A quiet place

The garden of the Oeuvre Notre Dame, the institution taking care of the cathedral.
 

First winter morning

Strasbourg's cathedral, as seen from my balcony this morning
 

Stitching

Old photo... Actually a composite of 7 photos, with the help of a little program called Microsoft Image Composite Editor, aka ICE. free, very easy to use. Without it, this photo would have been impossible, and it is one tall lady!!! 142 meters/466 feet.
The technique used is call stitching.

Light

Gorgeous light in the cathedral a few weeks ago

Francis, looking up

I don't go to the cathedral as often as I did once. You might know that France is still in a state of emergency, due do terrorist attacks. At the cathedral, you have now controls, restricted opening times, long to very long queues (tourists!). Last sunday, surprise; no queue!!! So, let's go in! Well, there was a mass, so no going around. Found my old mate (saint) Francis, just standing there, staring at something. What do you see, Francesco???

Transmongolia

Buskers from Mongolia is something you don't see every day, even here. The guys were throat singing, very unusual. And I liked it!
Transmongolia is the name of the band, they seem to be quite famous.

What's for dinner, dear?

-Oh you're right, dear, I'm positively starving myself! Chinese?
-Oh, we had chinese yesterday... Boring.
-What about those japanese tourist, don't they look particularly scrumptious tonight?
-Okey dokey, one each then. Fries and coke with them?
-Don't be silly, deary! Rice and soy sauce, and a sake!
-Waiter!!???

Light

And back to the cathedral, with it's never-ending photo opps.
The big chandelier in the St Laurent chapel

New!

This is unique, It is the newest 'vitrail', stained-glass window, in the cathedral. There are 2 of them, will show you the other one as soon as I found a way to put a 5 meters tall window in a photo, without breaking my neck.
What's special about this one...The face is composed of photos of 150 anonymous inhabitants of our fair city. This photo were sepia-colored, and somehow transposed into glass tiles. At a cost of 200.000 euros, to celebrate the cathedral's millennium, in 2015. The picture was taken from a 15th century painting. Amazing thing.

That girl from Domremy

Yes, you probably saw some movies about her, or studied her at school. Saint Joan of Arc (to Catholics), the national symbol of France par excellence. More about her here, if you're interested.
This statue is situated inside the cathedral. She was put there in 1937, as a thank you for  'kicking the Germans out of France' during WW1. BTW, I removed the 'don't touch' sign from this photo: it was in French... and German...
Nowadays, Joan -Jeanne - is the saint patron of the french nationalists, the highly controversial National Front, for example, wanting to kick all the non-white foreigners out of France, specially what they call the 'Arabs" (anyone not having had french ancestry for centuries). Reminds you of some ''politicians'' in the US of A, doesn't it?!
2 weeks ago, in the news... Some french guy, descendant from nobility, bought Joan's ring at a auction in London, for 370.000 euros or so. He wants to display it at his historical amusement park...

Rohraffe

Rohraffe, literally 'pipe monkeys'. The 3 wild men live just below the cathedral's grand organ (you can see it here).
Now then, they are a wild bunch... And part of one of the stranger stories around.
Starting in the 14th century, on Pentecost Sunday, when parishioners arrived for mass, monks, hidden in a small cave behind the wild men were moving levers. The left one was  playing his trumpet, Samson at the center was opening and closing his lion's mouth, while the last was waving a... pretzel, of course. Then, they began to giggle, sing, shout, throwing jibes and insults at the parishioners and the priests, often contradicting the priests during their sermon...
Unfortunately, this practice is forbidden now. What a shame.

L'horloge astronomique

And back to the cathedral.
This the famous astronomic clock, the latest one this is, built in 1843 by Jean-Baptiste Schwilge. It is a marvel of ingeniosity, with a very early (kind of) computer. More info here.

St Laurent

An older photo, published on several websites before. The St Laurent chapel (1495-1505), used for adoration, weddings and funerals of parishioners.

Rock star!

Carrying on with my little series about, may I introduce the minstrel, the true rock star (pun intended) of his time! A bearded bard!

The pillar of angels - Le Pilier des Anges

And this is what yesterday's little jealous guy was looking at...
Et voice ce que notre jaloux d'hier regardait...

Plus d'infos ici, en francais.

The Pillar is a representation of the Last Judgement, and is situated in the south transept, just next to the astronomical clock, to which I will come back... one day.

The man on the railing - L'homme de la balustrade

Another curious figure is this man leaning on a railing. Legend says that he is an architect, jealously watching what his competitor had built.

La legende raconte qu'il s'agit d'un architecte regardant ce que son concurrent avait construit.

Le chien de la cathedrale The cathedral's dog

Yes, there is an old dog living in the cathedral. It is Jean Geiler's dog, a renowned 15th century theologian, Geiler used to preach from the magnificent pulpit (by Hans Hammer, 1486 AD).
And where can you see the doggie? Well, on the pulpit, of course! Try to find him, he is tiny... Just above the end of the watermark... There he is!

Le chien du predicateur Jean Geiler de Kaysersberg, sculpte par Hans Hammer, en 1486. Comme tout bon chien de predicateur qui se respecte, vous le trouverez bien sur... sur la chaire! Juste au-dessus de la derniere lettre de mon nom. Attention, il est minuscule!

Home sweet home

We moved last weekend, and this the view we have now from our living room and from our kitchen. Nice, innit?!

Apres notre demenagement le weekend dernier, voici notre nouvelle vue. J'aime!

Scene d'un cafe Scene of a coffee house

Scene from a coffee house, is today's theme for the City Daily Photographers. See this guy, sitting there on cold but sunny day... He will so enjoy his coffee... Watch closer... See how the coffee and the milk are smoking, exhaling their aroma... A true connoisseur. A gentleman. He even has a halo...

Scene d'un cafe, tel est le theme de ce premier du mois pour la communaute des City Daily photographes. Admirer cet homme, attable par unr froide mais ensoleillee journee d'hiver. Il va apprecier son cafe. Voyez comme le cafe et le lait fument, exhalant leurs aromes... Un connaisseur, Un homme du monde. Il a meme un halo...

Plus d'entrees sur ce theme, more posts about this theme here/ici.

Hungry? Une petite faim?

A very illuminated restaurant near the cathedral, very popular with tourist but not that much with the locals. We eat very well here in Alsace, btw!!!

Restaurant joliment illumine a la cathedrale. Bonne nourriture alsacienne! Tres prise par les touristes, beaucoup moins par les gens du coin. Les torchons et les serviettes...