The French Collection

[Ali Smith]

Bore 125mm, stroke 130mm, two inlet valves and one exhaust valve, single overhead camshaft.
In the '80s Honda came up with a four-valve single (XBR500) with radial valves operated by multiple rockers. They called this arrangement RFVC, standing for Radial Four Valve Combustionchamber. It could equally stand for Rudge Four Valve Copy.

[Hiawatha]

Just above the right-hand smoke deflector you can see can see some shields attached to a pillar. These consist of the coat of arms of a town with its name above and what appears to be a locomotive number below. I assume these are nameplates of a class of engines named after French towns.

There were several classes that wore such town crests – some engines of the CC-6500, BB-15000, BB-22200, CC-40100 and CC-72000 classes did but there may be more. The numbers shown below are additions from the museum and were not there on the locomotives.


© Wolfgang Koenigsfeld, from bahnbilder.de

The left one is from the BB-22311 (can't read the name: starting with "Pierre..." maybe?) and the next one is "Chambly" from the BB-15032.


© Finn Møller, from finnmoller.dk

The right one is "Vaucresson" but I haven't found the matching engine for that town. Maybe there are books listing the engines with their names but this info is not found on the 'net. Looks to me like XXXX 6506 but the text left of it is too long for CC?

[Ali Smith]

Thanks @Hiawatha. I embiggened my original photo and found that the left-hand shield is for 'Pierrefitte'. The one on the right is as you say Vaucresson, number 76505-6506.

Cheers, Ali

[Hiawatha]

It's actually Z 6505–6506, an EMU. I thought it was from the CC-6506 as I didn't know that even commuter EMUs carried these crests.


© Bernd Kittendorf, from bkcw-bahnbilder.de

[Ali Smith]

On checking the weather forecast the next day, it seemed that this would be the best day of the week so we decided to spend it in the town centre rather than another enormous museum. First port of call was the Place de la Réunion, so named to commemorate Mulhouse becoming part of France in 1798.
One of the most striking buildings is the Temple Saint-Etienne (Church of St. Stephen). It dates from the 19th century but there has been a church on the site since the 12th century. It is a Calvinist church, and there is also a Catholic St. Stephen's church in town so presumably it is called a temple to avoid confusion.



Nearby is the Hôtel de Ville of 1552. The tricolore flying from this building is the same one in the corner of the previous picture.



This is no longer the town hall. The council chamber is still used for council meetings but can also be hired for weddings. Neither was happening at the time of our visit, so we were able to go in and enjoy its 16th Century ambience. The rest of the building is a museum. Mostly it is about the history of the area going back to the middle ages if not earlier. There is a section concerning the Dreyfus Affair (Alfred Dreyfus was a local man). In addition to the things in the museum, there is quite a good view from the front windows.



Part way through our visit I started to suspect that the building had the TARDIS-like property of being larger on the inside than the outside. It was only later I realised we had crossed this bridge into the building behind.



Nearby is the Post Office, where we found this post box with the Mulhouse arms on the pedestal.



Here are two more views of buildings on Place de la Réunion,





And another, this time showing the Tour de l'Europe:



This was built between 1969 and 1972; architect Fran?ois Spoery. It is mostly residential with a historically revolving restaurant on the top. Although you get a good view of it from here, it's actually located at Porte Jeune.

Having done with the Place de la Réunion for the time being, we made our way to the Musée des Beaux-Arts (Museum of Fine Arts). The time was approaching midday, which is when they close for lunch, so we went for a crèpe.

On returning to the museum, we found a couple of odd works in the garden. Do you remember the woolly motorcycle in the Tourist Office? Not content with that, the same bunch of crackpots also make socks for trees:



The other oddity was in bronze, so perhaps meant to be taken more seriously.



It was created by one Naji Kamouche in 2014 and is entitled "Mes Pas à Faire", which I take to mean "My Not to Do" but I am happy to be contradicted. Rob wondered if there were a pair of bronze y-fronts inside the jeans, but there weren't.

Inside the exhibits were mostly paintings. I don't recall much about them, but I do remember there was a Breughel.

After that we returned to the Place de la Réunion to visit the Musée de Patrmoine (heritage museum), tucked away behind Temple de Saint-Etienne. I remember even less about this; it was mostly photographs and maps. I do remember a picture of Alfred de Glehn's house, an upper-middle class villa.
After that it was time to explore a restaurant and some bars.

Another enormous museum next time.

Have fun,

Ali

[joe cassidy]

Thanks for the photos Ali.

"Mes pas à faire" could also mean "my next steps", or "steps I need to take".

Do you have any photos of the railway station ?

[Newportnobby]

Some great architecture there, and the bronze bloke is half the man he used to be.

[Bealman]

That sock on the tree is better than mine - all mine have holes in the toe