Mulhouse, France

Other than its main square, Mulhouse, France (population 110,00) is an unremarkable city. Oh wait, I take that back. The outskirts of Mulhouse houses two of the best museums I've seen in Europe: French National Railway Museum and Cite de l'Automobile--which will be covered in the next two blogs.

 

Mulhouse's town hall anchors one side of its main square. The pink clad structure, done in Rhenish Renaissance style, dates back to 1553.

The neo-Gothic style Protestant St. Stephen's Church, built in 1859, hogs most of the spotlight in Mulhouse's main square--though the carousel seems to be of more interest to kids.

 Colorful buildings surround the main square. Note the light brown colored building on the left.

This ground floor in the light brown building is home to pastry chef Michel Bannwarth's Patisserie Jacques. I've mentioned before my quest to visit members of Relais Desserts, an association of 100 pastry chefs and chocolatiers from 19 countries, of which Mr. Bannwarth belongs.

I try one of the caramel/chocolate tarts (third from the left) and it's fantastic.

In the display case on the right are macarons. Members of Relais Desserts all seem to offer macarons so I've been using them as a common denominator when sizing up whether a pastry chef is up to snuff.

These are cherry macarons. The center of each one is stuffed with a whole cherry soaked in some kind of liqueur (rum?). Magnificent! Definitely gets the two thumbs up from me.

These oil drum sheep(?) or cows(?) occupy a street corner near downtown Mulhouse.

Fountain in Mulhouse's main square spewing out cold water--great for filling up my water bottle.

Another piece of art in downtown Mulhouse using oil drums.