Illustration: Watercolor and pen-and-ink, “Colmar, France Street view” by Black Elephant Blog author (2017)
For those arriving in Colmar, France by car, it can be a big surprise to see a huge replica of the Statue of Liberty at the entrance to the city in the middle of a busy traffic circle. And never more so, I imagine, for the unsuspecting arriving on the 4th of July, for that was the case for me recently.
Photo taken on 4 July 2017 at the traffic circle entrance to the French city of Colmar, France by Black Elephant Blog author
Thus it was that the next day I headed to the former home of the creator of the Statue of Liberty, Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi ( 2 August 1834 – 4 October 1904). Now a museum, the Bartholdi home was not yet open for the day
Illustration: Pen-and-ink sketch at Bartholdi Museum, Colmar, France
so I spent some time in the shade of the courtyard sketching the sculpture in the middle, which is known as “Les Grand Soutiens du Monde” of “The World’s Great Bases”) representing “Justice, Labour and the Motherland” which was exhibited at the ‘Salon de Paris’ in 1902. Unsurprisingly, there were other sketchers present in parks and leaning against fountains around the town.
Back out on the streets of Colmar, there was so much to see and do–and taste! No
Illustration: Street scene in Colmar, France, watercolor and pen-and-ink
wonder there were so many tourists there, mostly from elsewhere in Europe and from Asia, it seemed. We were on our way to new places much too soon, but so glad to have the experience of visiting Colmar, and knowing that if the opportunity arises, we’ll be back.
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