Miscellaneous Photos of Food. (Or Why my jeans no longer fit me.)

 

Croissant with oranges and coffee

Breakfast—the double yellow is custard

A kind of brioche baguette

The best mango since I was in Africa

A chocolate croissant

Knak (Ke-nack) My grandmothers favorite. 

December 30, 2022 A walk in the forest; A thrift shop

 December 30, 2022

This morning, Friday, we took a walk in the forest. It was a special kind of forest because thee trees have ears and are always trying to understand what you’re saying.

There’s also a kind of balance beam sculpture that children can use to play on….or adults like me with a little help from Fabi.

There are hives where school children learn about how to collect honey; and there’s an insect hotel. (No hive picture.)

It was so nice to just walk in the forest. Eventually, we came to a tall water tower with chairs carved out of stumps around it.

And then there was the castle.

On our way back to the car, we saw a tower with an old horse trough in front.

And that’s the story of our walk.

This afternoon, we went to a humongous thrift shop. We went to one on our way back from Selestat and this one was very similar. It seems that all the true cheap thrift shops are social enterprises. Homeless people are given a job in the shop, given training for life and work, given an apartment and food. Then when they become independent, they move on. They must work and do the program to get the apartment and food. Sounds good to me. Sorry, no photos.

Tomorrow, Fabi and Francis and I are going to Raon-sur-Plaine in the Vosges Mountains. This is where Sonia lives when she’s not in her house here. There are a bunch of us going. A quiet fun time will be had. We will be back Monday. Sarah is staying with Aline, Cedric and Mia where she can be around English speakers….young English speakers. When we get back, there is only one day before we go to Paris and then home. I’m so not ready to leave but…..

I’ll be writing more in a few days.

December 29, 2022. Euro Park

 December 29, 2022

Euro Park is the largest amusement park in Europe and is declared the best of all the parks in the world. (They won the award and were declared the best park in the world.) It’s about an hour away in Germany. We got there when it opened and the parking lot was already about ¼ full. Since it’s Christmas break time, about ½ of Europe was there by noon.

Throughout the day, we did roller coasters and boat rides and a myriad of other rides. Twenty minutes wait time was short. Sometimes it was 40 or 50 minutes for 3 minutes on a ride. There was an overload of sounds and sights and experiences. I found it exciting in a terrifying kind of way. Just take a look at our day. 

In this next photo, it looks like I have my hands up in some kind of happy wave. I actually have my fingers in my ears and I’m grimacing from the loud noise.

It really was a fun day so enough of the whining. Everyone was so excited to be there that the enthusiasm was exciting.

Franck and Sandra have season passes and go almost every week so they were our guides—They were  very good guides since this place is sooooooo big, it’s easy to get lost (which we did when left to do our own thing).

The Park is laid out with different sections representing different countries of Europe, so you could travel around the world in one day of fun and frolic. Some places were just fanciful or showed fairy tales.

Here’s a few of us enjoying the day…

Take a close look at this next one…..

Francis says that his hair is like the Christmas tree. A bad-hair-day, d’y a think? It was windy.

We left when it was dark and started raining. I mean RAINING! Everyone else left at the same time. YIKES! No photos of the mad rush to the exit and into cars. Too bad.

I will finish the photos with this mystery picture for your viewing challenge.

December 28, 2022 A Castle, A Commune with Ancestors, An Interesting French Tradition

 December 28, 2022

Thursday, December 28 was a long day. We started out early to get to Haut Koenigsburg right after it opened. Haut Koenigsburg is a medieval castle. When we got there the parking places were already filling up. I’m glad we started out early. I’ve been to HK before but I’m still in awe to see the wonders of the construction, and weapons of war in medieval times. When we left at 11:00, all the parking was taken and people had to climb half way up the mountain to get to the castle. OK, they had to walk, not really climb, UP the road a long ways. I’ll just show you some pics…

“Haut” means “high” for a reason….

After leaving Haut Koenigsburg, we went to Selestat. This is the town where my grandmother was born and raised (1904-1918). That would be Sarah’s great-great-great-grandmother. I thought she would be impressed but I don’t think she felt the vibes of her ancestors like I did, My mission was to find the places that made up my grandmother’s life. I had pictures that I took sometime in the 90s. That’s all. We went to the office of the mayor and asked if anyone recognized any of the pictures. The women in the front office did not recognize any of the places in the photos, but they called to a colleague who came out and looked at the photos. Amazingly, he said “Yes, this one is on “such-and-such” a street….and that one is on “such-and-such” a street but it’s been remodeled. He identified about 6 photos…all except one. How did he know? What an amazing man. We set out and found the church and elementary school where my grandmother went.

The school…

Then we used Google to help us find the house where my grandmother’s grandfather lived. It was on Rue de Grenouille (Frog Street).  I don’t have the old ones digitized so I can only show the ones we took. 

The last time I was here, a woman came to the window and asked us why I was taking pictures. When we told her, she invited us in to show us the inside. This time, no one was home—you can tell by the closed shutters. I decided to commune with the spirit of the house instead….

We next found the house of my grandmother’s grandmother. It’s now apartments…or maybe it always was.

Again I decided to try to connect with the spirit of the house and with my great-great-great-grandmother. (Sarah’s great-great-great-great-great grandmother—I think. I lose count.)

We decided to not look for the other places. It was time for lunch. I had boar, Fabi had pigs feet, Sarah had a hamburger patty. After lunch we walked around a bit and looked at this beautiful old town center. I imagined my grandmother walking…running down the little streets….and they were truly just large paths.

In the evening, we went to dinner at Veronique and Claude’s house.

This is an interesting house with interesting people. They have a menagerie of pets—2 large parrots, 3 African turtles, two dogs and one cat. They also have chickens and other animals at another place.

The Baby….I took photos of the Mom and Dad but don’t have them (????)

Back to the dinner. We had spaetzle and liver dumplings. Both Sarah and I decided that it was surprisingly delicious.

For dessert, we had a nice surprise. It was a Gâteau des Rois. Gâteau des Rois is King’s Cake. On January 6, there is a custom where the youngest child goes under the table and decides who gets the first piece, the second piece, etc. The person who gets the first ‘Fèves’ is the king (or queen?) and they usually get a crown to wear for the evening. (Think Burger King) Ok, Fèves are little tiny figures of characters from stories…like Lion King, or Rapunzel, or Asterix or Tin Tin. It’s all quite fun. Some people collect them. In fact, Veronique gave me a box of them. Claude is a baker so they had lots and lots. Here’s a picture of the gateau and of Veronique with her “crown” on—she got the fèves.

I know it’s not January 6th but they wanted us to experience this tradition. What fun!

Looks like I’m done with Thursday.