In yesterday’s post, I talked about the humans pulling the barges. All night I kept thinking about the slide that Alexandra (our guide) showed. It was taken in 1935 but it speaks volumes. Today on our way east to Saverne, we walked along the towpath as these folks did but we did not have to tow the barge. I thought of the as we walked.
Here in Saverne we are on the east side of the Vosges mountains, so we are back in Alsace. I am guessing that the Siblings and their parents would have moved up and down Alsace and maybe not ventured west across the mountain range. From the 13th century to the Revolution, Saverne belonged to the bishops of Strasbourg. These princes stayed in the Saverne castle any welcomed royal visitors such as Louis XIV in 1681 and Louis XV in 1744.
This afternoon we toured the ruins of the Haut-Barr castle built in the 12th century high up oh the nearest mountains as a lookout for invaders. Also located on this mountain top near the castle is one of Claude Capper’s telegraph towers. This was one of the famous optical telegraph towers that conveyed military or state messages between Paris and Strausboug from 1798 to 1852.
