December 24, 2022 Boat Cruise, Roland & Violette, baeckeoffe

 December 24, 2022

We went on a river cruise….maybe it was more like a canal cruise. The old Strasbourg was built on an island so, of course it’s surrounded by water. Now the water is controlled by locks and walls and gates. We took a glass covered boat and listened to the history of Strasbourg in English. Every seat was filled! It was so crowded. Here is a photo of m ‘n’ Fabi….

I took a pano pic of another boat. Going around a curve in the river. It’s kind of fun. Zoom in if you can.

Here are some of the buildings. (They were taken through a window.)  I love Alsatian architecture. Didn’t I already say that?

When we went through the locks, people stood at the railing above us and watched. Fabi said , “Are we animals in the zoo?” With the pic of the locks, the gate is opening and you can see the building straight ahead.

At one end of the canal, we saw the Parliament buildings for the European Union, Yes, Strasbourg is the capital of the EU.

This if the first building. As the EU grew, they built one across the water.

I couldn’t get the whole building in these two photos. It’s sooooo big.

In the olden times, before people could enter the city, they had to pay a tax before they raised the gates.

This building was the administrative offices for the river business; then it became a kind of syphilis hospital; then a prison; now….. I forget.

Strasbourg was one of the first cities in Europe to embrace the ideas of the Reformation so there are many old Protestant churches. Now, all of France is mostly a secular society. I can’t tell the difference between the Protestant Churches and the Catholic Churches. They all sound the same—clang, clang, clang, clang.

After we returned home, we had some time before Roland (Fabi’s brother) and Violette came. When they arrived, Violette was introduced as Odile. OOPS. Everyone quietly calls her Violette because everything she wears is purple. Hmmm. Interesting.

So, they came. And we…..ATE!  Of course. First, l’apéritif.

I thought it was caviar on little pieces of bread, some red and some black, but I was told it was similar to caviar but not caviar. OK, it was faux caviar. Pretty good. We also had real champagne.

For the next courses, we sat at the table, which had a festive look.

Second, foie gras. We ate it on either bread or épicé gateau…. A kind of mildly spicy gingerbread. It was a very interesting taste. I had two. It was served with these little jelly-like balls that tasted like jellied salt. I have no idea what it was. It complemented the whole foie gras experience. Sorry, no pics, but if you zoom in on the table, you can see the plate with foie gras.

Third, we ate the baeckeoffe. A kind of stew? with 3 kinds of meat—beef, porc, lamb, and potatoes and herbs and other stuff like onions, leeks, garlic.It cooks for four hours. 

Fourth, we ate an amazing array of cheese.

Fifth was the dessert of sherbet, little meringue cookies, little nut cookies, little chocolate cookies, and of coure, Fabi’s bredele. (little cookies). Sorry no photos of dessert. 

Yes, we drank wine with each coure. It was after 11:00 when we finished. (We had to take breaks between courses in order to go on.)

(OK, this is out of order again.) Before we ate, we opened presents. I gave presents. Then Sarah gave Fabi presents. One was a painting that she had done herself and the other was a quilted table runner/wall hanging that Louise, Sarah’s mom, had made. Sorry, I have a photo of only the painting. I can’t believe I didn’t take a photo of the quilted piece!

After we gave everyone presents, Fabi gave me a shawl and a real French beret. Sarah got a scarf and a real French beret. Here we all are modeling our “Frenchness.”

I must say that Sarah looks fantabulous here, don’t you think? Somebody give her a contract.

That is all that I have for our 1st of 3 Christmas Dinner celebrations. I will leave you with a fun little photo that I took on the street.

Yes, it’s Johnny Depp selling Cologne.

December 23, 2022 Shopping Center

 December 23, 2022 Shopping

Yesterday was not as busy. In the afternoon, we went to a hu-mon-gous shopping center. It is called Shopping Promenade. You walk along a promenade with shops on both sides, but there are shops across the street and down the other way and here and there. There is a small playground, a labyrinth, places to sit, and a huge chair….maybe for Santa? It’s so interesting just to look. Here you go….

In the evening, Francis made lentils with sausage and pork. So yummy….of course.

For the aperitif, we had picon bière and we toasted Rene. He was Fabi’s father. He introduced me to picon bière and we drank that together whenever I came so we raised our glasses in his memory.

LOL. I’m telling this backwards. The aperitif comes before the meal. There was the cheese course and the cookies. Fabi brought to all her cookies and said that was all that was left. She made an incredible amount. She said she sent 12 little packages to Francis’s family in Corsica. We’ve been making a dent in them too.

OK, that’s it for today…er, yesterday.

December 22, 2022. The ‘hood, The museum, Franck & Saundra

 December 22, 2022

Yesterday, we woke up a bit late. The day before, at 8 am, the church bells rang for about 5 minutes. They went on and on and on. Fabi and Francis said that the bells clang like that every morning. I hadn’t heard them before. This morning I awoke at 7:45 and decided to wait until the bells clanged before getting up.  BUT the next time I opened my eyes it was 8:40. I hadn’t heard the bells. We told Fabi that we would come over at 9:00-ish. It was definitely an “ish” morning.

The offending church….

After le petit déjeuner, we went to the bank where I was finally able to get cash. Then we walked around the neighborhood. I love Alsatian architecture and in this old neighborhood, there was a lot of it. Even the little shops are interesting. This is where Francis buys our morning pastry. 

Notice the little man in the top window….

Old traditional houses have interesting construction. Take a look at the next three pictures as I zoom in on the window that shows how the house is made.

In the afternoon, we went to the Modern Art Museum. They had a special exhibition of Lewis Carroll and other surreal art. It included an “interesting” exhibit of insects and other animals in jars of formaldehyde. No pics. Use your imagination.

For dinner, we went to Franck and Saundra’s. Saundra has high positive energy all the time and is a most interesting woman. She has collections of movie stuff. She likes Johnny Depp and has many items from his movies. Her favorite, however, is Jack Skellington, the Pumpkin King. So EVERYWHERE there are things related to Jack. Here are some photos of her house.

We started the evening with l’apéritif…Crémant d’Alsace with potato chips, pretzels and tapenade on delicious bread. Here you have it…

For dinner, Saundra prepared Duck!! and potatoes au gratin (aka “gratin dauphinois”) for the first course.

The second course was salad, the third was cheese, then there was dessert—cookies and berry sorbet. Oh, then there was the coffee and finally the schnapps—a shot of limoncino (not sure of that spelling). Everything wa incredibly delicious.

After dinner, Mia received a Christmas present from Franck and Saundra.

Tickets to the Soprano Concert

Finally, we left. It was 11:00 and we were so tired. So much fun! And culture!

Last night I had nightmares. I dreamt that huge insects with strange men on their backs were flying over my village and grabbing people. Everyone was running every which way and I was afraid I would be caught. Was it the museum? Jack Skellington? Or did I just eat and drink too much?

Today it’s a lazy day. We’re going shopping later since it’s raining. Fortunately the temps are in the mid-50s about every day. Life is good.

December 21, 2022 Again….

 December 21…. Or not

Oh, dear, my days are all screwed up. I dont know what date is which day. On Tuesday, we went to Riquewihr. Wednesday was Christmas Market day. I havent written about that yet. So now my posts are a bit out of order. Such is life.

OK, Wednesday morning we went to the bank but my credit card didn’t work at the ATM. (Sigh) I didn’t have my second card with me so I was cash-less. We went to a chocolate shop and I bought some of the yummiest chocolate. At this shop, the owner travels the world and gets cocao beans. Then he roasts them and grinds them and makes the yummiest of yummy chocolates. (Actually, the chocolate from Boise is running neck ‘n’ neck with this.) We then went to the grocery store. Markets and stores are interesting in other countries. You weigh, bag and put a price sticker on the produce you buy here. We got some fruit and tea and other stuff. Then we went back “home.” We had lunch.

After lunch, we went to the Christmas Market. There were so many people, we had to walk a long ways from where Francis dropped us off before parking the car. We walked to the square where the Cathedral is. One is unable to describe the magnificence of this cathedral but the look on Sarah’s face when she saw it showed the awe of its architecture.

We walked around looking at the buildings and the lights. We had some fun posing.

There is also a place where there is a column next to a building which has been a restaurant forever. In the olden days, before scales and Weight Watchers, people would try to squeeze between the column and the building. If they could make it, they could go into the restaurant. If they couldn’t squeeze between the column and the building, they knew they needed to go on a diet. Maybe they weren’t allowed into the restaurant? That part of the story is a bit fuzzy. I gave the old column a try……

I’ll just show you some of the photos I took.

Notice what she is wearing..her jacket.

Just before leaving we had to have the famous vin chaud. (Hot spiced wine)—or warm apple juice.

And then we left.

Oh…forgot…on the way out we saw some bunny rabbits making anise cookies. (Sorry if you can’t see this video.)

https://share.icloud.com/photos/085HqcXqMExwQ7sVKtZUS6YeQ

Later, we had some time to kill so Fabi told us about her job before she retired.  She worked at the largest newspaper in Strasbourg where she was responsible for a supplement on beauty and fashion. The clients, aka advertisers, gave her a lot of product to try and then review. She constantly received boxes of creams, and cosmetics, and nail polish. Nail polish? Yes. She showed us her box of polish and we went to work. 

We had many colors to choose from and Sarah used many of them. She polished her left hand and I polished my left hand. And then she polished my right one and…..ahem…. I attempted to polish her right one. Take a look closely… I won’t be working in a nail shop anytime soon. 

For dinner we first went to Jerome and Celine’s house. About 2 years ago, they bought an old broken down house and completely refurbished it. The inside is very modern while the outside retains its Alsatian look. Sorry no photos. I forgot.

From Celine’s house, we went to a restaurant and had tarte flambée. I died and went to heaven. Rather than explaining it, I’ll just show you. We ate about 4 different kinds. And I had “picon bière”…“avec.” That means a beer with the liquor called picon and “avec” (with) a bit of lemon. I’ve always loved this and was glad to see it on the menu.

For dessert, Sarah had lemon tarte. I had a bite. It’s a lot like lemon meringue pie.

We got back late. I was ready for bed. Goodnight.

December 21-22 Monsieur Gilbert

 December 21-22. Monsieur Gilbert

There is a neighbor. His name is Gilbert (pronounced Jeel-Behr). Fabi calls him the “concierge” of the neighborhood. That means he takes care of plants and animals when people go on vacation. He generally watches out for things, makes sure things work and sees that all is safe and secure. He really is a very nice man. He also makes sure that foreigners like me know how to properly stay in a French house. For example, I must turn out the outside (and inside) lights; make sure the gate is closed—slowly push the buttons on the keypad to lock it; close the shutters at night and open them in the morning….oh and latch the shutters which means going outside to do that after opening them. Well, he carefully explained all this to me on two occasions and he had Fabi explain it to me. The lights were left on one night so that’s probably why he let me know the way things work here. He spoke slowly and I did appreciate it. However, I knew that if I forgot something, he would let me know again. Yesterday, when we left for Fabi’s house, I tried very carefully to do everything. I opened the shutters, turned out the lights, turned down the heat, locked the door, checked that the outside light was off, opened the gate, shut the gate; made sure the gate was locked. Whew! We went to Fabi’s for petite déjeuner. After breakfast, I remembered that I hadn’t latched the shutters. I jumped up and put on my boots. Fabi said, “Don’t worry about it. We can do it when we leave.” I said, “But I don’t want Monsieur Gilbert to see that I didn’t latch the shutters.” So, I hurried out, latched the shutters, and returned. Whew! I got there before he did. Score!

The house where we’re staying.

The shutters on the house. See the little latches?