A renaissance man for the twenty-first century!
I really, really liked this here in Europe when I saw it at the Mulhouse Gare Central,
It’s more hygenic than the American “bubblers” that spray a stream of water you can suck on like a bird — but it is a far, far cry from the Chinese versions that dispense both cold and hot water (for making tea).
The summer drought it in full swing and as you drive across Alsace you see these huge devices everywhere. They are not called sprinklers but rather lateral irrigation systems. I’ve long been interested in finding the best way to capture these, photographically, and personally I think it’s one of the harder subjects to shoot. They are not always found close to the road and in a position that makes a good composition — the light is not always ideal — but I am quite happy with the results of this snap!
I spotted this fellow just off the side of the road near Neuf-Briesach, probably looking for a warm juicy mouse or — failing that — at least a nice big bug.
This is an artistic a snap as I thought I could take of a big statute. There is a big, open plaza in Strasbourg — called Place de Kléber — and it has a big statute you can see here, of General Kléber. Believe it or not, he is also buried here on this spot, probably underneath the statute. He fought as heroically as a general can fight in Napolean’s crusade in Egypt, until he was stabbed to death by a student. I find it interesting that such people were enshrined like this. Today, probably zillions of people pass by this statute every day and I wonder if any of them really know who he is — which means there was previously great interest in honoring them, and today they are largely ignored.
But this post is not about bubbles, but rather bubble architecture. And more specifically, another snap of the Bubble Architecture at the main train station in Strasbourg.
By the way, I took this snap on my Nikon Z6ii with a very inexpensive 28mm prime lense – fabulous for street photography, and as you can see below I am very happy with how well it captures the fine details!
I call it bubble architecture. But probably nobody else does.
I’ve said that France is the all time master at turning beautiful historical buildings into hideous monstrosities by encasing parts of them – or sometimes all of them – in giant glass bubbles. Well, they seem to be getting mildly better at this. But the famous Gare de Strasbourg — or main train station in Strasbourg — is in my view a case where the French got things right!
As of July 2025 it seems all the cornfield in Alsace – everywhere – including in this little area called Dessinheim – are undergoing tremendous irrigation. Probably a side-effect of the European drought. Interestingly, Dessinheim is rather famous — historically — since a famous French combat pilot was shot down and killed here. I’ll post a snap to his memorial in a coming post.
I spotted this fellow just off the side of the road near Neuf-Briesach, probably looking for a warm juicy mouse or — failing that — at least a nice big bug.
You find these all over France and Switzerland – maybe Germany too, but I’ve never seen one in Germany. It’s a hotel for solitary bees! Of course, it begs an interesting question: why are there solitary bees? Were bees originally soloists that then developed an advantage with hives? Or were wayward bees kicked out of their hives?
I took this snap somewhere in Alsace, not too far from the Vosges mountains
I took this snap somewhere just near the Vosges mountains in France,
Continuing the series, ice crystals, on a bush, in front of a tree, in Cernay
Continuing the series, if you ask me, no easy job to keep these shrubs pruned so identically
Continuing the series, I’m definitely coming back here because this snap was taken just outside of a HUGE industrial park that was deserted – sort of a ghost factory. It was all open to the public, so it’s on my bucket list to head back and just poke around. According to a small plaque here, this chimney was part of a textile factory – and I assume that the streams running down from the Vosges Mountains in the background were the reason for its location (water power):
Continuing the series, I could not resist capturing this snap of some tall grass (or a bush?) with the leaves all covered in ice,
Continuing the series, this street art seems to be an homage to hungry people, but to be honest I never stopped to see if there was a sign that described it.
Cernay in the eastern French part of Alsace known as Haut-Rhine is an interesting village for two reasons. First, apparently the German SS used this village as an “indoctrination” center during the second world war; and second, because the Thur river flows through it, and there was a river of the exact same name flowing through Winterthur when I lived there. (Note: it flowed through Winterthur before I moved there, and it probably still flows there today.)
Anyway, here’s the church:
Sadly it is a bit difficult to find information about these things on the Internet. I took this snap from the parking lot of IKEA in Mulhouse, in Alsace.
I took this snap after getting off the tram that transports you up to the mountain to Crans-Montana – but then I stopped to think, this must be a very difficult garden to maintain in good condition:
