Statue of Liberty

If you want to see the Statue of Liberty, one of the most famous statues in the world, but you don't have quite enough money to travel all the way to New York, then you're in luck, because there is a replica in Colmar (a French city that is situated a few kilometres from Strasbourg, by the Haut-Rhin) and there is another in París.

The Statue of Liberty replica, which stands in Colmar, was unveiled in 2004, to commemorate the anniversary of the death of Frederic Auguste Bartholdi, the mastermind behind the original Statue in New York, who was originally born in Colmar. If you're wondering how the brains behind the Statue can be French, it is because the Statue of Liberty was a gift that the French made for the United State to celebrate the 100th year anniversary of the Declaration of Independence in the US in 1886 as a symbol of friendship between the two countries.

The replica in Colmar weighs 3 tonnes and is 12 metres in height and it is somewhat bigger than the replica in Paris.

I've been lucky enough to see the original Statue of Liberty, in New York, the replica in Paris and the replica in Colmar! Even so, I still prefer to talk about the replica in Colmar so unlike me, you know that it exists. (The following photo is the original in New York)

On my first visit to Colmar, I went out to buy some postcards with my Taiwanese friend, as we always do on our travels. The story begins when we were looking at the postcards in Colmar, deciding which to buy and send to my family, when I landed on a postcard with the Statue of Liberty. I laughed with my friend, saying they even sold postcards of New York. A few hours later, we discovered the truth, when we were on our way back by bus from Strasbourg. We passed by the Statue of Liberty, which was only a few metres from us, so you can imagine our faces and smiles that we had. So on our second visit to Colmar, we went to see the replica of the Statue of Liberty and remembered how naive we were.

To visit the replica in Colmar, it's free and it's open 24 hours, so there is no excuse if you're in the area! Although I wouldn't go out of my way just to see statue, but it's definitely worth it if you're nearby.