December 25-26, 2022 Eat, Drink and Be Merry

 December 25-26, 2022

The Christmas Day celebration involved Aline-Cedric-Mia, and Lucienne (aka LuLu), Francis sister. The very first thing we did was to watch the news clip about the “Polar Plunge.”  There was an excellent view of Sarah flopping backwards into the water. 

As usual, we had l’apéritif. We opened presents. I gave presents but didn’t take pics of them. I know you’re getting tired of the same song with a different verse.

Mug rugs for Aline made by Louise, Sarah’s mom.

A drawing of Mia by Sarah

A painting for Mia done by Sarah.

Here is the painting, done by Sarah, and the wall hanging, made by Louise that Sarah gave Fabi yesterday.

OK, the food….excellent, of course. Foie gras and salmon…2 different dishes, not one.

The next course was leg of lamb…. With a kind of couscous and a creamed bean dish. I don’t know the kinds of beans. They looked like baby lima beans but didn’t taste like them.

The cheese platter was provided by LuLu. It was ENORMOUS!!!! We hardly put a dent in it.

There was one round of cheese that had a little “guillotine” which I thought was clever, but then I learned that you turn it, not chop it, and it scrapes off the top layer of the cheese into the shape of a flower…in theory. I have a picture and a short video but I’m not sure the vid will work for you.

 https://share.icloud.com/photos/001956fq8FbwH8tNIgoa4-tTA

For dessert, we had Buche de Noel. (My keyboard is not typing all the marks it needs.) This is a log of ice cream. Incredible! One was chocolate and one was vanilla.

OK, I’m done with food for Christmas. Our conversations were ordinary. My French is getting better….or at least easier. It’s taken me a week to get into the groove. Now I want to stay longer just to work on French. Verbs and Pronouns!!!! What a problem.

Now on to December 26….

We left a little after noon for Sonia’s place. Sonia is Fabi’s sister. I hadn’t seen her yet. There were 22 people there for fun and festivities. 

Here’s a quick rundown of the food. Better, yet, I’m getting a bit overwhelmed, So I’ll just show you the pics. You’ve seen it all anyway….

OOPS. I guess I missed some courses. The ice cream cake was awesome. Half of it was layered with chocolate, caramel and coffee ice cream. The other half was banana, plum and vanilla. Frosting on top and little meringues around the side. Claude, who is Veronique’s husband, is a baker so he made it. There were cookies, too. I tried an anise one. Sonia made them with powdered anise instead of liquid so they were not white inside like the ones I make.

Sarah and Jade discovered that they are both 17-year old artists.

We played around with our presents. 

Part of the day was bitter sweet for me. Many times I’ve been to France and to Strasbourg. I usually stayed with Jeannette and Rene. Jeannette is the one who was so patient with my lack of French the first time I came and was so supportive of my endeavors to learn. She also liked the history of places and showed me all the nooks and crannies of Strasbourg and told me their stories. She died during COVID time. I think it was because no one could come visit her in the assisted living place. Today, I really missed her and Rene. They lived in the downstairs apartment from Sonia, who owns the house. I was remembering all the good times I had there. It’s now time for the next generation to step in, so her son, Christophe bought the house in the courtyard. This first picture shows the house where Jeannette and Rene lived and the second is across the little courtyard is where Christophe and his family live.

We left early—before 6:00. Back at the house, Fabi and I talked about the people in our lives who had died. Not a super good topic for the holidays but since we both miss her parents, Jeannette and Rene, it was a good conversation.

Franck and Saundra came over for a little while to pick up some left-over cheese from yesterday. It’s Franck’s addiction so the cheese goes to a good home. I think I will see them again when we go to Europa-Park next week.

For now it’s time to stop and hit the sack. Tomorrow, I think we go to Petite France.

December 25, 2022. A poignant story…

 December 25, 2022.

25 years ago, a man named Jean Paul, aka Paulo, started a tradition. He gathered together 4 friends, and on Christmas morning they went to the lake and ran into the freezing cold water. The next year, the 4 friends gathered again and a few others joined them. And so it continued. Some years, the friends were joined by lots of others and in other years, there were only a few. Some people did it only once…that was enough. Others, like Francis, stuck with it year after year. 

This year was different. This year Paulo was very sick. He couldn’t swim in the lake. His friends decided that they would jump into the lake just like always, and he could watch it on WhatsApp, as they took the plunge. Unfortunately, yesterday, December 24, Jean Paul, aka Paulo, died.

This morning was different than the years before. 

Many many people showed up. Even the media from 2 television stations came.

They gave speeches. 

The original ones made signs. 

They all decided to jump into the freezing cold lake in memory of their friend. 

Sarah, too, decided to jump into the lake with Francis to remember Paulo.

Everyone was tense and excited. Waiting….waiting….

Then, there was a count-down and…. They ran, They walked. They jumped for joy.

Some got out quickly while others lingered….

Afterwards, everyone was energized and happy.

Sarah and Francis had a unique, shared experience.

But will Sarah do it again? Only time will tell….

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.