Wissembourg. The remarkable tree trail and the poetic path have been inaugurated.

"I don't know if we have that in Strasbourg, but I'd love to!" Christine, a resident of the Alsatian capital, was in Wissembourg on Tuesday, August 19, to visit the remarkable tree trail and the poetic path. This discovery, accompanied by Célia Hamm, from the city's environmental department, was offered just before the official inauguration.

Jean Faivre, a member of the municipality's legal department, was present "in a personal capacity." "The idea had been in the pipeline for a long time," he recalls. " It was presented in the participatory budget but came in second." Making Rue des Écoles safer for pedestrians and cyclists had indeed won out in 2024. But the tree enhancement project, dating from 2021, was well received—especially since it was accompanied by a trilingual poetry trail (French, German, Alsatian)—and the municipality implemented it.

The circuit starts at the Maison du Sel with the first panel of this Dichterweg . It is dedicated to Otfried de Wissembourg, considered "the first poet in the German language". The route then heads towards the ramparts , makes a loop via Rue Otfried and the Faubourg de Bitche before returning along the Lauter to the Stichaner Park . Three poems between Rue des Écoles and Rue Nationale allow you to return to the starting point. Enough to enjoy thirty trees, twelve poems and seven "unmissable" places.

The author Marguerite Haeusser (1910-1998), who was born in the municipality, is honored several times. Her poems De entbleste Lindebaam and An unser Weißeburcher Lauter , which pay homage to a bare linden tree and the Lauter respectively, are featured on the trail.

During the walk, Célia Hamm also detailed the content of the various explanatory panels: an anecdote presents the particularities of each remarkable tree (the toxic branches and bark of the yew were used by the Romans to create poison filters, a ginkgo biloba withstood the nuclear explosion in Hiroshima, etc.).

This is enough to excite Christine, for whom "the ginkgo is a god-tree." Perhaps she took the idea of ​​showcasing remarkable trees with her to Strasbourg...