Saturday 25 February 2012

STRASBOURG, FRANCE

Strasbourg is the capital and principal city of the Alsace region in eastern France and is the official seat of the European Parliament. Located close to the border with Germany, it is the capital of the Bas-Rhin département. The city and the region of Alsace are historically German-speaking, explaining the city's Germanic name. In 2006, the city proper had 272,975 inhabitants and its urban community 467,375 inhabitants. With 638,670 inhabitants in 2006, Strasbourg's metropolitan area (aire urbaine) (only the part of the metropolitan area on French territory) is the ninth largest in France.

Strasbourg is the seat of several European institutions, such as the Council of Europe (with its European Court of Human Rights, its European Directorate for the Quality of Medicines and its European Audiovisual Observatory) and the Eurocorps, as well as the European Parliament and the European Ombudsman of the European Union. The city is the seat of the Central Commission for Navigation on the Rhine.

Strasbourg's historic city centre, the Grande Île (Great Island), was classified a World Heritage site by UNESCO in 1988, the first time such an honour was placed on an entire city centre. Strasbourg is fused into the Franco-German culture and although violently disputed throughout history, has been a bridge of unity between France and Germany for centuries, especially through the University of Strasbourg, currently the largest in France, and the coexistence of Catholic and Protestant culture.

I am really stretching the resolution of these images, which were taken in 1999 with one of the first digital cameras I owned.

This post is part of the Weekend Reflections meme.





9 comments:

  1. I have been researching Alsace as my Great grandfather is from that area, and I hope to visit there next year. Now that i have seen these I really hope my dream comes true. Thanks for sharing your travels..

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  2. Beautiful photos.

    Regards and best wishes

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  3. Oh ! je reconnais ma région ;-) je suis un peu plus bas dans le Haut Rhin...
    @mitié

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  4. What a beautiful place! Great photos! I hope to go there myself someday.

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  5. Uwielbiam domy z muru pruskiego, a te z Twoich świetnych zdjęć widziałam na własne oczy. Pozdrawiam.***I love the half-timbered houses, and those of your great photos I've seen with my own eyes. Yours.

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  6. Hi there I am delighted you found News From Italy and my photography blog and were kind enough to leave comments as now I am visiting your blog and will follow you. Your blog looks interesting as I love to travel in reality and virtually. Strasbourg is an attractive city we have been there but never for long enough to explore properly.

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  7. Absolutely beautiful! Love those buildings.

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  8. Oh great I've been there too in 2008. I love those buildings especially that one surrounded by red flowers. I remember it has a very historic significance now already a restaurant, do you know its historic name? It's good you were able to take better photos, as we went there almost at dusk so sadly, my photos are not good. And also I only have my first digital Point and Shoot too. It is a very very beautiful town. Did you see the revolving bridge?

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  9. Hi Andrea, yes the bridge was amazing. I can't recall what the historic significance of the building you mention. In Europe everything has a big history! :-)

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I love to hear from you, so please comment. I appreciate constructive criticism as it improves my skills as an amateur photographer.