Chapter 3b Baptism of History (and lions)

Having achieved our first goal for the Franche-Comté leg of our journey, the visit to the Chateau de Joux, we turned our Picasso Citroën northward and headed towards Belfort and our second must-see monument of that region - The Lion of Belfort.  We drove along the now familiar river, le Doubs, as it twisted and turned in a long descent along the foothills of the Jura Mountains. 




After a long day of citadel-climbing and driving along a rather demanding road, we looked for a small town of no more that 2 streets where an auberge might be easily found and Picasso easily parked. And there, in a little place called Pont l'Oide, was a hotel named "Le Lion de Belfort". It was meant to be.  

This place had it all: sherbet-colored rooms,

adequate outlets for all our technology, 

traditional French-style windows with small balcony,
















and an outdoor terrace for summer dining.

And best of all, there was a young but very talented chef.  Rejuvenated by our stay (and great dinner & breakfast), we headed north again. Just south of Montbéliard, we left the Doubs River behind, as it looped it's way to the west and south.


Ahead of us was Belfort. And the famous Lion monument.


Like many places in northeastern France, for Belfort, geography is destiny. Situated in the "Belfort Gap" between the Jura Mountains to the south and the Vosges Mountains to the north, the city straddles the easiest east-west route through the mountains, and has always been a strategic military location. The Romans passed through here in 58 bce during their conquest of Gaul. So of course, once Louis XIV took the region away from the Austrians, he got his favorite military engineer, Vauban, whose work we already saw at Joux and Besançon, to renovate the existing chateau into a truly impressive fortification. A tall, very tall fortification.

Again there's climbing involved for any tourists who want to see it all.


That wasn't us. We came for the Lion.


Now the odd thing was that the Lion was surprisingly difficult to find. We expected to drive into the city and - voilà! An enormous lion would greet us. Instead we found ourselves driving around in circles and asking directions of folks who thought we were crazy not to know. Frustrated, my dear driver, Madonna, just parked. And as soon as we did, there was a little sign, "To the Lion".  So we walked toward the fortifications,  

entered through the "Porte Vauban" (Vauban Gate),

and finally spotted a leonesque profile with a tail ahead of us.

After paying the entry fee, we could take a short stairway up to the viewing platform (photo above, right of the lion) and see him in all his glory.

Look how happy I am to be there! (Madonna immortalized my rendez-vous with the Lion.)

The Lion is one of Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi's two most famous monumental sculptures, the other being "Liberté éclairant le monde" ("Liberty Lighting the World" or more commonly called in English the Statue of Liberty.


The Lion is carved of out of blocks made from the red sandstone indigenous to the Vosges Mountains. Many local monuments, buildings and forts are constructed of this stone, including the Cathedral of Strasbourg.


Thoughtfully placed at the foot of the Lion's platform was this fountain
for dogs. Courtesy from one four-footed creature to others.


Now you may be asking yourselves "why a Lion monument?" The inscription on the base where the lion reposes says "Aux Defenseurs de Belfort 1870-1871" (To the Defenders of Belfort). The defenders were the eastern garrison of the French army and the people of the city, led by General Denfert-Rochereau. The defending happened during the Franco-Prussian (or Franco-German) War of 1870-71, when the wily German chancellor Otto von Bismarck tricked the not-so-wily French Emperor Napoléon III into declaring war. Nappy and his armies went roaring off to invade Germany. But this was not the unbeatable army that existed under Napoléon I (OK - except for Waterloo. And Moscow.) Soundly defeated in a very short time,  the French army retreated to Champagne and Alsace was taken by the Germans.  Belfort was all that stood in the way of the German army's effort to catch the French army in a pincer action by invading central France through the "Gap". 

With apologies to Italians, Swiss, Germans, Belgians, and Luxemburgers for my flagrant disregard for their real boundaries.  Do NOT use this map to settle any territorial disputes.

The city was besieged for 104 days during which the French garrison conducted an aggressive defense of the gap, and blocked the German army from passing through. The war ended badly for the French - they were trounced. But because of the crucial and heroic role played by the Belfortians, the city and territory around it remained part of France at the end of the war. Until that time, the area of Belfort had been part of Alsace, and Alsace, along with the German-speaking part of Lorraine (the Moselle), was handed over to Germany by the terms of the Treaty of Frankfurt. (The terms of this treaty are actually interesting reading for you history buffs.) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Frankfurt_(1871)

Another item in the Treaty of Frankfurt was the "Option française" (The French Option). This allowed people living in the territories being transferred to Germany to choose French citizenship instead. In the latter case, they had to depart and leave everything behind of course. Approximately half a million did. And one of those half million was the sculpteur of the Lion, Bartholdi. He adopted Belfort as his new home and dedicated the next few years of his life to honoring the city by creating the Lion monument. 

In English, "Way of the French Option in memory of the Alsatians who, from 1870 to 1914, chose French nationality.

Lots of the Alsatian refugees settled in the French colony of Algeria (leading to yet another war 80 years later) and others settled all over France. Some of those who settled in Paris opened a new kind of restaurant - the brasserie. The word means "brewery" and introduced menues from the Alsatian beer culture and an ambience less like the cozy French cafés and more like German beer halls. 

Should you go to Paris, you can dine at the still-authentic Brasserie Lipp.  I love the following description of its founder from French Wikipedia. "Alsacien d'origine, Léonard Lipp a fui sa terra natale, devenue allemande, et se consacre à la préparation de la choucroute, arrosée des meilleures bières." (Alsation by birth, Léonard Lipp fled his native land, which had become German, and dedicated himself to the preparation of sauerkraut, washed down with the best beers.)


I have not yet eaten at that brasserie. Oh, darn. I'll have to go to Paris again. 


Belfort played strategic roles in the next two wars with Germany, and the 20th century saw the Lion become a stirring symbol of French national pride. According to many political cartoons of that era, he prowls on the heights of the Citadel and keeps an eye on France's eastern neighbor. When faced with any act of German rambunctiousness, he growls. 

In the '30's, he growls over the wall of the Citadel,"Not so much noise...Adolf!"

The following cartoon was printed at a time when Germany had acquired a new military weapon - the Zeppelin. 

"Votre Zeppelin? Mais nous n'en ferons qu'une bouchée!" (Your Zeppelin? It'll only be a mouthful for us!) Note the woman in Alsatian costume applauding the Lion,

The Lion has a little brother in Paris, at place Denfert-Rochereau in the middle of a large rotary.

And there's a monument to the "Defenseurs de Belfort" at the huge Paris cemetary, Père-LaChaise.

Sadly for Bartholdi, the devotion he felt for his adopted city was not reciprocated. The Lion did not have an official inauguration. When Bartholdi died, his widow had to fight hard to prevent the city fathers from diverting the funds intended to finish another Belfort monument designed by her husband. The Lion was finally inaugurated in 2011, after 130 years of waiting.






















And possibly the most inspirational aspect of the Lion lies in the words at the bottom of this sign. In English, "Witness to the affinity of French people to the republican ideal, he (the Lion) has become a symbol of peace restored in Europe."


As in many other places on our journey, we saw monuments to horrific battles and tragedies, turned to celebrations of 60 years without war between traditional enemies.

Au revoir, Lion! You are magnifique!