Sunday 10th September 2023 – Neuf-Brisach, France

 

We chose Neuf-Brisach as a stop partly because of its location near the German border but also because of its fort. The massive star-shaped fortress was built by Vauban, the master French builder of defensive structures – this was the last of the fortifications designed by him before he died in 1707. As can be seen from the photograph of the model below, it was a fortified town with outer defences and high walls with gun ports providing a wide field of fire over potential invaders. It looks very intimidating now but in time of war it must have looked impregnable. In fact, the way to overcome the defences was to lay siege to the town and this was done successfully in 1870 by the German army during the Franco-Prussian War.
The campsite is next to the fortress and blue-winged grasshoppers scattered in front of us as we walked to it. The path took us through the outer line of defences to the high inner walls of the star-shaped town. We walked round the walls and entered by the Strasbourg gate, one of the four gates of the town and were glad to find some shade after being baked by the full sun in the killing zone below the walls. Walking into the centre we found that there was a flea market being held in the square, an interesting diversion but we resisted buying anything.
We were lucky to find a free table at a restaurant just off the square as Sunday is a very popular day for eating out. We had seen posters in restaurants telling us that the moules (mussels) had arrived and, this being my last chance to have mussels before we left France, I chose moules a la crème, my favourite.
In the afternoon, we visited the small Vauban Museum that housed an excellent model of the fort that was the centre piece for an audio-visual presentation about the fort - in English!
It being very hot, we decided to return to the van and sit in the shade.

Photos: The museum model shows the organised streets of the town and the massive area of the outer fortifications; The killing zone between the inner and outer fortifications with a random elephant wearing a hair net; The Belfor Gate with a boat installation, the significance of which escaped us; The pan of moules, which had ‘Les Moules’ written on the side, just in case I didn’t realise what they were.