Monthly Archives: June 2009

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Strasbubble and the frog prince

By |2017-01-06T11:16:43+00:00June 17th, 2009|Strasbourg|

This Saturday hails the opening of the second annual comic-strip festival in Strasbourg. A week-long event that brings some of France's best comic-strip authors together under one roof, providing the backdrop to a ream of associated 'bande-dessinée' events around the city throughout the week. 'Strasbulles' is a typically French title for the event, a play on words combing the word for 'bubble' (as in speech-bubble) with the name of the city. If you've ever read any Franco-Belge comic books you'll know this kind of humour is mandatory and sometimes very funny (see anything written by René Goscinny). As I have noted before the French have a fanatical love comic strip which I have to say is rubbing off on me. I have been using my library membership to delve into the rich cultural pool of comic-art and bring my BD savoir up to scratch. Over and above Asterix and Tintin I have discovered Thorgal, XIII, Blake and Mortimer, Jo Zette et Jocko, Gaston Lagaffe, Spirou and Fantasio, Alix, Iznogoud ... to name a few. One author who is a [...]

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Pissed day four (piste des forts)

By |2017-01-06T11:16:43+00:00June 8th, 2009|Strasbourg|

… is a phrase that can have a number of meanings. If you’re American it implies a period of anger; for an Englishman it indicates a period of inebriation; but if you’re Strasbourgeois it is simply the (phonetic) name of a rather pleasant cycle route. The ‘Piste des forts’ is a little know cycle path that circumnavigates the city along some of the most beautiful and tranquil byways that Alsace has to offer. As the name implies the route follows the line of some of Strasbourg’s outer defences from, one assumes, the period between the end of the Franco-Prussian war and the start of WWI (why else would the forts be on the French side of the Rhine?). The only problem being however that the strongholds in question are now so overgrown with bushes, trees and undergrowth that even when standing on top of them – it is hard to imagine exactly where they were, or indeed what they looked like. This does not detract from the enjoyment of the cycle ride however, which from the Château du Pourtales [...]

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