3-24/25-2024 Horses. French. A Party.

3-24-2024 Sunday

The weather has turned wickedly cold. For Saturday and Sunday, there was lots of rain and wind. I borrowed a heavier coat from Fabienne and wore several layers. I discovered that my umbrella does work but there is a learning curve in getting it up and down.  I think I showed my face as the clumsy foreigner when I couldn’t get it down before getting on the bus. That was a sight. How is that possible?

(Note: Aline is the daughter of Fabienne and Francis, and Mia is their granddaughter.) Mia was involved in a horse competition on Sunday afternoon. We arrived at the place of the competition and found Mia, who was brushing her horse. To my delight, she was wearing a most interesting shirt. Another day—another devil. YAY.

Then, we went to lunch with Mia and Aline. A crepe station was set up in a large room. We bought tickets for what we wanted, then ordered it. I had a savory crepe with ham and cheese. Then I had half of a Nutella crepe which I shared with Mia. Super Yum.

As soon as we finished with lunch, it started to really rain with wind. AAARGH!!  In spite of the weather, the teams warmed up and practiced. Then, it was time for the competition. 

There were teams of 2 people who worked together to carry a baton from one end of the field to the other; to place a spear in a bucket; and other stuff. I was so cold and wet, I didn’t notice the games but I did notice that the horses didn’t much like the wind and rain. Mia’s horse decided that it didn’t want her on its back, so bucked her off and that was the end of watching Mia at the competition. She was OK. Just shook up. We left.

3-24-2024 Monday

At 1:00, I had an appointment for a kind of “oral exam” of my French at Alliance Francaise. It was really just a conversation with the usual…”tell me about yourself”…kind of questions. Then I was placed in level A2. There are 6 levels —A1 & A2; B1 & B2; C1 & C2. (Common European Framework of Reference for Languages <CEFR>) Basically, I am a high beginner which is what I thought. I can talk a lot but my grammar is bad! I begin classes next Tuesday.

When I walked out of the Alliance Francaise building, I wondered where I would wander. Then I noticed that my favorite place in all Strasbourg was visible from where I stood. (Joy!)

I decided to check out the Office de Tourisme at the Cathedral Square. I want to go to the history museums while I’m here, as well as other things going on so…..

Along the way to the Cathedral, I wondered where the homeless people were. When I was in Mexico last November, we also wondered about this since we saw very very few people living on the streets. In Spokane, they are overwhelmingly plentiful. I decided to start paying attention to people around me. I want to answer the question: “Where are the homeless people?”

In the square, there were a moderate number of tourists….lots of young’uns—maybe school groups(?). Some were standing around a guide. Most of the guides spoke English so I think I’ll check out taking a tour.

I also took note of the people holding cardboard signs and asking for “personal donations.” I noticed three of them…one woman was holding out her cup and telling her story to some young people sitting next to a building. The woman wouldn’t stop talking so the people got up and walked away. 

Another woman was sitting close to the exit of the Cathedral with her McDonald cup. People avoided her.

A third one was with 2 dogs. I think she was trying to find someone to take the dogs….or maybe she wanted dog food(?). I don’t know what her sign said but she was the only one surrounded by some stuff. A young man was also with her.

I wandered around the square and found the entrance to the “Ascension.” I think that one of these days, I will try the 300 steps to the top. I think it will cost €8. ($8.70). What will it cost me in pain!?!

I used google to get me home. I think I’m beginning to get the hang of not getting lost. I have no sense of direction.  I don’t mean I have a poor sense of direction. I have NO—NADA—RIEN sense of direction so even google fails me sometimes….I guess I fail google.

3-25-2024 A BIRTHDAY PARTY

Monday was Mia’s birthday. She turned 13!  It’s hard to believe that she is now an official teenager. We went to a Brassserie/Pub. In addition to myself, Francis and Fabienne, there was Aline and Cedric (Mia’s parents); and Victoria and Yannick, (Mia’s godparents) with their 3-year old daughter.

Francis looks a little shell-shocked in this photo. And he hadn’t even started drinking.

This was my first time eating out in a real restaurant this trip. (Of course, I’ve eaten in restaurants in Alsace). I started with a picon biere. (Beer with picon liquor with a squeeze of lemon.) Since picon isn’t available in the US, I was temporarily in ecstasy. 

Hmmm. Looks like the menu is all in English. Well, not all. The descriptions of the food weren’t.

Then I ate a raclette burger with pomme frites.

…and finished it off with a coffee.

Ahhhh…the joy of French cooking (even if it was a hamburger.)

Mia received a few presents. then the restaurant servers brought a lit candle BUT it wasn’t really  a candle. It looked like a mini flame thrower.  Happy Birthday Mia. 

It was after 11:00 when I got home so another day in Strasbourg was complete in several ways.

MISCELLANEOUS STUFF

1.  The McDonald’s in Place des Halles (shopping mall) is the very first one in France. Yay. Boo. Go McDo. (Just kidding!)

2.  At the central tram stop, there is a building within a building. It’s hard to describe but it looks like someone put a new modern facade around this old building. You’ll have to zoom in to see the old building behind the new facade. I wonder what this story is?

3. Message to you…If you choose to write a comment on the blog, please make sure that your name is there so I know who wrote it. I want to know who you are. I read them but don’t comment on most of them. Thanks.

…à tout à l’heure…

 

3-22-2024 Orientation Part 2

 3-22-2024 Orientation Part 2

An interesting encounter….for lunch, Aude invited over a friend and her young, 5½ year old son. I loved meeting them but was horrified that I could understand about 5%, no—less than 5% of the normal conversation. I often couldn’t even tell what the subject was. YIKES! What’s wrong with me?!?

After lunch, Fabienne came to continue my orientation of the area. At 3:25 (15h25), I was scheduled to take an oral exam at the school, Alliance Francaise so we decided to “orient” along the way. We went to the transportation office to get a bus pass. It’s pretty much as I expected. For $28 euros / $30.25 a month, I got a card with unlimited rides—for the month of April. That’s the old lady price. It’s the same cost as in Spokane.

We continued on our way and I saw a few things of interest to me. Here you go…

Live flowers inside balloons at a flower shop (flowers are everywhere here, not just in flower shops).

Along the way I saw a sign on the side of a building at an area with several small amusement park ”toys” like a carrousel and other things. It said “Sassy Sally.” This building had “Las Vegas” written on its front side. I took the pic for my cousin, Sally, who recently returned from the WCC basketball games in Las Vegas. (Note to Sally: Were you being sassy?)

Here is old city hall—a beautiful building. The city offices are no longer here. It’s used as a wedding hall, or I guess (civil) marriage hall is more accurate.

I found this…graffitti(?). “Coffre” is a kind of safe for money and the “j’ai du coffre” / “I have a safe” is actually such a safe on its side with the door missing. It had trash in it. The other one about tobacco with a drawing of Rosie the Riveter…beats me. I don’t know. You can see why I thought this was interesting.

I got to the school, Alliance Francaise, and discovered that my appointment was cancelled due to unforeseen circumstances (and I didn’t check my email before going)…so Fabienne and I decided to wander some more.  

We went to my favoritist place in all of Strasbourg. The Cathedral Square. Every time I go into the square and the cathedral suddenly appears, I just gaze in wonder at the beauty of this building. I have seen cathedrals all over Europe and Mexico and none of them, not even St Peter’s in Rome, is as spectacular as this on. (In my ever-so-humble-opinion.) Even Fabienne who has lived in the area her entire life says that when she was younger, on her way to work, she would walk through the square every day to watch the sunrise over the Cathedral. 

If you want to know about this Cathedral, here are a couple of YouTubes on it.

8-minute—This one is great but a bit long so I’ve marked some minimum parts. The entire video s pretty good.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNdOzVXa1vY

0:00-:55– A description of the Cathedral

2:17-2:57–The construction of the Cathedral

5:29-6:49–A description of the Clock

7:00-7:30–A story about a rival architect

3-minute—If you really can’t watch the long-ish one, here is a shorter one.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Xr0wD62Ja-U

My photos don’t do it justice so here are a few from the internet—in case you didn’t watch either of the videos.

The inside is spectacular but there are a few hidden secrets. First, there is a tiny dog statue at the base of the pulpit that just sits there and enjoys being petted by the tourists. Can you find him here?

And here is the statue of the rival architect that was introduced in the film (maybe zoom in). He sits in a balcony and looks at the astronomical clock. The story goes that when he saw the plans of the clock, he declared that it was too heavy and it would fall down. So, the real architect had a statue made of him watching the clock “fall down.” He’s been watching it for over 180 years…I’m sure it will tumble any minute now…wait for it….wait for it….still waiting.

Enough about the cathedral. Other interesting things I saw were….

Soldiers marching through the square carrying automatic rifles. I guess this is a common sight. Look carefully—I got their backsides as they were leaving. Whodda thought this was common in France.

I found my very own devil again today. We cozied up a bit.

In truth this is a a monument to the people who built the cathedral. Since it took 200 years to build, it’s probably the family-descendants for generations. The personal symbols of the builders are enshrined on the top of the wall of the monument. These are found through the stones of the cathedral. Oh, dear, I just realized that a woman has photo-bombed the photo. It looks like she’s a tiny imp standing on top of the devil’s head. LOL! There must be something meaningful about this.

On our way back, we walked down the “Rue des Hallebardes.” 

A hallebarde is a kind of spear and battle axe. 

In the olden days, the guards who guarded the houses and buildings had these in order to do their rightful business if the premises were attacked.

I think women must have also had this job. You have to zoom in to see them.

That’s it for the orientation tour of the day. There was one last ah-ha. After returning home, Aude showed me how to use her nifty soup-maker. You just put all the soup ingredients into the carafe that looks kind of like a blender with a blade. Add water and bouillon, push the right buttons and “voila!” …after 35 minutes, there is hot soup. Mine was made with squash.

There you have it—end of the orientation.

3-21-2024 Orientation 1

 3-21-2024 Orientation Part 1

Fabienne showed up in the morning to show me the basics of my new neighborhood. We went to Place Des Halles which is a shopping center about one block away from the apartment. This mall is very large with lots of shops and lots of people—compared to the ones back home, that is. Our primary goal was to find the “supermarche” (supermarket) for food, and the “boulangerie” for bread. We wandered and looked. 

Later on in the day, I went back to actually buy food. One of the biggest differences between grocery stores in the US and stores here, is this….

It’s in the produce department. When you choose your fruit and veggies, you have to weigh it yourself and put the price sticker on the item for the clerk to ring up. I already knew this but didn’t know how to use the scale so I had to hunt down a worker-bee in the store to show me. It’s just like at the self-serve check out stand with pictures of the item (whew!). I’m so glad there are pictures.

I wandered a bit more around the mall and noticed some interesting things. First there are pastry shops and pastry kiosks and pastry counters everywhere. How can so many shops be so profitable! The population of Strasbourg is about 280,000 people—just a bit larger than Spokane. Here is one of many pastry places…. (Note: I know the dangers of this form of addiction  so I haven’t yet partaken of croissants or other petit-pain.)

There is also another interesting contraption. Take a look. What do you think it does? 

Right! It’s a phone charging station and it’s FREE to use.

After taking my groceries home, I took a little walk. I ended up at Place Kleber which is a large square where community stuff happens like concerts and markets and such. In addition to the guy singing, I tried to take a panoramic pic…..

…and then it was dusk and I went home.