Strasbourg
in Alsace, a week later
After
meeting with the Paris dealer, Dierk, Page and I headed back to Brussels.
From there we detoured to show Page Brugges en route to Bonn
for Karin and Ronald's wedding. Tom met us in Bonn the day of the wedding.
After the wedding, Dierk, Tom, Page and I headed for the
Bavarian Alps and Innsbruck for a week.
(For photos of that week see the Index.)
At the end of that week, Tom flew home from Munich.
Dierk, Page and I headed northwest
from
Munich
to Strasbourg, in Alsace, France,
for two days. Patrick would meet us there, the next day, for more faience
adventures.
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Strasbourg is the capital of Bas-Rhin département, Alsace région.
It lies 4 km west of the Rhine River on the Franco-German frontier.
The Medieval city centre is concentrated on a small island encircled
by the River Ill.
Strasbourg's 11th - 15th-century Cathedral of Notre-Dame,
damaged in 1870 and in World War II, has been carefully restored.
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"Petit France"
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This
district is where the city's millers, tanners and fishermen used to
live.
We arrived late in the day and headed here for dinner.
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More
rain!
Three Drown Rats Warmed Up In Style
Page and I treated the three of us to
a delicious dinner and a very nice Alsatian wine.
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Speaking of food, Strasbourg is known for its excellent restaurants.
Alsatian food has a mix of German and French tradition and draws on
the
excellent wines and beers of the region...
not to mention, the fabulous cheeses - Quiche Lorraine is the pizza
of France.
Then
there are the pastries and chocolates!
I took the opportunity, the
next day, to
get some food shots for our collection.
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Patrick met us at noon the next day, at the Strasbourg Cathedral.
First stop, lunch. (Bad photo, but proof!)
Then,off to an appointment that Patrick had made for me to meet
Monsieur Bastian.
The leading expert on the faience of eastern France,
Msr. Bastian did his PhD on Strasbourg faience and
has written an exhaustive study of the faience of Strasbourg.
He is now writing about the faience of Niderviller.
He also catalogs faience collections for the French museums.
Introduction
to Bastian et Fils
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Charming Msr. Bastian Senior is on the left.
His English-speaking son, Jacques (right photos), is the one
with whom I had the appointment.
We spent most of the mid-day with them, while
they let me ask questions and examine the many kinds of faience in their shop.
I
went back the next day, to decide what I would purchase,
and I ended up spending much of the day there!
Msr. Bastian had more to teach me.
He
took me into the back of the store, to his research area.
There he showed me various reference books,
plus a group of slides from a lecture about
Niderviller faience
that he had recently given.
Such generosity!
He invited me to correspond with him, any time.
I can ask him about any faience I find.
By the time we left, he was suggesting that he would
come visit us the in the US someday.
He knows the people who work with faience at
The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Another, great, professional contact,
thanks to Patrick!
From Bastian et Fils, Patrick went with us to the nearby town of Sarrebourg,
to tour its museum's collection of
rare 18th C Niderviller Faience and Porcelain.
Continued...
Click
here