I got some decent sleep on the long-haul flight over to Paris, and at the airport caught the train to Strasbourg. Strasbourg is the capital of Alsace, a region of France on the border with Germany. I had to change trains once. My hotel in Strasbourg is in an area known as La Petite France—notable for canals, picturesque and very old buildings, and the tourist trade.

I wakened to thunder and lightening the first morning, in my room perched high above the old city. As the day slowly dawned, I watched the dark clouds scuttle across the sky. Very dramatic.

The tower of the Notre Dame Cathedral in Strasbourg was the highest building in Europe until the nineteenth century, and a marvelous Gothic spire it is! I climbed three hundred steps to the platform below the spire, where in olden times guards lived 24/7 to watch the city for fires, and the horizon for enemies.  Strasbourgians, if that is the right term, came up here for picnics on holidays. Today, it is a perfect location for photographing the rooftops of ancient Strasbourg from above.

There’s plenty to see and photograph in Strasbourg without climbing towards the sky. Wandering the twisting streets a few blocks from my hotel I was intrigued by the optical pattern made by the wood design in an antique door.