Bitche France

On Friday April 24th, I decided to take Mom into France to the Bitche citadel.  We tried to go and see it when Mom and Dad were here in the fall, but it was closed.  This time it was open!!!!  So we dropped the kids off at school and headed off for a day trip to France.

When we got there it wasn't open quite yet, so we decided to head down to the town for a little walk.

On our walk through town we saw this statue - amazing how many crosses are all over in Europe and sometimes in places that you would never expect.

After we wandered through the town we headed back up the hill towards the citadel and low and behold it was open.  Mom at the very base of the citadel.

This was the first drawbridge into the citadel.  It wasn't their main gate but a first road of defense.

 

This was the one and only road into the citadel.  If you notice it is a straight shot to the door.  They did this on purpose.  They weren't worried about an army coming up, it only took ten men stationed at the bridge to close it.

Then the snipers here on the left can take them out, there was no where for them to go.

Mom at the main gate.  It used to be bigger you can see where they filled it in.  They wanted it 5 meters high so the cavalry could ride through the tunnel.  Now it is only 3 meters high.  The door replaced the drawbridge in 1905

Mom walking down the entry way, you will notice that you can't see the other end of the tunnel.  They did this on purpose so the people coming in wouldn't be able to see the other end and couldn't fire on the guards waiting there.

This is my normal sight seeing pose - taking notes on the history that is told through the tours.  :-)

This is the old double door that replaced the drawbridge.

In 1793 the Prussians tried to get through and here is one of the ax marks from way back then.

A little farther in you can see the gate over Mom's head that can come down in a time of siege or war.

When you finally make it up through the tunnel this is what you come out too - mounds of grass that covers all the underground tunnels and rooms.  You can also see on of the cannons in the back left used for defense.

We took a tour of the underground rooms and it was AMAZING!!  It was pretty extensive.  This was the commanders office and where all the planning went on.  There was also a movie that took you through a time that the citadel was under siege and what happened during it.

This was the underground water well.  It took two men to work it and get water from 80 meters down.  There were two buckets, one that went up and one that went down.  It had to be in an arched building for safety because in a siege, if there is no water they won't survive.  They had a 2000 liter capacity a day.  They also had 6 cisterns to get rain up to 450,000 liters.  They put the biggest cistern under the chapel because most of the time it is the last to be bombed.

This was the underground barn, complete with two levels, one for the animals and one for the food, etc.

Here you can see a little closer a couple of the stalls that they used to house the animals.

They also had their bakery underground.  It was better protected than the gun powder was which shows how precious bread was.

During the war in 1870, they made 800 loaves of bread a day.

I thought this was interesting, this is where the bakery was.  You can see how far down it is and that there were two levels to it.

These were the enlisted quarters.

This was the commanders quarters, you can see the difference in size and this was only for one and the enlisted was for many.  During a siege they could fit hundreds of people in these underground rooms.

Here on the top there used to be a village.  Imagine this with stores all across these tiles.  It was almost a full blown town in the walls of this citadel.

This was the upper part of the well.  You can see the spout where they could get water out of it.

This is the front of their chapel.  Inside it wasn't very big.

I couldn't help myself, there was a seat on the cannon, so I had to sit down.  :-)

A view from the tallest mound in the citadel.  One interesting fact is that it was actually built on a hill, but that hill was in a ditch.  So when under attack it was easy for the others to send artillery bombs down on it.

The building with the A-frame roof is where they kept all their gun powder and explosives.  It was right on top and not protected well at all.  They had 72 tons of gun powder with only a 1 meter thick wall around it.  There was also a large underground storeroom with 328 barrels of gun powder, with 108 kilos in each.  It is amazing it didn't blow up.

This is a view from the entrance.  You can see the original guard house down at the bottom.  They housed about ten men so they could raise the bridge in case of an attack.

After that we headed down to a small local cafe that Sarah told me was great!  Mom tried a coffee and I stuck with hot chocolate.  We had a wonderful lunch there and  I love the quaintness of it!!

And what is lunch without a little dessert.  They had sooooo many there that looked awesome, but I LOVE strawberries, so this is the one I choose.  Mom and I had a wonderful and relaxing time just going at our own pace and enjoying the beautiful countryside.  This was Mom's fourth country in four weeks.  I would say that was too bad!!  :-)