Oui, France!

Strasbourg

    Like a few other cities in the area, Strasbourg began as a Roman town.  Located in Alsace, the city has changed hands several times between Germany and France.  With the formation of the European Union, Strasbourg became one of the three major seats of the EU government, home to the Council of Europe and the European Court of Human Rights.  The symbol of the own is its main church, La Cathédrale Notre-Dame (a/k/a Straßburger Münster, or Our Lady's Cathedral), which was the world's largest building from its completion in 1625 until it was surpassed by St. Nikolaikirche in Hamburg in 1847.  (Interestingly, the cathedral was designed to have dual towers, but only one was built.)  One extremely scenic quarter of the town is known as "La Petite France," but although it seems like a compliment today, it wasn't intended as one: the quarter is named after the syphilis hospital that was located there, when syphilis was known as "the French disease."
 
 

Inside the cathedral
Le Petit France

Le Four à Chaux

    This is one of the major forts of the Maginot Line, a series of underground fortifications and bunkers built between the World Wars in an attempt to stop Germany from advancing back into France.  Previously, all I had ever learned about the Maginot Line was that the French poured millions of francs into a sort of wall along the French border, then sat back and put their complete faith in it until Germany simply flew over it.  The real story is a lot more complex.

    Leading up to the early 20th Century, the French military tradition, like most other countries' at the time, was based upon the Napoleonic style of fighting: lines of troops, dressed in their nation's colors, charging and fighting each other.  With this mindset, it's hard to imagine their horror after World War I.  Miles of trenches were sliced through the French countryside.  Hundreds of soldiers dying in waves, sometimes from a rain of machine-gun fire, other times from clouds of poisonous chlorine or mustard gas.  Gigantic tanks rolling over obstacles that would stop infantry or cavalry.  World War I introduced many new and horrible ways of killing, and the French wanted to make sure that never happened again on their soil, to their sons.

    Enter Marshal Jaffre and André Maginot with a bold plan: fortify the French border.  And fortify they did, at great cost.  Hundreds of miles of tunnels were built, thousands of tons of concrete were poured.  At the end, they had 108 major fortifications, or grands ouvrages, such as Le Four à Chaux, every 15 kilometers, with smaller stations (petits ouvrages) and casements in between.  The grands ouvrages were basically underground fortresses, with living quarters and support facilities all underground, and turrets above for observation, machine gun nests, and artillery.  Originally, to avoid souring relations with Belgium and Switzerland, the Line extended only on the Italian, German, and Luxembourg borders.  In 1936, when Belgium abrogated a prior treaty with France and declared neutrality, the Line was hastily extended to the North Sea.

    Did it work? Unfortunately, no.  As any modern military tactician can tell you, obstacles can never block a force, they only serve to channel it.  The French did not fortify the Ardennes Forest, which they considered impenetrable.  Germany proved otherwise, pushing through the Ardennes and also through the less-fortified portion of the Line along the Belgian border.  Also, the Line could not stop the Luftwaffe flying overhead.  For the most part, Germany avoided a frontal assault on the Line, attacked the heart of France, and won surrender.  In the few direct assaults on the Line, the French prevailed, but it was not enough.  Germany took over the fortifications from 1940 to 1945, withdrawing as the Allies pushed forward.  Portions of the Line stayed in use until the mid-1960s, when nearly all of the fortifications were abandoned.

    The first set of images were shot using my new toy, a Canon Digital Rebel XT that's been converted for full-time infrared photography.
 
 

In the tunnels		La morgue
		Safety propoganda
Under the gun turret

Burg Fleckenstein

    This castle is right near Le Four à Chaux, less than a kilometer from the German border.  The castle doesn't seem too impressive from a distance, but up close it is an imprewssive set of ruins, crowded onto the top of, and carved into, a limestone fin with a commanding view of the surrounding coutryside.  Built in the 12th Century by the Hohenstaufen family, it was beseiged in 1276 by Habsburg forces.  Later, the castle was split among three families, who used it for housing and for making charcoal.  King Louis XIV of France ordered the castle destroyed in 1689.
 
 
 

	Apparently God will strike you down if you touch this.