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Petite-France

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Covered bridges, in the Petite-France neighbourhood of Strasbourg
Covered bridges, in the Petite-France neighbourhood of Strasbourg

Petite-France is an area in Strasbourg, Alsace, France.

It is located on the Grande Île (Main Island), where the river Ill splits up into a number of canals, and cascades through a small area of medieval half-timbered houses and baroque sandstone buildings.

The name "Petite-France" (Gerberviertel in German) was conferred by the former German inhabitants not for architectonical reasons, but because of the numerous prostitutes working there in the Middle Ages — prostitution used to be known in Germany as "The French Business". Also, syphilis often contracted in that specific area was then known as Franzosenkrankheit ("french disease").

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