A bus took the band with all their instruments, family and friends to Haguenau, a town of some 35,000 inhabitants. Typical for the region of Alsace, over the centuries it has changed hands several times between France and Germany. Interestingly, during its early history as a town, for a while it was under the rule of Richard of Cornwall (in the 13th century).
You can find out a lot more about Haguenau and see better pictures of the place than the ones I managed to take here on wikipedia.
We were there on the Saturday, but already all week, an international festival of music and dance had been going on in town, the Festival du Houblon. Houblon is French for hops, and hops used to play a very important role in the region. Until 1910, Haguenau was known as an international exchange for hops. It has since lost its importance for that particular produce, but the "Hall of Hops" (Halle du Houblon) is still there, and that is where we spent the evening, listening to "our" band and of course enjoying the dances and music performed by the other groups - more of that in my next post.
(More about the festival can be found here, but the website is in French and German only.)
You are brilliant at English but how good is your French Meike?
ReplyDeleteHaguenau sounds like a fascinating place.
I used to be fluent and can still read, write and understand French relatively well, but lack of practice and using italian a lot more has made French take a back seat.
DeleteI feel so ignorant and poorly educated compared to so many of my European friends. German, English, French, AND Italian? Just...wow.
DeleteOne of my blogging friends (I think you know her, too?) from Sweden speaks more languages. Just for fun, she learnt Spanish last year (or was that already two years ago?).
DeleteSuch fun! This sounded like a grand time to me and in France to boot! You might not know this but I long to set foot upon French soil...hopefully, one day! I love the French language, I would love to hear it in France.
ReplyDeleteWe would have been more adventurous in exploring the town if we had had more time before the evening shows started, and if it had not been such a very hot day - around 30 Celsius...
DeleteAlsatian, the language/dialect that is spoken in that region, is a very interesting mix between French and English and not always easy to understand.
Even after looking it up I still can't get my tongue around how to pronounce Haguenau in French! (LOL)
ReplyDeleteIt's not as complicated in French as it is in the Alsatian dialect, Monica :-) In French, you simply leave off the "H". Then it sounds a bit like this: Ahgenoh (the g being a "hard" g, as in good).
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