2010-01-29

café

Chocolaterie, salon de thé

We end our photographic tour of Sarreguemines with a cup of tea in elegant French surroundings.

2010-01-28


Old houses, cobbled street

A street in the oldest part of town, leading into the Rue de la Vallée d'Or, the valley of gold where the old merchants used to live.

2010-01-27

church spire, wall

Castle wall

There is not much left of Sarreguemines castle except for the view.

2010-01-26


Place Goethe

The square commemorates Goethe's stay in Sarreguemines in 1770 and his mention of the town in his collection Dichtung und Wahrheit.

Sarreguemines is known in German as Saargemünd, and although these days the town is well and truly anchored in France, it is on the Saarbrücken tram line and many of its inhabitants speak a dialect of German.

2010-01-25


Music academy

The delicate ironwork, the pink pastel colours and the weathered blinds make this seem very French.

2010-01-24


Muddy barge, muddy Saar

One of several old barges and house boats on the German side of the border before French Sarreguemines.

2010-01-20

les français, sculpture

Le jardin suspendu - Hanging garden

From the explanatory plaque (with my translation):
Emergence des entrailles de la matière brute, sculptè par la main de l'Homme et transformè en éléments faïenciers.
Cette composition de colonnes surélevées et végétalisées donne une dimension particulière à cet espace.
C'est une sculpture monumentale contemporaine acier et céramique.
Emergence of the entrails of raw material, sculpted by the hand of Man and transformed into porcelain elements.
This composition of raised vegatised columns gives a particular dimension to this space.
It is a monumental contemporary sculpture in steel and ceramic form.

2010-01-17

duck, ice, saar

Duck on ice

The duck, just visible here on the upper right, seemed to be standing all day on this spot, waiting, I guess, for the patch of water without ice to get big and warm enough for it to continue its life of swimmng around.

2010-01-16

autobahn, dusk

A620: to bury or not to bury

There is a plan (Stadtmitte am Fluss - City Centre on the River) to put this stretch of autobahn in a tunnel. As well as reducing the noise and pollution, it would also prevent the regular flooding. However, the plan is not cheap and the city is not particularly flush with cash.

2010-01-10

mannheim, rosengarten, tower

Tower in the rose garden

Observant viewers will note that the railing in the foreground is the same style and colour as the lights in 2010-01-09. In the background is the most famous emblem of Mannheim, the water tower.

2010-01-09

mannheim, rosengarten

Lights in the rose garden

I try to keep the photos in my blog local to Saarbrücken and surrounding area. This shot is some 130km away in Mannheim. It is still, I think, a valid photo for the blog, as Mannheim is to some extent Saarbrücken's link into the wider world. It is the closest big city and represents the crossroads to the major rail and road traffic arteries that run along the Rhine.

2010-01-04

river, saar, alte brücke

Fast and muddy Saar

This is the Alte Brücke, the Old Bridge, built after Emperor Charles V turned up in Saarbrücken in 1546 and could not cross the river because of high water.

I learn a lot about Saarbrücken as I produce this blog. When I checked the date for Charles V on the German Wikipedia page, I noticed that the bridge used to have a monument to Kaiser Wilhelm. When the bridge was rebuilt after WWII, he was deemed surplus to requirements.