fun fact: for 227 years in the Middle Ages, this was THE tallest building in the entire world. Now it's kind of small potatoes ... but that's okay.)
Good morning from the top of the Strasbourg Cathedral! (Fun fact: for 227 years in the Middle Ages, this was THE tallest building in the entire world. Now it's kind of small potatoes ... but that's okay.)
Thursday, December 19, 2013
Sightseeing in Strasbourg
Jeudi, 19 décembre.
I had been looking forward to our trip to Strasbourg since August, when Molly and I first sat down to plan our semester full of adventures and decided to make the pilgrimage to the city's world-famous Christmas markets. And, as the final trip of my study abroad experience, it did not disappoint.
Allan and I got a little preview of the city on Saturday morning, during the couple of hours between our train from Montpellier and our bus to Heidelberg -- it was rainy and wet, but after a ten hour night train, we were just excited to have made it! After 24 hours in Heidelberg, we returned to Strasbourg on Sunday night. Molly arrived the next morning and the three of us explored the Christmas markets until Allan had to go back to Montpellier. But Molly and I still had one more day before we finally left on Tuesday afternoon! Strasbourg isn't a very large city, so during the course of a couple days, we wandered through most of it several times. For the sake of not confusing you too much, I've given up on explaining our trip chronologically. Instead I'm dividing Strasbourg into "sightseeing" and "christmassing." You can read more about the city's world-famous Marchés de Noël here, but in the meantime, here are all the slightly less-festive (but still VERY cool) sights!
My first stop on both Monday and Tuesday mornings was Petite France, a historic neighborhood in Strasbourg that is full of maisons à colombages -- those beautiful half-timbered houses you see on postcards. The style, called "half-timbered" in English, is typical of the Rhineland region and definitely makes you feel the city's German influence. Also it's just gorgeous.
I had been looking forward to our trip to Strasbourg since August, when Molly and I first sat down to plan our semester full of adventures and decided to make the pilgrimage to the city's world-famous Christmas markets. And, as the final trip of my study abroad experience, it did not disappoint.
Allan and I got a little preview of the city on Saturday morning, during the couple of hours between our train from Montpellier and our bus to Heidelberg -- it was rainy and wet, but after a ten hour night train, we were just excited to have made it! After 24 hours in Heidelberg, we returned to Strasbourg on Sunday night. Molly arrived the next morning and the three of us explored the Christmas markets until Allan had to go back to Montpellier. But Molly and I still had one more day before we finally left on Tuesday afternoon! Strasbourg isn't a very large city, so during the course of a couple days, we wandered through most of it several times. For the sake of not confusing you too much, I've given up on explaining our trip chronologically. Instead I'm dividing Strasbourg into "sightseeing" and "christmassing." You can read more about the city's world-famous Marchés de Noël here, but in the meantime, here are all the slightly less-festive (but still VERY cool) sights!
My first stop on both Monday and Tuesday mornings was Petite France, a historic neighborhood in Strasbourg that is full of maisons à colombages -- those beautiful half-timbered houses you see on postcards. The style, called "half-timbered" in English, is typical of the Rhineland region and definitely makes you feel the city's German influence. Also it's just gorgeous.
Because we were there so early, we had the streets pretty much to ourselves. I loved taking advantage of the quiet to grab some up-close pictures of the beautiful buildings!
Also located on the city's historic Grande Île ("Main Island") is the Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Strasbourg. We stumbled across it as we walked through the city streets and let me just say ... WOW.
Tuesday, November 19, 2013
Mommy in Montpellier: Weekend in Lyon
Mardi, 19 novembre.
Like I said in my first post, I'm going to divide Mommy's visit into a couple of posts ... we took too many great pictures to fit everything in one! You can read about our first day in Montpellier here. On Friday morning, we took the train a few hours northeast, to the city of Lyon.
We stayed in a charming little apartment in Vieux-Lyon, the city's old Renaissance quarter and the heart of its historic district. The apartment was incredibly convenient -- right above the metro station, around the corner from the Lyon cathedral, and just across the river from some of Lyon's most famous squares! We were picked up at the train station by our host's parents -- an adorable and incredibly welcoming couple who were clearly very happy that their daughter has found a way to make some money with the apartment they bought her. They left us with fresh fruit, milk and orange juice, homemade jam, and even a bottle of wine!
After a quick cup of coffee/hot cocoa to wake and warm us up, we headed out to explore Lyon! Well ... almost. The building's old door was a little tricky! (Also, confession: I am absolutely terrible at opening doors. We stayed in three separate apartments over the course of the week and I couldn't open a one of them.)
For whatever crazy reason, given the fact that it was raining and we only had one umbrella, we decided to walk up the hill to Fourvière! Hey, it didn't look that far ... right? Wrong. What seemed like a straight shot from the apartment window was actually a series of winding roads that led sloooowly up the hill.
Luckily, we were able to take a few pauses and admire the view as we got higher and higher! In this picture, you can see the Saône River, which runs parallel to the Rhône through the city, just below us and the Eglise Saint-Georges in the right-hand corner. (Fun fact: the church was designed by the same architect as the basilica at the top of the hill. He referred to it as a "youthful mistake." Poor Saint-Georges.)
Our first stop, once we made it to the top of the hill? The ancient Roman theatre of Fourvière, which has been around since before the birth of Christ. At its most popular, during the reign of Emperor Hadrien in the second century AD, it held up to 10,000 spectators. Bottom line: this sucker is very big, very old, and very cool. And because of the rainy weather, we had the entire thing almost entirely to ourselves!
Like I said in my first post, I'm going to divide Mommy's visit into a couple of posts ... we took too many great pictures to fit everything in one! You can read about our first day in Montpellier here. On Friday morning, we took the train a few hours northeast, to the city of Lyon.
We stayed in a charming little apartment in Vieux-Lyon, the city's old Renaissance quarter and the heart of its historic district. The apartment was incredibly convenient -- right above the metro station, around the corner from the Lyon cathedral, and just across the river from some of Lyon's most famous squares! We were picked up at the train station by our host's parents -- an adorable and incredibly welcoming couple who were clearly very happy that their daughter has found a way to make some money with the apartment they bought her. They left us with fresh fruit, milk and orange juice, homemade jam, and even a bottle of wine!
After a quick cup of coffee/hot cocoa to wake and warm us up, we headed out to explore Lyon! Well ... almost. The building's old door was a little tricky! (Also, confession: I am absolutely terrible at opening doors. We stayed in three separate apartments over the course of the week and I couldn't open a one of them.)
For whatever crazy reason, given the fact that it was raining and we only had one umbrella, we decided to walk up the hill to Fourvière! Hey, it didn't look that far ... right? Wrong. What seemed like a straight shot from the apartment window was actually a series of winding roads that led sloooowly up the hill.
Luckily, we were able to take a few pauses and admire the view as we got higher and higher! In this picture, you can see the Saône River, which runs parallel to the Rhône through the city, just below us and the Eglise Saint-Georges in the right-hand corner. (Fun fact: the church was designed by the same architect as the basilica at the top of the hill. He referred to it as a "youthful mistake." Poor Saint-Georges.)
Our first stop, once we made it to the top of the hill? The ancient Roman theatre of Fourvière, which has been around since before the birth of Christ. At its most popular, during the reign of Emperor Hadrien in the second century AD, it held up to 10,000 spectators. Bottom line: this sucker is very big, very old, and very cool. And because of the rainy weather, we had the entire thing almost entirely to ourselves!
Sunday, September 29, 2013
Excursion à Toulouse
Dimanche, 29 septembre.
Bonjour and bienvenue à Toulouse, the destination of my most recent weekend trip!
Toulouse is home to: one of Europe's oldest universities, the largest cancer research center in Europe, the headquarters of Airbus, Europe's largest space center, and the largest Romanesque church in France. Oh, and it's casually been described as "the place capitalism was invented." With all that it's got going on, it's not surprising that the city is the fourth-largest in France! (To put it in perspective, however, the population of this grande ville is approximately 1.2 million ... just over that of Fairfax County.) Oh ... and it's also the name of one of the kittens in The Aristocats.
Bonjour and bienvenue à Toulouse, the destination of my most recent weekend trip!
Toulouse is home to: one of Europe's oldest universities, the largest cancer research center in Europe, the headquarters of Airbus, Europe's largest space center, and the largest Romanesque church in France. Oh, and it's casually been described as "the place capitalism was invented." With all that it's got going on, it's not surprising that the city is the fourth-largest in France! (To put it in perspective, however, the population of this grande ville is approximately 1.2 million ... just over that of Fairfax County.) Oh ... and it's also the name of one of the kittens in The Aristocats.
Molly and I decided to go to visit the city a few weeks ago, when we realized how inexpensive it would be to take the train there for the day. We ended up taking the train (about two hours each way and less expensive than going from Northern Virginia to Williamsburg) and spending ten hours in Toulouse with a couple of other study abroad students we know from the pre-stage. I didn't know too much about the city (and naturally neither did anybody else), so we headed to the Office of Tourism for a map and then just spent our day wandering around downtown Toulouse!
Monday, September 16, 2013
Too Pooped to Patrimoine
Dimanche, 15 septembre.
Before arriving in France, I was warned by several people not to become a tourist, jetting off to a different country every weekend, but to try to really live in and experience the city I was in! Spending a weekend "at home" with my host family or with friends might not sound as exciting as a short trip to Spain or Italy, but it would make for a richer experience in the long run. So, although I'm beyond excited to travel outside of the city again in the upcoming months, I've made it my mission to balance all those trips with as much quality time with Montpellier as I can manage!
To be fair, I've already done a whole lot of exploring the city in the past three weeks. I've checked out parcs and cafés and grocery stores and bars and banks and museums ... and I've even ridden every single tram line! (There are only four, but still.) But this weekend, my exploration of Montpellier hit a new level, all thanks to les Journées européennes du Patrimoine.
What are these Journées du Patrimoine all about? Well, as you might be aware, Europe is old. Very old. And because it's so old, it's absolutely teeming with history -- much of which is difficult/expensive for the average person to access! In order to encourage Europeans to explore their patrimony, somebody had the bright idea to create a special weekend in which historical and cultural sites are opened to the public, free of charge. The sites, which range from museums to churches to historical buildings, often charge admission or are closed to the public during the rest of the year, so the weekend is a pretty great opportunity!
Even in a smaller and "younger" (read: not Roman) city like Montpellier, there is a lot of exciting patrimoine. And since this will almost certainly be my only chance to experience Journées du Patrimoine in Montpellier, I decided that I had to see ALL of it. So yesterday morning, I packed up my camera and water bottle, put on my walking shoes, and headed downtown to see not one, not two, but eleven patrimoine sites. Molly and I finished up the tour today with two more, for a grand total of THIRTEEN sites of cultural/historic importance.
Thirty six hours later, I'm so cultured that it hurts (or maybe that's just all the stairs...) and now you're about to be too! Scroll down for a little information -- and a lot of fun pictures! -- of all the places we visited.
Before arriving in France, I was warned by several people not to become a tourist, jetting off to a different country every weekend, but to try to really live in and experience the city I was in! Spending a weekend "at home" with my host family or with friends might not sound as exciting as a short trip to Spain or Italy, but it would make for a richer experience in the long run. So, although I'm beyond excited to travel outside of the city again in the upcoming months, I've made it my mission to balance all those trips with as much quality time with Montpellier as I can manage!
To be fair, I've already done a whole lot of exploring the city in the past three weeks. I've checked out parcs and cafés and grocery stores and bars and banks and museums ... and I've even ridden every single tram line! (There are only four, but still.) But this weekend, my exploration of Montpellier hit a new level, all thanks to les Journées européennes du Patrimoine.
What are these Journées du Patrimoine all about? Well, as you might be aware, Europe is old. Very old. And because it's so old, it's absolutely teeming with history -- much of which is difficult/expensive for the average person to access! In order to encourage Europeans to explore their patrimony, somebody had the bright idea to create a special weekend in which historical and cultural sites are opened to the public, free of charge. The sites, which range from museums to churches to historical buildings, often charge admission or are closed to the public during the rest of the year, so the weekend is a pretty great opportunity!
Even in a smaller and "younger" (read: not Roman) city like Montpellier, there is a lot of exciting patrimoine. And since this will almost certainly be my only chance to experience Journées du Patrimoine in Montpellier, I decided that I had to see ALL of it. So yesterday morning, I packed up my camera and water bottle, put on my walking shoes, and headed downtown to see not one, not two, but eleven patrimoine sites. Molly and I finished up the tour today with two more, for a grand total of THIRTEEN sites of cultural/historic importance.
Thirty six hours later, I'm so cultured that it hurts (or maybe that's just all the stairs...) and now you're about to be too! Scroll down for a little information -- and a lot of fun pictures! -- of all the places we visited.
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