As I’m sitting on the couch on a rainy day sipping a lovely rich espresso… Every first Sunday of the month, museums here in Strasbourg are free! Most of them open at 10:00 hours and close at 18:00 hours (that’s how schedules work in France—military time). This past Sunday I visited three museums. I met Sama and another friend at Le Musée Zoologique first. We biked there, because now that the weather is warmer, I forbid myself to use the bus or tram. I mean, biking is really great exercise, it's very "Strasbourgeois", and aside from the fact that I’m still terrified of an accident happening while biking in the city, it’s kind of fun and I feel good about it. Plus it saves me the 26€ monthly bus pass. Anyway, this museum is very close to where I take my classes, and it’s on the same street where I rented my bike. The front of the building is a very simple, old structure, and I’d been past it many times. Inside, there are 2 floors filled with “natural history”—animals in panoramas of the Arctic, lizards, insects, sea creatures, and a whole room filled with hundreds of birds. What I really liked was the particular attention to Alsatian wildlife, the animals and insects found in the Vosges mountains and the forests near the Rhine river. Luckily, nothing too terrifying. As you can imagine, there were lots of children at the Zoological Museum! None of them seemed to be scared of the huge horned beetles or spiders inside the cases. Or the enormous Japanese spider crab…I love hearing young children speaking French and learning animal names! The next museum was the museum of Tomi Ungerer, an Alsatian artist and writer of mostly children’s books who was born here in Strasbourg. He passed away this February at age 87. He was a cartoonist, often satirical, who also designed political posters. The museum was a small building, but it was filled with his art on plain white walls. There were some books to look at, and some news articles that were saved. Some drawings were in pen, some in pencil, and some with color. There was another exhibit on the upper floor that featured work by a contemporary comic book artist also from Strasbourg known as Blutch. Two other museums in Strasbourg are featuring his art as well for the “Rencontres de l’Illustration” art festival in Strasbourg happening now. To be honest, I’m not a huge fan of comics, but it’s interesting to try and learn why people draw what they do. The last museum of the day I was most excited for! Le Musée Alsacien (The Alsatian Musuem)! It’s made of typical old Alsatian houses connected by wooden staircases. It was almost like a maze for me, but the whole house together was beautiful. The floorboards creaked, the passageways were narrow, and almost of the furniture was intricately painted. Some of the rooms were set up like they would have been in the 18th and 19th centuries (for example, the “common room” or “Stùb”, which I think is like the living/family room today). I collected lots of data for my research on Alsace, mostly by taking pictures of plaques with information on them and collecting pamphlets. Now I have to go read, take notes, and analyze them…there was information about how they heated houses, about making ceramics (there are still two places today that make pottery traditionally!), why the furniture was always painted at least in another shade of brown (to make it look like expensive wood), and about the presence of different religions in the region. There were large groups of Catholics, Protestants, and Jews through the history of Alsace. There were exhibits of costumes that were worn for special occasions like weddings and funerals, cake and biscuit molds (they were particular about them), bedrooms, toys, and wine barrels in the cellar. There was also a tiny chapel. I bought a book at the little gift shop that will help me with both my project and my French (it’s written in French). Here’s a French word that you hear ALL THE TIME in Alsace: “Choucroute”, which is in English and German “sauerkraut” If you don’t know what that is, it’s fermented cabbage in a brine, often served with beans, potatoes, pork, or sausages. It’s a very Germanic-Alsatian dish. You either like it or hate it in my opinion! Enjoy the pictures, and see you soon! -Elda
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AuthorHello! I'm Elda, a French/Anthropology major and Applied Language Studies minor studying in Strasbourg for a semester. Archives
May 2019
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