A quick 2 hour drive from Frankfurt and you go over the Rhine and indeed the border, ending up in lovely Strasbourg in France. Here are my impressions through Fujicolor 200.
A great benefit of being based in Frankfurt is proximity to central Europe, with a short-ish drive to France, Luxembourg, Belgium, the Netherlands, or a bit further away the Czech Republic and Italy. So, Strasbourg for a day trip is more than do-able. It is about 2 hours south west from Frankfurt.
As usual I started my journey before dawn around 6am and dragged along another photographer friend of mine. I had heard Strasbourg was a nice town, and I always remember stuying about the famous Alsace-Lorraine region of France in history lesson in school (good old Mr. Holmes). More on Alsace-Lorraine and its role in European history here.
So onto the film. I had a look around the fridge and saw some Fujicolor 200 - it was also a 2 pack so I figured I would easily need 2 rolls on this visit. ISO 200 would probably be OK for the weather conditions, so off we went.
Naturally the first shot I took was of a nice French Patisserie. This isn't a place to come to lose weight, that is for sure.
Centre of Strasbourg old town, with the amazing Strasbourg Cathedral. At 142 metres high, it is tall! Apparently it is the 6th tallest Cathedral in the world. A note on the film - colours are a bit mute and the sky is washed out compared to reality.
Remnants of Christmas decorations. I also wanted to test out the blues - seem to have come out darker than I thought. Again, washed out sky. Although OK on the whole, this is not expensive film.
We arrived well before 9am, so the city was pretty empty. In fact it stayed empty until well after lunchtime. View of the old city with the Cathedral making its impressive appearance. Oh, and someone on a bike - lots and lots of bicycles in Strasbourg as you will see later.
This wide angle shot from below does not do the Cathedral justice, it really is immense!
I obviously was not going to do a lot with my ISO 200 film inside the Cathedral, but glad I managed to get this shot. Lovely glass windows.
Cheating a bit as this was taken by my friend and his digital camera, but I did want to show you the inside of the Cathedral. Lovely shot indeed.
View from the top. Not really worth the €5 charge to go up as the view is quite obstructed with fencing. Also paying money to get vertigo makes no sense, but I always do it!
Some pretty spectacular flying buttresses (I always laugh at that word). More on that here.
Proper cheese market - how very French!
For some reason the Christmas decorations were all still up - nice addition to the city. I have heard the Christmas markets here are excellent.
This guy bribed the birds with bread for his photo - clever.
Very quaint with lots of bridges along the way.
Slick and modern tram - looks funny going into the very old town.
Oh yes, so back to the bicycles. They are basically everwhere, and here is where a lot of them come from. Nice colour balance on the Fujicolor 200 too...
Macaroons galore...and more French delights below!
My childhood memories are alive and well in Strasbourg!
In fact, if you like comics you must go to Strasbourg. Great colour balance from the Fujicolor 200 film too...
Took this as a test shot and to finish off the roll - the colours came back very nicely. Impressed.
Overall impressions
I didn't necessarily have very high expectations for this film given its price range, but I was pleasantly surprised. It is a decent all round film and I would like to try it again in the middle of the summer as it seems to balance colours quite well.
Oh, and I highly recommend Strasbourg, lovely town to visit!
All the best and remember my mantra - go out and take some more photographs!
Cheers,
Neil
