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 đ
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! đ
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.
Strasbourg’s Municipal Baths
Today I would like to tell you about Strasbourg’s Municipal Baths, situated within a very beautiful building that takes an important place in the city’s history. What could be better in Covid times than to talk about municipal baths as they must be all closed?
The tram’s first life
Strasbourg cannot be without its tram. Our venerable ancestors still remember its first epic, and perhaps were they also among the hundred thousand people who greeted the ultimate tram’s last stand in 1960. But before any decline, there lies a first birth.
Praise to the Street Art!
Here is a subject of much debate… and a colourful one! However, being unable to consider all works and, as images speak louder than words, let’s get straight to the heart of the topic at hand and see what Strasbourg’s relationship with Street Art is.
The Great Breakthrough – part 1 : In the beginning there was God
Today, we shall outline a gigantic urban planning project: the Grande Percée, that one might translate as the Great Breakthrough. This is one of the most ambitious projects our wonderful city has known; so great that the adjective is part of its name. But then, where to begin?
The Musicians in Strasbourg
If you have already read some of this blog, then you know Strasbourg is a strategic city, mostly thanks to its location. It is a crossroads of routes, especially for goods, and it will be the same for musicians because it will become an important stop between two capitals, Vienna and Paris.
The Landsknechte
A sharp look, a proud moustache, an assured, slightly arrogant pose : you may have already looked up at the three Landsknechte who guard our beautiful Strasbourg.
The first one still guards the number 7 in rue des Hallebardes (Halberds street), a remnant of a former mansion.
The Stork
Miscellaneous Folklore The Stork May 6th 2020, by Gabriel Today I wanted to tell you a bit about our regionâs totem: the stork. Everyone has known storks since childhood. Isnât it the stork that delivers babies? In any case, many legends (or tales?) explain birth this...
The Maison Rouge – part 2/2
I evoked here earlier the Valentin-Sorg Tower and the origins of the Maison Rouge (the Red House). Today, let us dwell on its more recent history and the clues at hand regarding its future…