Focusing on the "Small Stuff"

We put in another long cruising day on Monday, July 8. Seven-and-a-half hours wasn't our preference, but we had a marina reservation waiting for us in Mulhouse, and after the unexpected maintenance and fuel delays we were more than ready to get to that city for our week-long stay. Usually we try to keep our motoring days to no more than 4 hours or so. Anything longer can get a bit tiring because the canal boating demands 100% hands-on attention at all times. As well, early afternoon arrivals at our mooring spots gives us time for exploration.

Encountering friendly people along the way

We had 22 locks--and 3 lift bridges--to get through
 with the help of the VNF

Mulhouse is the second largest city in the Alsace region (after Strasbourg), with over 100,000 inhabitants. It is an industrial city, but despite that, has a lovely historical center. It is the home of the largest automobile and railway museums in the world. A self-guided walking tour of the historical center on Tuesday gave us more half-timbered and/or centuries old buildings than we could fully absorb. "History overload" may be rearing its head, so rather than trying to remember all of the facts and figures of Mulhouse's history, I let myself focus more on small and whimsical details that I noticed during the walk.

If you're going to bar your ground floor windows for

security, you may as well have fun doing it

The Rooster of Alsace. The restaurant bearing this

sign must have spent a fortune on it. It didn't help--they

were out of business

Seen outside the Museum of Fine Arts. I didn't realize that

wrapping objects in yarn was a "thing" (yarnbombing)

until we started seeing it in Besancon.

An uninvited guest on the aft ladder of CARIB. 

Muskrat?

Place de la Reunion (the main square) in Mulhouse. Not the small stuff,

but I couldn't not show at least a bit of "half-timbered, centuries old" buildings

One of the churches in the city--not the biggest--is Eglise Sainte-Marie. It dates from the 13th C and was built by Franciscan friars. Abandoned during the 16th century, then turned into a warehouse, it became a Catholic church again in 1812. It's been beautifully restored, but what was interesting about our visit to the church was the exhibit there of religious cartoons by a French artist called Piem. Some were humorous, some were not, but all were thought-provoking.

"Bread and fish"
  "For how many persons?"

"Sorry, it's a mistake"

The railway station is conveniently just across the canal from our marina, so this morning we boarded a train and 25 minutes later we were in Basel, Switzerland. We experienced some linguistic whiplash, because Basel is in the German-speaking part of Switzerland. It is the  second-largest city in Switzerland and straddles the Rhine River. We enjoyed a gorgeous, sunny day with temps in the 70's for our stroll through the old part of town. Yep, more half-timbered and/or centuries old buildings.

Another city, another 1000-yr old church.

Formerly Catholic, the Basel
Cathedral has been a Protestant

church for a few centuries now.

The cathedral was filled with burial crypts from the Middle Ages.

I find them fascinating, especially the insight into the dress
of the period

One of the four Basel ferries. A steel cable is strung between the

two banks of the river, and the ferry uses the current

(and a good rudder) to propel itself from bank to bank.
It was a fun way to cross the river.

A preserved portion of the old city wall and moat

The Rhine waterfront of the "Grossbasel" (Big Basel) side

of the city

At Tinguely fountain, full of playful mechanical apparatus

that move and spout water

The narrow streets of the old city

And after a few hours we are back again in the French-speaking part of the world. Mulhouse is the starting point tomorrow for Stage 6 of the Tour de France. After an opening ceremony at the local stadium, the cyclists will ride through the center of town on their warm-up before actually starting the racing portion of the stage outside of town. We're going to wander into town and see what there is to see. We refuse to stand for hours, and have no idea what kind of crowd we'll encounter, but hopefully we'll be able to get a glimpse of something.

Pre-race day festivities Wednesday evening in the main square

 of Mulhouse, with live music

City hall is decorated for the Tour de France