The Bruner Family Journey: Where France Meets Germany

"Petite France" neighborhood in Strasbourg

"Are we in France or Germany?" That was a common refrain from the children during our stay in Alsace, which prospered under Germanic rule in the 12th and 13th centuries, then was ceded to France at the close of the Thirty Years War in the 17th century, then annexed into Germany after the Franco-Prussian War in 1871, then ceded back to France after World War I, then re-annexed into Germany in 1940, then reincorporated back into France after World War II. It's a good thing for Alsace that France and Germany are friends now! The official language is French, but many people speak Alsatian (a regional variant of German) and there is a distinctive cultural heritage here that seems decidedly more German than French.

Strasbourg Cathedral

We stayed in Strasbourg, the cultural, economic and political heart of Alsace. The city is the seat of numerous European institutions, including the European Parliament and the Council of Europe. It's also an important center of manufacturing and engineering, as well as road, rail and river transport. There are several noteworthy art museums, and the city boasts a wide a range of building styles, from Romanesque and Gothic, to German Renaissance, to French Baroque and Neoclassical, to Art Nouveau, to contemporary. The most famous monument in town is the Strasbourg Cathedral, one of the world's tallest churches and said to be the tallest existing medieval structure on earth. The spire, which was completed in 1439 at a height of 142 meters, became the world's tallest structure in 1647, after the previous winners in this category collapsed or burned down. It held on to the world title until 1874, when it was surpassed by Saint Nikolai's Church in Hamburg. The second spire was planned but never built - some say this was due to the decline of the Gothic style, while others attribute it to a lack of funds. Probably a combination of both.

Petite France, Part Deux

The highlight to any visit to Strasbourg is strolling around the historic area known as Petite France. With its charming canals and classic Rhineland timber-framed houses, you think you're in an overgrown French - well German actually - village, not a major European city. The area used to be filled with tanning-houses and slaughterhouses, but the old buildings now house tourist shops, bars, cafes and restaurants. Interestingly, the name Petite France ("Little France") has nothing to do with patriotism and it certainly doesn't come from the prevailing style of architecture, which is reminiscent of the other side of the border. Rather, the little island that houses the Petite France neighborhood was the site of a hospice built in the 15th century to cure people of syphilis, which at the time was called the "French disease" in German ("Franzosenkrankeit"). I guess you learn something new everyday...

Encore de Petite France

Our hotel (the yellow building) with the Cathedral in the background

My favorite shot from Petite France

Less than an hour away from Strasbourg, Colmar is a smaller city that offers more of the same: old squares and fountains, colorful half-timbered houses, little canals and cascades, and a heady mix of French and German culture. The old part of town is extremely well-preserved - the Allied Forces were careful not to bomb it during World War II due to its historic beauty (although that excuse didn't work for a lot of other places in Europe). We ate near a canal in the Petite Venise ("Little Venice") quarter at a restaurant that served a very interesting fusion of French and German cuisine: there was schnitzel and sauerkraut, but also various quiches, savory tarts and delicately sauced dishes you're not that likely to find on the other side of the border. We also popped in on a summer wine tasting festival, where - in another sign of the profound German influence here - we sampled some local Riesling and Gewürtztraminer.

Just outside of Colmar, the village of Eguisheim seems to have many more flowers than residents. It's said to be the cradle of Alsatian wine-making and every type of Alsatian grape is grown here. Its wines have brought it fame and prosperity over the centuries and were well known to English and Dutch royalty before Voltaire purchased some vines here in the 18th century. Man does not live on rational thought and political philosophy alone! Eguisheim oozes charm and was extremely high on the 2010-2011 Brunometer for photographs per square meter. I joked to Eden that it's the prettiest German village there is - and it's not even in Germany!

Cute little Bergheim

We concluded our tour of Alsace in two other towns - Bergheim and Obernai. Bergheim is another adorable little village that apparently lost its entire population to war and plague in the 17th-18th centuries; to repopulate the town, thousands of people from other countries (Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Hungary and Romania) were invited to settle here. I wonder if they were offered a free bottle of white wine. Obernai is very pretty as well, but after visiting Colmar, Eguisheim and Bergheim earlier that same day, at this point we'd seen enough and were just looking for a good meal. It was a successful mission, although I forget exactly what each of us ate - some kind of bizarre cross-border combination involving fresh baguette, chevre chaud salad, bouchées à la reine, weinerschnitzel and bratwurst.

As we left France the next morning and drove back into Germany, the kids were confused. "Weren't we just in Germany? When did we leave?" "No, that was France. It just looked like Germany."