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.
To write down our stories was something that tickled us. Indeed, in practice, we like to tell you our stories. But with these, we find a new one everyday!
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Because learning about our city, our region and everything else is to some extent the base of our passion, how much time do we spend looking into some tiny detail about that fact or that building? How much time do we spend reading an encyclopedia? Well, OK, encyclopedias are not a common bedside book, but such atypical stuff makes us so charming, doesn’t it? No? Anyway.
On this blog, you will find some history and (Alsatian) traditions of course, but also some more entertaining anecdotes, legends, folklore stuff, news, all this in a… Can you guess? That’s right: in a Happy way of course! 😀
And to cook all that up, the whole team gets to work: Gabriel, Gustave, Gilles, Leo, Matthias and Rémy. Between us, we call ourselves the “Happy Boys”, a nice team of passionate guys. 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, 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 articles 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 (yes, Happyly would have been too much for once),
Gabriel, Gustave, Gilles, Leo, Matthias, Rémy.
About the districts’ names, In the west -4/4
When the time comes to further explore Strasbourg, we set to leave the Vauban bridge behind and the last view of the Covered Bridges’ towers to then go up the river Ill. In the south and the west, one gets between the Elsau and the Montagne Verte (literally the Green Mountain), leaves the banks of the river and goes up north at last. Passing by Koenigshoffen, we can go and greet Hautepierre and its honeycomb structure before getting to Cronenbourg.
About the districts’ names, In the south – 3/4
Now that we have covered the districts’ names in the city center (About the districts’ names – City center), let me take you for a guided ride to the southern area of our dear city. And what are the districts that spread to the south?
As we pass the Ill river, we first get to the Krutenau, slightly to the east. Then the Neudorf welcomes us and through the Meinau and the Musau we pass before we can dive into the Neuhof, at the south end of the city.
About the district’s names – City center – 2/4
In a previous article (The diverse origins of districts’ names), we quickly focused on the origins of the districts’ names. After that first overview, I suggest we take a closer look into the districts’ names in the city center: the Castrum, the Great Island, the Finkwiller and the Hospital district.
The diverse origins of districts’ names – 1/4
Now’s the time to delve into the districts’ names, something we more rarely have the chance to talk about during our free walking Tours. These names indeed appear along the way as they are born and thus follow a historical logic. There is also an aspect of practical designation: they should help you find your way easily!
Art Nouveau in Strasbourg
At first an ideological trend initiated by craftsmen, the Art Nouveau (literally «new art») flourishes for a very short period of time, between the last decade of the 19th century and the Great War. A short period of time, yet it left its mark on Strasbourg and still can be seen today.