Strasbourg, a city in the center of European Union

Since the beginning of the European Union, Strasbourg is one of the place which made it. Nowadays you can see several EU institution buildings, and Strasbourg is a bit dependent on the European worker (congressmen, agent, ambassadors,...).

View of the European district of Strasbourg (pict from the web)
1- Europen parliament, 2- Parliament administration, 3- Council of Europe,
4- European court of the human rights, 5- Arte head office

Strasbourg is one of three capitals of the European Union. It is the legislative and democratic capital, while Luxembourg is the judiciary and financial capital, and Brussels the executive and administrative capital.
Strasbourg is:
- since 1949 the seat of the Concil of Europe with its European Court of Human Rights, Commissioner for Human Rights,European Pharmacopoeia, European Directorate for the Quality of Medicines, Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and Congress of the Council of Europe.
- since 1979 the seat of the European Parliament of the European Union and the only place where the whole parliament regularly meets.
Strasbourg also houses the Eurocorps headquarters, and the head office of the germano-french TV channel Arte.

(Thanks Wikipedia)

The council of Europe (pict from the web)

The entry of the European parliament (pict from the web)

The European parliament

The bridge between the COE and the European Parliament

Strange view in a winter's morning

I think it runs strangely... During the most part of the time, the congressmen (& women) and their office workers stay in Brussels. But once per month all the office move to Strasbourg for the council. So they pack every folder, put them in trucks to Strasbourg, have a one week council, and pack everything again to Brussels... I don't know really why, but they can't choose between both cities. Maybe because there is a new huge parliament building in Strasbourg... And it's a 10 min walk far from my student home!

Of course when you walk across the city, you can see people from each country of Europe. And it's funny to hear all the different languages!!!

The carnival time has arrived

At the beginning of February, the old local tradition is to do something to drive away the winter for welcoming the spring. In a lots of villages and cities carnival parades are organized by and for the people. The people is dressed up and they play music all along the parade with drums, pipes, bells, tuba, trombone, ... The most famous places to go are in Switzerland in Liestal and Basel.

In Liestal, at the beginning of the night, the lights of the old medieval city center are switched off, and a crazy parade starts on the cobblestone streets. A massive crowd from Germany, France and Switzerland is massed along the street to see the fire wagon parade. Huge braziers carried by a steel wagon are pulled by men along the street and through the medieval city gate. There is also some big flaming torch carried by men, and their average weight is around 70kg... For one hour the only light you can see in the city center is from the fire. But the best way to imagine how it looks is to have a look on the following movie!

http://www.fasnacht-liestal.ch

During the same night the biggest carnival of the region began in Basel. People who works in Basel have three days off for this event. And the beginning of these three days of festival is the same night as the Liestal's fire parade. Since 1808, all lights in the center of a city around 166,000 citizen are switched off at 4am... Imagine that everyone switched off the lights of his flat, shop, pub and restaurant, or black tarps were tied up on the windows. Imagine there was no lights, just from the stars and the moon, a massive crowd outside with -3°c, and everything was plunged into darkness. At 4am began the most magical parade I know!
It's called the Morgenstreich. At this time a music started to grow, only the sound of fifes and drums. Hundreds of groups, called clique,who had waited hidden in the little streets, switched on their lantern and started to play. The atmosphere was filled by the music. The cliques pulled massive painted lanterns mounted on wagons and walked into the rhythm. They were dressed up and masked, no one could see their face. These lanterns show a critical review of the past year and they are the result of several months of work. Each clique had a different topic : sport, politic, art, news, people, ... They will walk along the streets for the next three days!!! For sure they will take some breaks for a quick sleep! Different parades are planned for the following days. The following moving could give you an idea of the atmosphere you can find at the Morgenstreich! I know the movie is a bit dark but just remind there was no light... Some of the flash from the digital cameras can give an idea of the building that you can't see in the dark.

http://www.fasnachts-comite.ch