Dwight Peck's personal website

More Colmar street scenes (2016)

The medieval town where point-and-shoot photographers can't go wrong



You may not find this terribly rewarding unless you're included here, so this is a good time for casual and random browsers to turn back before they get too caught up in the sweep and majesty of the proceedings and can't let go.

A few more Colmar street scenes

Objectives 1, the Musée Unterlinden; 2, the Kunstmuseum Basel; and 3, neighboring Turckheim, have all been met. So now we can just walk around and look at things. 8-9 June 2016.

Sushi's, on the Grand Rue, looking southwestward

On the Grand Rue

Same

Double-jettied floors

At the end of the Grand Rue, across the Place des 6 Montagnes Noires: the Institute Angel's Skin . . .

. . . and the biblical bookshop, the Bookshop of Certainty

In the Place des Six Montagnes Noires, and Bartholdi's 1888 fountain and statue of Jean Roesselmann, the 13th century provost of Colmar who died in 1262 successfully defending the city against the Bishop of Strasbourg's invaders. The face is that of the mayor of Colmar who resisted annexation by the Germans in 1871.

A look back up the Grand Rue

The bridge across the river La Lauch and the Restaurant Les Bateliers ('the boatmen'), where we ate the other evening; very good food and . . .

. . . an opportunity to watch the muskrats sporting about in the water.

The Rue de Poissonnerie on the left, and the district called Petite Venise

And on the right, the Rue Turenne leading out of town to the south

On the Rue Turenne near La Petite Venise and the river Le Lauch (apparently named from Celtic words for 'little' and 'water', not from German for 'the leeks')

An alley off the Rue Turenne

The Hotel Turenne, named for the famous 17th French military commander, where we stayed a few years ago when it was charming and inexpensive; it's evidently been renovated, and now it's no less charming but out of our price range.

Back across the river, and along the Rue Saint-Jean, parallel to the Grand Rue, the bar "The Incorruptibles" (perhaps referring to some of the local saints? or Eliot Ness?)

The restaurant Maison Rouge, on the Rue des Écoles

The covered market, a little farther along, built in 1865, with a Bartholdi statue featured prominently

The niche was hollowed out in the corner of the building in 1869 to hold Bartholdi's 'Petit Vigneron'

In the covered market

No tapas today

Sadly, in Ravenna a few years ago, the similar, charming covered market was being closed out for development, with the last few merchants struggling to hold on.

Along the Rue des Tanneurs, looking back toward the covered market in the background

Back to the Place de l'Ancienne Douane

And the former Customs House

Through the arches of the Ancienne Douane . . .

. . . to the Grand Rue again, looking across it into the Rue des Marchands

The Grand Rue

Back to the Place de l'Ancienne Douane, this is Bartholdi's Fontaine Schwendi, 1897/8, with a statue of the 16th century military commander and diplomat for the Holy Roman Empire, Lazare de Schwendi, supposedly holding the Tokay grape vines he brought back to Colmar from his victory at Tokaj in Hungary in 1565 (that legend has been debunked).

Looking northward from the Schwendi Fountain

The restaurant Schwendi and the Grand Rue

The Restaurant du Chasseur on the Rue du Chasseur (or 'hunter'), where we ate the other evening

The tower of St Martin's church, looming

Seeking bargains at the Thursday morning street market, 9 June 2016

In the Place de la Cathédrale

The Rue des Serruriers

A street busker preparing for a long day

Kristin and George, no bargains so far

At the Dominican church

The Rue des Serruriers becomes the Rue des Boulangers, or bakers

'Dig We Must': the Rue des Têtes

The famous Maison des Têtes

The 'house of heads' was built in 1609 for a rich merchant, and it's got 106 heads on it.

Apparently no two the same.

Long the home of the Bourse aux Vins de Colmar association, a brasserie Maison des Têtes, hotel, and 'restaurant gastronomique' Girardin have recently opened in the premises.

Back along the Rue des Têtes

The Unterlinden Museum

And again. The museum was recently renovated and the exhibit space nearly doubled, and was reopened in January 2016, inaugurated by President François Hollande.

At the Belgian's -- To Rent. The chips or french-fries with mayonnaise may not have caught on.

The kids' carousel, and St Martin's belltower, in the Place de la Mairie, adjacent to the city hall

A modern-day pilgrim, and his dog

Back to our accommodations, the Maison Martin Jund; ready for the drive home now.

The Maison Martin Jund, winetasting and sales

Sven Volvo is waiting patiently for us

Across the Rhine back into Switzerland


Feedback and suggestions are welcome if positive, resented if negative, . All rights reserved, all wrongs avenged. Posted 12 October 2016.


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