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les vosges en automne. belfort & ballon d'alsace.

belfort is an old fortress city. it is mainly known for its citadel and the huge lion build into the cliffs.
it's not the prettiest town, but the citadel is quite worth checking out. we had the best view onto the surroundings of belfort and its bizarre fortress landscape. and we experienced the best rainbow in a long time. it was even a double one at one point! later that day we decided to try the ballon d'alsace again, just to see if we could see more than the last time. and we did! sometimes you need to be lucky to visit the ballon d'alsace without masses of fog. there were no cows around and also no horses, but alas, you can't have everything at once, no? we met a few young guys, though, who made a music video of a male singer with guitar. we were humming the melody all the way back to the car.

the greeting panzer.


it was near and clear, totally incredible. i swear, i could almost see the end of the rainbow!

the other side - a beginning blue sky.

and its brightness was fantastic.

tunnels everywhere.

a patriotic french flag :)

buildings were built under the earth so people couldn't enter the main fortress so easily. the landscape that evolved after decades of overgrowing makes for quite an interesting view.



dark clouds were still rolling over us, losing rain from time to time.


this statue was a little bit sad. it was a big sculpture of a soldier like guy who had all these sad women's faces under his cloak. a little bit like death collecting souls.


the soldier.

well lit soldier fight scenery.


this the lion of belfort, which was built by frédéric bartholdy ( yes, the one who designed and built the statue of liberty as well! ) right under the fortress and into the cliffs. quite majestic in its appearance the lion can be seen even from far away... as some kind of determent for future troups.




these buildings were shoot-outs. if you were unlucky ( which just was your fate when you ended up here ) they shot you into bits and pieces.



and there we ended the tour with the panzer again.

la salle des fêtes in belfort.

there was also a nice cathedral in belfort, but because of constructions you couldn't do decent pictures. and when we entered the church i forgot to photograph as well, i only made this one. which i like a lot.

and soon we decided to head up to the ballon d'alsace. like i said, the fog was nonexistent on this day, but it was ice-cold up there.


the distant sun was kind of misted, though.

it made for quite some scenic silhouettes.


view onto the belfort region, i don't know the name of the little town down there.

the sun peeked through again and tinted the trees golden.

my dad near the abyss.


here you can see the guys who made the video. they only wore t-shirts and shorts... as i said before it was freaking cold up there. but i guess music warms you up ;)

these signs are everywhere, in case you can't make out the abysses because of fog or uneven pathways.




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