Thursday, August 6, 2015

A stroll around Saint Croix aux Mines

We have been at our exchange house for a couple of days now. The first necessity is to get food to cook so we went briefly to Selestat to the Tuesday market. It does not seem to have changed much since 2011. It started to rain so we bought a few things to eat including a tub of paella and scurried back to the car. We also went to a supermarket.

Today we decided to walk around the village. I must admit that I have been feeling very lazy since we arrived at the house. Perhaps it is just being able to relax in a very comfortable house for almost three weeks. But we have to get out of this slacker mode.

The exchange house is back a block or so from the main road so it is very quiet except for right now as I type. The people next door are having their hedge trimmed.


Flowers in the garden. It has been a dry summer in Europe and the rain the previous day probably helped a lot.


Some sort of factory across the road. You might notice the steep hillside directly behind the buildings.


We walked down to the main road through the village. There is a highway that skirts the village so this road is relatively quiet.



The hillside just behind the houses.


Marianne pointed this out to me.




It is just so French.


Something a little more modern.



A little stream flows down the valley through the village.






The fir trees are wonderful here.



Somehow this reminds me of the old Jaques Tati film, Mon Oncle.


The main square with the Town Hall on the left.




The Fire Brigade.



The local church St Nicolas which was not open.


War memorial with the names of the dead in WWI.


And WWII.



Marianne was intrigued by these ceramic wreaths on the wall of the church.






I was intrigued by these shutters that sloped outward.



I suspect this might be a grandiose pigeon house.



Saint Croix used to have silver mines but from what I have read they still mine coal here.


This house was being repaired.



A train line used to come up the valley. Now it is just a cycle path and I think the house on the left used to be the station.



A chateau in a botanic garden called the Villa Burrus.





Gazebo.


Trellised walk to the gazebo.


A real craftsman created this gazebo. Just look at the paneling on the roof. Unfortunately it has not been cared for too well. 


Made out of willow trees.



There was a long row of pine trees of all kinds.

We enjoyed our stroll. The village is quite unassuming but there appears to be more here than you would think at first.

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