French connection

Smugness enveloped me as our plane touched down in Strasbourg in January. I and three friends were about to spend three and a half months doing our orthopaedic and care of the elderly attachments in the heart of Europe, through the European credit transfer scheme (ECTS) offered by Bristol University.

A stone's throw from the Vosges mountains and the Black Forest, and steeped in Franco-Germanic history, Strasbourg is situated on the river Il, a tributary of the Rhine. The large Pont de L'Europe provides the quickest escape over the river into Germany though there is no need for such escape. Strasbourg boasts more miles of beautiful waterways than Venice and its beautiful twelfth century cathedral stuns all who stop to admire it.

The European parliament is another central feature of this mid European city. Opinions of it depend largely on your taste in architecture, but I found it stunning on bright days when …