Visiting Vauban's Fortress at Besancon, France with Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Visiting Vauban's Fortress at Besancon, France with Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

A visit to Madigan’s Pub was the first stop my husband and I made in Besançon, France, famous for its Citadelle by Vauban (Born Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban 1633 – 1707).

Madigan’s serves Irish beer with French brasserie food such as Croque Monsieur (smoked ham sandwich with melted cheese served with French fries and salad), andouillettes (tripe sausage with mustard sauce and fries), entrecote Charolaise (Charollais beef steak), and salads with Celtic names.  Their selection of regional specialties appealed to us however.

I ordered escalope de volaille Franc-Comtoise (a gratinéed baked casserole with chicken breast, cream, mushrooms, and strips of the region’s flavorful ham).  The casserole arrived at the table bubbling hot in an oval dish.  It was served with fries and salad on the side.

My husband ordered jambon de Haut-Doubs braisé (braised ham from the Haut-Doubs region).  This came served with a white cheese sauce flavored with chives.

We shared a cheese plate for dessert and loved the pronounced flavor of the comté cheese.  Comté is solid and perfect for summer and winter dining, because it does not become runny.  The region’s cancillote cheese is liquid in all kinds of weather.  It was easy to spread on bread, but I thought it would be wonderful to cook with.  

I wondered if this were the cheese in the cheese sauce that came with the braised ham.  Chèvre goat cheese rounded out the cheese platter along with a salad dressed with a tangy dressing.

Besançon is close to Switzerland, which explains the hearty food for cold weather.  The town is located on an isthmus on the Doubs River.  Vauban’s towering and mammoth Citadelle Fortress dominates the town.  It has been classified as a UNESCO World Heritage site and is a major tourism draw for the town.

We set out along Grande Rue in the direction of the Citadelle (built between 1668 – 1683) and admired the Renaissance architecture along the way.   I had done research on Vauban and filled my husband in on details.  My husband patiently smiles when I do French tourism spiels.

Vauban was Louis XIV’s (1638 – 1715) chief military engineer.  He built 160 fortifications in France during his lifetime and invented techniques that revolutionized warfare: parallel trench fighting, ricochet fire, and the creation of the bayonet.  

His writings on fortifications and warfare technique have been translated in many languages.  According to the UNESCO World Heritage website, regions where his work has been perpetuated include: Europe, the American continent, Russia, Turkey, and the Far East.

Just as we were about to reach the zigzag road leading up to Vauban’s Citadelle, we discovered Victor Hugo’s birthplace (1802 – 1885).  Hugo’s father was a general, which explains his presence in a garrison town.  Right across the street was the home of August (1862 – 1954) and Louis (1864 – 1948) Lumière, who are considered to be the inventors of cinematography.

Right by these homes are the Square Castan and the Porte Noire.  The Porte Noire is a Roman Arc de Triomphe leading up to the Citadelle.  There are Roman ruins in the Square Castan that hearken back to Besançon’s ancient roots as the town of Vesontio.  The Square is now a park where there is a Roman theatre, a grotto venerating nymphs, and eight Roman columns.

I thought this spot would be perfect for children to play Romans and run up to the Citadelle to defend the town against invaders.

Photos of Victor Hugo's house and Roman ruins in Square Castan are below.

By Ruth Paget - Author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Visiting World War 1 Cemeteries in Arras, France with Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Visiting World War 1 Cemeteries in Arras, France with Savvy Mom Ruth Paget 

Most people come to Arras, the capital of France’s Artois region, to visit the various cemeteries and war memorials set up by the different governments involved in what is known as the Battles of Artois during World War I.

According to Michelin’s Touring Guide, the Germans established themselves in the hills around Arras after the Battle of the Marne in the autumn of 1914.  The three battles that made up this offensive are known as the Battles of Ablain-Saint Nazaire, Carency, and La Targette.  The French counter offensive in May and June 1915 retook Neuville-Saint-Vaast and Notre Dame de la Lorette, but the Canadians reconquered the total area in 1917.

Driving to Notre Dame de la Lorette, you pass the elegant, white English memorial in downtown Arras with green lawns and Polish, Czechoslovakian, German, and French cemeteries in the countryside.  The German cemetery in Neuville-Saint-Vaast alone tells of the vast numbers who died her: 48,830 in the German cemetery.  The German markers are brown metal and enduring war memorials.  The Moroccan memorial across from the monumental Canadian memorial at Vimy is unvisited it seems.

Back in downtown Arras, rain greeted us on Memorial Day Weekend.  The bells from Abbaye Saint-Vaast sounded muffled in the downpour.  The Abbey was founded in the 7^th century by Saint Aubert, the first bishop of Arras.  Close to the Abbaye St. Vaast is the Grande Place. 

The building of the Grande Place has had to be built in stone or brick since 1583 according to building code.  The result is a square that is totally built in Baroque Flemish style.  The Grande Place was badly damaged during World War I, but has been restored.  On Saturdays, a large market takes place there.

Arras and the Artois region are famous for their brasserie tradition – pubs with excellent food.  Brasseries are on every corner it seems and offer respite from the rain and cold weather in winter.  We tried the Eurostar Café for all its allusions to the Eurostar train that links London, Paris, and Brussels together via the Eurotunnel, or Chunnel, that goes under the English Channel between Great Britain and France.

We began our meal with a Kir, a sweet wine with black currant syrup, which makes a colorful beginning to a meal.  We started with a Salade Périgourdienne, which was a salad topped off with strips of foie gras and Bayonne ham and scatterlings of sliced chicken gizzards.  This course was followed by Tournedos à l’ardennaise, beef tenderloin with bacon barding.  I imagined the bacon came from the Ardennes region.

Scalloped potatoes and salad accompanied this dish.  We drank Belgian Leffe brown beer with our dishes and relished participating in the brasserie tradition of the Artois region.  Strawberries Melba, strawberries with vanilla ice cream and whipped cream on top, gave us even sweeter lasting memories of Arras.

By Ruth Paget - Author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Visiting Ettal Monastery on Southern Germany's Alpenstrasse with Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Visiting Ettal Monastery on Southern Germany's with Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Driving along Southern Germany’s Alpenstra§e (Alps Road) after a ride to Neuchwanstein Castle (Ludwig II’s mountain-perched castle), my husband and I admired the craggy, snow-covered Alps and stopped to visit Ettal Monastery.

The Monastery’s visitor’s guide says that Ettal is located on a connecting road between Augsburg, Germany and Italy, but is still considered off the beaten track.  Ettal Monastery’s white walls encompass a huge compound that epitomizes the standards of self-sufficiency laid down by Saint Benedict of Nursia (died 547).  Saint Benedict’s “Rule” defines monasticism and cloistered life in the Western world.

Ettal Monastery’s white walls and ochre trim around the windows and moldings give the grounds an ethereal, orderly feel with the snow-covered Alps as a backdrop.  There are 50 to 60 monks at any one time at the monastery, who run a private high school with boarding school (approximately 380 pupils) according to the visitor’s guide.  The monks also run a brewery, a liqueur distillery, a hotel, and a publishing house.

The monks do the upkeep on buildings that were founded in 1330 by Emperor Ludwig the Bavarian.  At the time that he founded Ettal Monastery, Ludwig also gave a Madonna and Child statue that he had brought back from Italy to the church as well.  This statue has mad St. Marien Church at Ettal Monastery a pilgrimage site.

When the Monastery was originally set up, knights and their wives were supposed to live there and form a sort of Teutonic Order.  Their order did not survive, but the building of their living quarters affected the form and design of Ettal Monastery.  A fire in 1744 caused the façade and interior decorations to be redone in the South German Baroque Style according to the Monastery’s visitor’s guide.

1700 was the zenith of the South German Baroque Style that was practiced at Ettal Monastery.  Henrico Zucalli (1642 – 1742) was the first Baroque architect, who created the foundation for the later architects and artists.  After Zucalli, the master builder Joseph Schmuzer (1683 – 1752) from the Wessobrunn and Rottenbuch Monasteries used Zucalli’s plans to build an exuberant interior for St. Marien Church that belies the elegant yet simple exterior.

Artists from the Wessobrunn School did the stucco work for Ettal Monastery and other churches in the area.  Many of the frescoes and the dome were painted by Jakob Zeiller (1708 – 1783).  Martin Knoller (1725 – 1804) painted the frescoes in the choir, high altar, and three other altars.  Both artists came from the Tyrol region of Southern Germany.  The organ (1763) is the work of Johann Georg Hoerthrich from Swabia.

Leaving the chapel and inhaling the crisp, Alpine air made me feel as if I had visited heaven.

By Ruth Paget - Author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Eating Soup with Chopsticks

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Visiting the Hanseatic City of Lubeck, Germany with Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Visiting the Hanseatic City of Lubeck, Germany with Savvy Mom Ruth Paget 

I felt that I understood how the alienation of Existentialism was created in Lübeck, Germany as my husband and I stood in an empty square outside Katharenenkirche (Church of Saint Catherine) at 10 o’clock on a Sunday morning.

The church bells tolled alerting everyone in town that service had started, and that it was time to join the community inside the church unless you were an unbeliever.  My husband and I quickly put on our Alfred Hitchcock hat and filmed the existential scene outside the church as the sound of the bells rolled out along the flat land and died out in the sea.

We came to visit Lübeck, because it is famous for its medieval brick buildings built between the 13^th and 15^th centuries.  The town is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site and is called the “queen” of the Hanseatic League.  The Hanseatic League was made up of Northern German towns that traded with the Scandinavian countries and Russia.

After making our travel film, my husband and I walked to the center of Old Town.  The Rathaus (City Hall) complex borders two sides of the marketplace.  The Rathaus, whose foundation was laid in 1250, is characterized by arcaded passageways and dark glazed bricks.

When you walk under the Rathaus arcades to the Breite Stra§e (Breite Street), you can see a beautiful stone staircase that was built in 1594 in what is called the Dutch Renaissance Style. 

This staircase is reflected in the windows of a bakery across the street, which displayed a model of the Holstentor (Holsten Gate).  The Holstentor was built between 1466 and 1478.  An image of the Holstentor used to appear on Germany’s 50 deutschmark note before the euro was adopted in many European countries.  The Holstentor is difficult to photograph due to its location in a traffic circle.

We finished our visit by admiring the Marienkirche (Church of Saint Mary).  The steeples are truly steep.  You have to leave way backwards to get a good shot of them.  By the time we had arrived at Marienkirche, service had let out and there were people everywhere. 

I had the sense that the people of Lübeck like going to church to see their neighbors and have coffee and cake afterwards at the bakeries that were open in town.

By Ruth Paget - Author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Visiting the Hanseatic Trading Town of Bremen, Germany with Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Visiting the Hanseatic Trading Town of Bremen, Germany with Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

“The Only Good System is a Sound System,” reads the graffiti on a bridge overpass leading into Bremen, Germany.

Right beneath it is another line that reads, “The Best Nation is the Imagination.”  Both sentences are written in English, which attest to Bremen’s trade links with England that reach back to the Middle Ages when it was part of the Hanseatic League.  This League was a confederation of northern German towns that held a monopoly on trade with England, the Netherlands, and the Baltic Sea countries, particularly Russia.

Trouble came to the Hanseatic League from Denmark and Norway, who wanted the League’s riches and trade.  In Forces of the Hanseatic League: 13^th to 15^th Centuries (Men-at-Arms), author David Neville writes that Denmark and Norway practiced piracy and invaded to obtain the League’s wealth.

The Hanseatic League’s fortunes began to wane as different maritime routes and trade patterns emerged.  According to the Encyclopedia Britannica’s “Hanseatic League” online entry, “new maritime connections between the Baltic and the Mediterranean Seas and between the Old World and the Americas caused a gradual diversion of trade westward to the Great Atlantic Ports.”

The Hanseatic towns are still important commercial centers in Germany.  Drivers from Hanseatic towns have license plates that begin with an “H” to distinguish them from the rest of those in Germany.  “HB” stands for “Hansa Bremen.”  “HH” stands for “Hansa Hamburg.”  “HL” stands for “Hansa Lübeck.”

Modern-day Bremen continues to benefit from its historical importance.  The town’s rathaus (city hall) and Roland Statue are both listed as UNESCO World Heritage Sites.  Bremen reminds me of Brussels with its triangular, stepped façade on many of its buildings.  The main difference between the two cities is that Brussels has a Catholic majority and Bremen has a Protestant majority.  The St. Petri Don (St. Peter’s Cathedral) is Protestant now not Catholic.

According to Bremen’s tourism website, the Roland Statue that was erected in 1404 is the city’s “Statue of Liberty.”  Roland is the epitome of a medieval knight protecting the freedom and independence of Bremen.  The span between the statue’s knees also represents an “elle,” or historical unit of measure used in the city.

My favorite statue on the Marktplatz (Market Square) is the Stadtmusikkanten (Bremen Town Musicians).  This statue of a donkey, dog, cat, and rooster refers to the fairy tale of the Bremen Town Musicians as told to the Brothers Grimm.  When I was a youth services librarian, I often read this story to children and parents along with Leo Lionni’s Swimmy.

This fairy tale relates how the donkey, dog, cat, and rooster had outlived their usefulness on farms.  The rooster was even destined for the cooking pot.  They all set out for Bremen to be musicians.  (Busking still happens in Bremen.)  Outside town, they find a robbers’ house with robbers in it ready to eat a big meal.  The animals make a lot of noise braying, barking, screeching, and crowing; they scare the robbers away and eat their meal.  I always had the children and parents provide sound effects for this part of the book that I was reading.

I will not tell the rest of the fairy tale after this part.  However, rest assured that the animals used the talents and wits to live well happily ever after.  I will always consider Bremen a charming and clever town for this fairy town.

Photos of Bremen’s Rathaus, St. Petri Dom, and the Stadtmusikkanten Statue follow:

By Ruth Paget - Author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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