La Petite France

It being Bastille Day, I thought I would tell you about a pleasant part of Strasbourg called "La Petite France". This seemed an odd name to me, because it's chock full of half-timbered houses and used to be the district for tanners, millers, and fishermen. None of these things necessarily remind me of France.






But it gets even less Frenchy: Strasbourg, although an important port on the Rhine, is itself (well, the centre ville anyway) situated on the river Ill, which flows shortly into the Rhine. As the Ill flows through Strasbourg, it passes through various locks and it diverted into various canals. As a result, downtown Strasbourg is completely surrounded by water and referred to as the Grande Île (the grand/big island). La Petit France is on the southwest edge of the Grande Île where the Ill is split into these canals. To me, canals sound like Venice or maybe Amsterdam.





You might remember that from the middle-ages into the early modern period, Strasbourg was a free city, which was also a pseudo-democracy and rich, all of which made it a tempting place to attack. To defend itself, Strasbourg erected these towers (and others like them) in the 12th - 14th centuries on bridges in the Petite France:



In the 17th century, the French built this dam on the edge of La Petite France which they could use to flood the land south of the city (and potentially the hostile army):



It worked well - in fact, too well. When the snow melt came, it supposedly lifted the water level too high for the arches, and the land flooded. Apparently it took a few years to convince the authorities to raise the arches.

But this doesn't really seem to have anything to do with being "French". After some digging around, I finally discovered why it is called "La Petite France": "French" diseases. Back in the day, there was a hospital in the district where suffers of either the "French pox" (smallpox) or the "French disease" (syphilis) were treated. I can see why they try to keep that out of the guidebooks - it doesn't really sit with the cobblestoned, half-timbered, meandering canal-ed image they maintain for the tourist.

Somehow it does fit with that whole "French" thing. Besides "American" (which I swear I've seen used to sell everything), "French" is the other word that can be used to mean anything you want. So for the Fête Nationale, I suggest we celebrate all things "French". Eat french fries, french dressing, french toast, french onion soup, french cut green beans, or french vanilla ice cream. Play a french horn. Look out your french window. Get a french manicure. French braid your hair. French kiss. Pardon your French. And avoid those french diseases.