“I’m going to Strasbourg,” wrote a friend. “Wanna’ join?”
I’d never been and knew little about this city except that it boasts a Gothic cathedral worth seeing.
Lief and I were looking for a quick excursion to share with our Private Network members during our monthlong stay in Paris. This seemed the ticket.
At first glance, Strasbourg is another classic Old World city of cobblestoned squares, ancient churches, and cafés with sidewalk seating. Certainly nothing wrong with that. We and our Private Network members traveling with us indulged in many very pleasant al-fresco moments…
But there’s more to Strasbourg than at first meets the eye.
The main event is the city’s Cathedral of Notre Dame, little sister to the Cathedral of Our Lady in Paris. We had a front-row view from our hotel windows…
However, a five-minute walk away Lief and I discovered a more modest church arguably more interesting.
Four-hundred years before architects set to work on Strasbourg’s Gothic masterpiece, a chapel was erected in the middle of a cemetery outside the city walls. Over the centuries to follow, the Merovingian structure served as an oratory, a hospice, a meeting place for local tradesmen, and an orphanage.
Most visitors miss the Church of Saint-Pierre-Le-Jeune altogether, but even those who happen upon it overlook the medieval well, part of an elaborate network of public wells serving every street of this free city of the Holy Roman Empire…
Saint-Pierre-Le-Jeune’s original chapel is impressively well-preserved…
As is its 11th-century cloister, the oldest north of the Alps…
Strasbourg excels at surprises.
Its La Petite France neighborhood of canals, covered bridges, and medieval half-timbered houses is the kind of scene Disney aspires to recreate.
I’d seen photos but didn’t know the history. I admit my eyes widened a bit when our guide shared it. This is the world’s first center for the treatment of syphilis. German mercenaries fighting for the French in Italy during the 15th-century Four Years’ War returned to France with the disease and were consolidated to try to control the spread.
So came to be the Hospice Of The Incurable, today the city’s primary wine cellar. You’ll pass it during a boat ride on the River Ill…
The other thing to be sure to do when visiting Strasbourg is to leave Strasbourg… at least for a day, to tour its surrounding wine region… as our Private Network group did…
I prefer dry wine to sweet so was surprised again when tasting Crémant for the first time. The Alsace region’s answer to Champagne is produced using the same process but different grapes…
It’s quite drinkable and less than half the cost of its rival to the north.
Until next time,
Kathleen Peddicord
Founding Publisher, Overseas Opportunity Letter
