Reader’s Digest UK – August 2019

TRAVEL & ADVENTURE

77

I

t is a late Sunday afternoon in February in

Strasbourg, the capital of the Alsace region and

the newly created French department Grand Est

on the border with Germany. The city is a blend of

French and German culture as a result of the region’s

mercurial history. Even the street signs are bilingual.

The "rue des écrivains" (street of the writers) is also called

"Schriwerstubgass" in the local dialect.

I am sitting in a Parisian-style restaurant, which proves

that the city’s split nationality extends to the Alsatian

cuisine. Yes, there's foie gras on the menu. But there's also

jarret de porc, a dish Germans would call Schweinshaxe:

roasted ham hock, served with sauerkraut (which the

French call choucroute) and

an eye-popping Alsatian mustard with horseradish.

To drink, they serve Alsatian wines with such German

names as Riesling and Gewürztraminer, but also beer from

Strasbourg’s own brewery Fischer. In this city the French

drink beer. How German is that?

I choose the jarret de porc over the baeckoeffe, a meat-

and-potatoes speciality of Alsace. I have plans for that dish

later in the week.

The next morning, Régine Baumgartner, a city guide,

takes me on a tour. Régine, whose surname is officially

pronounced with a French accent as "Bohmgardnehr,"

starts in front of the majestic, medieval Strasbourg

cathedral. The genius behind it was German master

builder Erwin von Steinbach. But builders from the French

cities of Chartres and Reims changed the building style

from Romanesque to Gothic and executed the splendid

rose window over the central entrance in a typical

northern-French style.

The half-timbered Renaissance houses and high, sloping

rooftops on the square are typical of southern German

architecture. But the adjacent 18th-century museum

complex, a former bishop’s palace, is all Louis XV.

AUGUST 2019 • 91