We walked a different route to the “oh my goodness” cafe today, along the lovely tree lined boulevard. I had coffee & Richard went for a wander before we went to the place de Cathedral by the Cathedral to start the self guide walking tour. 1 st stop was the Cathedral but the door we’d seen people queuing & entering yesterday wasn’t open. We wandered around the other side & there was a queue there, we then realised it was 11.30am & they were queuing with tickets for the astronomical clock that comes to life at 12.30pm. We hope to see the clock & Cathedral inside on Saturday. We headed across the square to Le Palais Rohan, four cardinals had called it home, Napoleon had also lived here for a period of time, it is now a museum. The next stop was Le Musée de l’oeuvre Notre Dame, constructed at the same time as the cathedral, we peered through the fence at a medieval garden with nine small flower beds with medicinal herbs & flowers. Next step was Le Musée Historique, it was here we realised the majority of stops on this walking tour were museums, a bit of a shame as the Dijon walking tour was great & provided information on a number of the buildings, anyway we continued on & crossed the canal, Le Musée Alsacien was next with its traditional steep roof with several layers of dormer windows, I’ll find out more about this folk art museum & may return on Saturday. We crossed the river again & next stop was L’Eglise Saint-Thomas, we went inside, the mausoleum of the Moritz of Saxony was huge, it depicts France trying to hold him back as Austria, Holland & England lay defeated, there was also an 18th century Sibermann organ which we heard playing, Silbermann organs were the best organs in the 18th century & this organ was actually played by Mozart. There was also an art display of Harlequin paintings in the church. We then wandered back through La Petit France following part of the same route we took yesterday & again crossing the canal. This time we only went across one part of the canal & walked along to the next bridge, the wall bridge which has two towers & would have been a wooden covered bridge but was replaced by stone in the 19th century. Next stop was Le Barrage Vauban, built in 1681 as part of the cities mediaeval fortifications, under the 13 arches the flood gates can be closed flooding the southern part of the city. We walked across on the lower floor & a number of sculptures were stored here, we wondered if they were from the cathedral which is currently undergoing renovations. We then climbed the stairs to the top levels & enjoyed the view. The murals on the Musée d’Art Moderne were really nice. We then headed to the Egyptian House, an Art Nouveau facade with a pharaoh & then headed to the Place de la Republique, centre of the German Imperial quarter, it is surrounded by buildings typical of the architecture during this time including the Rhine Palace. The park contains a memorial showing a mother with two sons, one who died defending France & the other Germany experienced by many families in Alsace during the two world wars. We headed home passing Eglise St Paul with its great position on an head between two canals. We purchased a couple of baguettes & had a very late lunch at 2pm.
I did some embroidery using my new magnifier which was great whilst Richard napped, we then headed out to the supermarket.