Is the village of Belfort German or French? In the past 350 years the territory has changed hands several times. The architecture looks German but the food is French with a bunch of ethnic restaurants thrown in for a nice change of pallet. It is also very close to Switzerland so it is common to hear all 3 languages on the streets. We are here for the Eurocks music festival http://www.eurockeennes.fr/ and we are way too old to be doing this kinda stuff but WTH- we love music.
The concert begins while you are waiting in line to get your wristband, but as you can see in the video above, crowd surfing and singsongs abound even before getting through the gates. That guy crowd surfing is from Singapore- we met him waiting in line for the bus. Eurocks is more of a regional concert, and the music may be second fiddle to meeting up with friends at the bus station or the train station, having a few drinks (pop bottles half filled with booze, or a camel-back bladder filled with wine, or a six or twelve pack of beer), and then sharing a loud, singsongy, rowdy, but peaceful ride on public transit. We float back and forth between thinking…OMG, one day these kids will be running the world, OR one day these kids will be running the world – Awesome!
The food at the concert seemed to lean heavily on burgers and frites, but we did manage to find a duck poorboy (Magret de Carnard) and a foie gras pressed sandwich. The later was a concert winner for us. Someone could make a killing over here with a food truck serving TexMex or Kimchi Frites.
The village of Belfort is quiet and quaint.
On the first Sunday of the month, there is a large Flea Market ( one of the top ten in France) in the center of the old town that brings out locals and visitors alike looking for a bargain or something amazing. This includes a young lady who found a 10 kilo Black Madonna with Child from Germany that she will have to scheme to get back to the US of A.
The Lion of Belfort is a monumental sculpture by Frédéric Bartholdi, sculptor of the Statue of Liberty in New York. Finished in 1880, the lion is made of red sandstone blocks, it symbolizes the heroic French resistance during the Prussian assault of Belfort.
It sits as the base of the Belfort Citadel, which is on high ground overlooking the village and the region.
*Just a side note about Frédéric Bartholdi and the Statue of Liberty. The statue was assembled in Paris, then dismantled and shipped to New York. The entire process took 10 years. Although this was a gift from France, the US had to come up with the cash to build a pedestal. This was a tough sell. Bartholdi visited the US 10 times to raise funds and lobby for construction bringing with him a life size replica of the torch. Thank you Bartholidi for helping us welcome immigrants from all over the world!
