The Happy Blog

Hello and welcome to the Happy Blog!

We are the Happy guides from Happy Strasbourg and we’re Happy to show our Happy articles to our Happy readers on our Happy blog… Is that too much “Happy”? Nope, because we think there is no such thing as too good a mood 😉

More seriously, the Happy Strasbourg team has decided to create a blog. That way we can share some knowledge outside of our guided tours and you can learn something about Strasbourg, even as you remain comfortably settled in your armchair. It will not necessarily replace the mood we give to our tours, but we shall try anyway and let you peek into our way of seeing things, through writing.

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To write down our stories was something that tickled us for a while. Usually, we like to tell you about them live and direct. Yet, we find new ones everyday! And rightly so, because learning about our city, our region and everything else is the basis of our passion. We spend time looking into tiny details about that fact or that building, we spend time reading an encyclopedia. Well, OK, encyclopedias are no common  bedside books, but such atypical stuff makes us so charming, doesn’t it?

On this blog, you will find some history and traditions (mostly Alsatian ones) of course, but also some more entertaining anecdotes, legends, folklore stuff, news, but always in a… Can you guess? That’s right: in a Happy way of course! 😀

And to cook that up, the whole team gets to work: Elise, Gabriel, Gilles, Gustave, Leo, Matthias and Remy. Between us, we call ourselves the “Happies”, a nice team of passionate people. What we love most is to share our stories, so, in the end, to create a blog was the obvious thing to do… We all trod different paths before we got here, but we grew up in our beautiful Alsace and rallied to that passion for culture(s). If you would like to know more about us, go check our descriptions!

We hope you’ll have a good time reading our writings and feel free to comment below them, you can even contact us to ask questions or give us some ideas!

We wish you a good reading.

Happily so,

Elise, Gabriel, Gilles, Gustave, Leo, Matthias, Remy.

The Mid-2021 news

The Mid-2021 news

First of all, we will resume on Wednesday, June 9th. From that date until June 30th, we will be offering the Original Tour in English EVERY DAY at 14h30 (2:30pm) as before.
Saturdays and Sundays you can enjoy the Petite France Tour in English at 11h (11:00am)

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The half-timbered style

The half-timbered style

Let’s talk a little about Alsatian houses, the half-timbered houses (maisons Ă  colombage) also referred to in French as the houses with timber frame panels or studwork. This “colombage” allows us to add this monument to the five “C’s” of Alsace.. which, of course, work better in French : cathĂ©drale (easy enough), choucroute (=sauerkraut), cigogne (=stork), coiffe (=headdress) and colombage (=half-timbering).

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The Battle of Hausbergen

The Battle of Hausbergen

The Battle of Hausbergen, an important event in the history of Strasbourg. And what better time than March 8th to do a little historical reminder? Yes, because it was on March 8th of the year 1262 that took place this battle which was to change the fate of Strasbourg.

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January 2021’s news

January 2021’s news

Just like last year, we waited until January 31st to give you some news about the coming year
 Well, this year we have an excuse, in these tormented times it is difficult to know what the future holds for all of us, and on our side the answer to “When will we be able to offer you our Free Tours again” remains completely unclear


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A look back at Gustave Doré

A look back at Gustave Doré

Gustave DorĂ©, an Alsatian and a multi-artist, who had as short a life as his work was great, was born on January 6, 1832. January 6 is the Epiphany, indeed. And so I hope you will find the lucky charm in your slice of the king cake. But as you will understand from the title of this article, that is not my topic here. On January 6, 1832, Paul Gustave Louis Christophe DorĂ© was born, better known in short version as Gustave DorĂ©. On this occasion, let’s take a quick look at him.

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