Strasbourg in 3 hours
The centre of old Strasbourg offers a unique mixture of French and German cultures. Home of the European Parliament, this city is famous for its magnificent Gothic cathedral and pâté de foie gras which is said to have been invented here in about 1780.
This is the story of 3 hours in Strasbourg in October at the end of 3 days of conferencing (www.privacyconference2008.org; it was a mixed bag of a conference – see my blog "The privacy conversation is not moving; The Identity Management debate is").
Anyway, the last part of the time in Strasbourg was just delightful. After an interesting half day informal workshop with a number of mostly American business colleagues to talk about what they thought the conference had delivered & the implications, there were about 3 hours of tourist time.
So, about a dozen of us got into one of the wonderful trams & headed off to the centre of the old town.
Everybody wanted to eat although I would have preferred to go sightseeing straightaway.
But they were right. We found a small restaurant where one of our group organised the ordering, gave the advice etc, he being a Frenchman working for HP in Paris. And he knew his food & wine in the very French way – duck liver pate with a very smooth Traminer Riesling then a beef roll & chilled local Pinot Noir (quite different from anything Australia or NZ produces). It was fun just listening to what he had to say.
Here is Daniel Pradelles from HP, our gourmand adviser, on the left & my great friend Marty Abrams on the right.
And then we went on our way, past the beautiful lock in the canal, past some wonderful, ancient houses in narrow streets, including Marion's dressmaker shop,
until we got to the wonderful Cathedral of Strasbourg towering over its surroundings:
A quick walk around an equally awe inspiring and moving interior and then the magic was over. Back into the hustle & bustle of the here and now, getting a taxi to the airport, standing in queues, getting x-rayed & all the other trappings of today.
The 3 hours were an emotional and sensual oasis.
Malcolm Crompton is the Founder and Lead Privacy Advisor of IIS Partners (IIS), a company that works with public and private sector organisations to build trust with customers through protecting their personal information.
