The French Collection

[Ali Smith]

What a wonderful way to be immortalised!

[chrism]

French dustbins are named after Eugene Poubelle, the civil servant who introduced dustbins to France

When we first went to France we used to refer to the Citroen 2CVs as "dustbin cars" - because most of them were grey and had corrugated bits on them 

[Ali Smith]

I'm not sure I even saw one on the road this time.

[chrism]

I'm not sure I even saw one on the road this time.

Even the last built would be over 35 years old now.
I suspect that, only being made of rather thin metal in the first place, most of them have long since succumbed to the dreaded tin worm by now.

[joe cassidy]

The only 2CVs you will see in Paris today are those offering sight-seeing trips for tourists.

[Ali Smith]

We enjoyed our brief visit to Paris, but it was time to move on. As I mentioned before we were to travel from the nearby Gare de l'Est. Here's a picture of part of it I took the previous evening. It's about twice the width you see here.



We had a while to wait, but in due course we were allowed onto our train. We were in the front coach, so I had a moment to snap a photo'.



As you can see it's an Inter-City Express operated by Deutsche Bahn. According to DB's own website it appears to be an ICE3neo, with a top speed of 320km/h. The train's ultimate destination was Stuttgart.
At the appointed hour, off we went past various business premises and housing estates but were soon out in the countryside. The ride was very smooth; the sensation of speed came from looking out of the window and thinking "that looks interesting...didn't it!"  As we headed east, we noticed architecture becoming gradually becoming more Germanic in style. After an hour and three quarters the train slowed to a halt at it's first stop, Strasbourg, some 252 miles from Paris. We got off here and crossed, by underpass, to another platform to await the train to our final destination.
The train was delayed by about ten minutes, but it did arrive and we clambered aboard. I would guess the coach was from the 1970's and had the unusual, to British eyes at least, feature of compartments without doors. These had not been removed by human agency whether official or unofficial; it was clearly part of the design.
In some ways this was the best part of the whole journey from Bedford as we were going slowly enough to be able to see things properly and we passed through several towns with stations. Beyond these towns to the west were the Vosges mountains dotted with castles (or bits of them) including Château du Haut Koenigsbourg, or at least I think that's what it was. This mixture of French and German in the name of a single thing like a castle or a street is common in Alsace and confusing because it's hard to guess how to pronounce it but is very much a part of the character and history of the region.
Our enjoyment of the scenery was somewhat impaired by the gloomy and occasionally wet weather allied with the dirty windows.
Despite the dismal state of its fenestration, after ¾ of an hour or thereabouts the train passed through the suburbs of the town of Mulhouse (pron. Mull-ooze or something like that) and stopped, conveniently, at the station. This was as close as SNCF was going to get us to our destination so we got off and went in quest of a taxi. The train itself had further to go; Basel in Switzerland I believe. It might be all of 20 miles.
To find a taxi, we first had to get out of the station, which led us over the footbridge. Crossing this structure revealed the platform canopies.



These must have been quite impressive in their day, whenever that was. I've noticed before a French fondness for quite elaborate concrete constructions to perform rather mundane tasks. The station gives the impression of being larger than it needs to be, in fact the whole line from Strasbourg is like that. Over to the right of the picture there is grass growing in the track.
We found a taxi which took us to Hôtel Bristol by what seemed like a rather circuitous route but it may be that he simply wished to pull up in a side street rather than the main road. He only charged us €8, which can't be much different from the £7 fare from home to our local station.
We checked in and went to our room. To get there we used...



Yes! Schindler's Lift*

The room was extremely pleasant. As we were staying for several nights we unpacked properly and then headed into town. Our first port of call was not any place of refreshment but the tourist office. There were many objects of interest here, the strangest of which was this:



It is what it seems: a motorcycle wrapped in wool. There was a notice explaining it and in good English too but I still couldn't see why. It is quite amusing though and maybe that's enough reason. It looks like an early BSA Bantam, but I suspect it's a French machine from a similar era.


*If any Jewish person reading this is offended then I apologise but it is not my intention to make light of your people's sufferings.

[Newportnobby]

Excellent narrative, Ali

[chrism]

The ride was very smooth; the sensation of speed came from looking out of the window and thinking "that looks interesting...didn't it!" 

I remember the first time I went on a TGV on the Bordeaux line - the only indication I got of the speed was when the line ran beside a autoroute and we were going about twice as fast as the cars.

after ¾ of an hour or thereabouts the train passed through the suburbs of the town of Mulhouse (pron. Mull-ooze or something like that) and stopped, conveniently, at the station. This was as close as SNCF was going to get us to our destination

Aha, I did wonder if you were heading to the Cité du Train.
I went there in its previous incarnation, the Musée Français du Chemin de Fer, and very good it was too.


 

[Moonglum]

We stayed at the Grand Hotel Bristol, opposite Colmar railway station several years ago, do you think your Hotel Bristol at Mulhouse is part of the same chain? Both now look like very smart boutique hotels.

Tim

[joe cassidy]

The French provinces of Alsace and Lorraine became part of Germany in 1870 after the Franco-prussian war and were returned to France after the 1st world war.

The Germans marked their presence by building magnificent railway stations in a teutonic style such as Metz and Mulhouse.

They also left their mark by imposing right hand running which continued for a long time even after the liberation of Alsace/Lorraine.

If you go home via Mulhouse try to find time to visit tha national railway museum and the car museum

[Ali Smith]

I think some people are getting ahead of me, as I thought they might.
 
@Moonglum, the Bristol at Mulhouse appears to be part of the Contact Hotels group. The website for the Bristol at Colmar makes no suggestion of being a member of any group. Bristol is a fairly common name for an hotel. We passed one walking between Gare du Nord and Gare de l'Est. There's also a dead posh one on Rue de Faubourg St-Honore.

I seem to recall hearing of one in one of the grandest resorts of belle epoque Europe. Somewhere like Nice or Baden-Baden. The sort of place Queen Victoria or Edward VII stayed at.

[Newportnobby]

I still eagerly await the appearance of 'Popeye' Doyle in this tale

[Bealman]

I'm really enjoying this. Keep em coming!

[Ali Smith]

Whilst viewing knitted motorcycles is mildly diverting, this was not our chief purpose in visiting the tourist office. What we wanted was City Passes. These last for three days and give you free use of local busses and trams and free or reduced access to various museums. At €19 each they are well worth the expense. There was a problem with the computer, so the young lady suggested we come back in an hour, perhaps have a coffee. We took up the first part of the suggestion, but instead of coffee we sought beer.

At this point it might be as well to give a very brief history of Mulhouse as it seems to be little known in the UK, except among those in the know about its museums. It had been part of the Holy Roman Empire*, becoming one of the ten Free Imperial Cities of Alsace within said Empire. In 1515 it joined the Swiss Confederation as an associate. It was not annexed by France under the Treaty of Westphalia but became a free Calvinist republic until 1798, when it joined France following a vote in favour by its citizens.

In the 19th century it became a major industrial city, including textiles. The is a museum of printing on fabric but I confess we didn't visit that. The city became known as the "Manchester of France".

As @joe cassidy pointed out, Alsace and Lorraine were ceded to the German Empire following the Franco-Prussian War but regained in the Treaty of Versailles in 1919. It was occupied by the Germans again in 1940-45.

 Another thing worth knowing is that there is an Alsatian language. By this I mean the language of the people of Alsace rather than the barking of a German Shepherd Dog.
 
Anyway, back to the beer. We found a pub called J. Murphy as in the famous brewers of Irish Stout who aren't Guinness. They had both, but we chose neither.



In the background is the Tour du Bollwerk. This may be our first example of the Alsatian tongue. Behind me is Rue du Bastion.
Here's a better view of the Bollwerk.



And from outside;



Note the tram in the distance.
According to Google Maps the Bollwerk dates from the 14th century. It looks a bit insubstantial to me and far too tidy. I'm inclined to think it's a replica, but at the very least it must have had a lot of restoration. It does seem to be about where the city walls would have been, so it isn't a total fantasy.
The beer was very nice and when we went back to the tourist office our passes were ready.
Next time we will have a look at this chap,



And ponder the name of a shopping centre. We might even fit in a tram ride.

*  "Neither Holy, nor Roman, nor an empire" Voltaire