April 13-19 Tours and Dinners

April 13-19

Saturday, April 13 was a family day. Veronique (Fabi’s sister) and her husband, Claude, invited us over for Tarte Flambée. He has a little oven set up in the basement. Sonia, (Fabi’s other sister) was also invited. 

We started off with the aperitif. We had several choices….

Then Claude fixed the Tarte Flambée. Since they take only about 3 minutes to cook, we just kept making them and by the time we were finished with one, another one was ready. Take a look at the process.

It was so nice be back at a family gathering. Unfortunately, most of the time, I didn’t understand much of what they said. Fabi kept asking them to slow down and they would… for about 6 words. It’s the same at a gathering at home when there’s someone learning English trying to follow along. You just can’t keep up the “lenteur.”

Veronique and Claude don’t have any children…not human ones anyway. They have a little farm—some land with animals—not far from where they live in Souffelweyersheim. At home, however, they have 3 turtles with 2 eggs fixin’ to hatch, 2 parrots, 2 dogs, many many frogs, fish…and I don’t know what else is hidden in their back yard. So take a look… 

Sunday, April 14, was an interesting day. Fabi and Francis and I went on a guided tour of Fort Rapp-Moltke de Reichstett. This is an old fort, built about 1872. It is one of 14 forts built after the Franco-Prussian war when Alsace became part of Prussia/Germany. They were intended to guard against France attacking and trying to take over their former territory. It housed about 900 soldiers. It’s built into a hill so most of it is underground. I briefly read up on its history before I went so I could understand a lot of what the guide said. 

We went outside and took a look at the cannons which could rotate to different angles to get a good aim at the “enemy.” I don’t think they were ever really used. There is one that was reconstructed to show what it really looked like. It was interesting to see the fort from the angle of the top of the hill.

Originally, there was no light inside the fort so candles and lanterns were used but they barely lit up enough of a passageway to get by. There are lights showing some of the passageways now but most of the tour was inside dark tunnels and rooms so I didn’t get many photos but here is one that had enough light…

I found the tour interesting. We saw a little bit of the kitchens and the bakery and a dormitory where we were told that there were about 4-6 bunk beds in a room and somebody slept in them at all times…Each shift took the place of the previous shift in sleeping. What a life! Would I even call it a life?

When the fort was opened up to tours, some guy went to the mayor of the town and explained that he had a whole school full of furniture and equipment from several decades ago and he wanted to donate it to the fort so people can see a real school. In some of the rooms, we could see old desks and science equipment and art supplies and all kinds of things.

After one guy’s stuff was accepted, other people went to the mayor and said that they had stuff too, so it was also given to the Fort. Some of it is presented in the different rooms but it’s mostly stored there in the dark recesses of the fort because the mayor can’t say “no.”

The guide was interesting and knew his stuff. His special interest was weapons. He spent quite a bit of time, well, a lot of time actually…explaining how missiles and cannons and bombs work. He even demonstrated that you can put fire to the powder but it won’t explode without the impact created in a missile. After listening for a polite while, we left the tour and found the front entrance.

I forgot to say that before the tour, we had lunch. Francis prepared a fantastic dish with shrimp in an incredilicious sauce over pasta. Ahhh. Too much goodness…almost.

Monday, April 15

On this day, one of the other students—the one from Russia—brought in something that his wife had made. It was like balls of different kinds of nuts that were held together with a most tasty and sweet “something”— like popcorn balls but way better. I didn’t understand why she had made it but it might have been left-overs from something and we benefitted.

After class, since it wasn’t raining yet, I went on a walking tour of Strasbourg. It was a “free” tour that takes place everyday at 2:30 pm.  

https://happy-strasbourg.eu/

You’ll have to come take your own tour because there was was a lot of fascinating info about the city. Here are some photos to pique your curiosity.

Toward the end of the tour, we visited this sculpture/monument that shows how Alsace has been bounced back and forth over the decades. It shows a mother with two sons…one represents Germany and the other, France. 

Although this building was not explained on the tour, I know that it is one of the oldest and most famous ones in Strasbourg. It’s on the Cathedral square.

And there you have Monday.

Tuesday, April 16

Not much happened this day. In the evening, I went to a special presentation/workshop on French pronunciation. The presenter talked a lot and I understood about 30% until he got to the point about how to actually form some of the French sounds. He went around and listened to everyone and gave them some tips on how to improve. That was very useful.

Oh, I also met another (aka, the other) American at the school. She introduced herself and said, “I’m from Houston Texas, but don’t hold that against me.” Ha! We instantly connected.

Wednesday, April 17

I have no notes from this day so I guess it was a non-day. Hmmmm.

I will insert here an observation. Tarte Flambée is a very traditional Alsatian dish. You saw the one that Claude made.

It’s also called Flemmekueches. It looks a little bit like pizza but the crust is very thin and crispy—sort of like soda crackers; and, the traditional toppings are chopped bacon (lardon) and onions (oignons). Some restaurants have added other ingredients on it, like mushrooms or Gruyère cheese, which are also typical ingredients in food here. 

As I pass by restaurants, they will sometimes have a little sandwich board or sign outside showing the menu, and the kinds of Tarte Flambée that is offered if that’s on the menu. One day, as I was wondering home after class, I walked by two restaurants next to each other. One was a modern-looking sort of place and the other was a traditional Alsatian building. They both served Tarte Flambée. Here is the sign for the modern-looking restaurant:

Here’s the sign for the traditional-looking one. 

One would think that the traditional restaurant would have traditional Tarte Flambée, but no! to my horror, they do not…well, they do… and they also offer their own “creations.” Well, I think they go too far with their creations….just too far!!! Here is an up close view of what I mean…..

It’s an abomination!

Thursday, April 18

This day was ordinary until 4:00 when the hairdresser showed up to cut my hair. Yes, he came here and brought all his stuff. His name is Jose— Portuguese pronunciation— so it’s pronounced with a soft “J”— more like “Joe-zay” in English (sort of). Here he is just getting started.

I wanted to once and for all get rid of the wings that grace the back and sides of my hair….something chic and easy so here it is. I wish my skin was also chic. (LOL)

After the haircut, I went to dinner at Fabi and Francis house and had another incredibly delicious dinner of duck and pasta. Duck is as common here as chicken is in Spokane. WOW! Lucky me. It was incredible. I told them that their restaurant “Chez Tafani” was 5 stars. (Tafani is their last name.)

Oops. Sorry. No photo. Je suis désolée.

This brings us up to Friday where it was, yet again, cold and rainy. I have worn Fabi’s winter wool coat every day and it looks like it’s through the weekend too.

Enough whining! Onward with life….

April 8-12, 2024 French Conversation & An Interesting Encounter

April 8-12, 2024

It seems like my class routine is becoming a routine. I leave my place at 8:30 and arrive at school at 8:50. I put out as much brain power as I can to understand and speak French, then when I’m completely brain dead, class is over and I’m off to the adventure of the day.

I’ll start out with a photo of a little something in the middle of the sidewalk that I came upon on my way to school. Someone covered the critter with a leaf. Celine says it’s a kind of special animal that lives in the river—a cross between a beaver and a rat BUT it just looks like a rat to me. HUGE!

Here’s a brief overview….

Monday: It’s the beginning of week 2. I still don’t exist on the roster. Oh, well. I received my test back from last week. I got a 41 out of 50 questions correct. Monday evening, I had “Conversation Circles” which is an event at Alliance Française (my school). Ordinary French people who live in Strasbourg come and have conversations with the students at the school. It’s a voluntary activity and there were about a dozen or so students who showed up. In my group there were 4 students and 2 Strasbougeois. I understood most of it and had a good time speaking. The woman from Spain said that she started learning French last November and she is now really really good.  Oh, the value of a youthful brain!

On my way home, a young man with a plate of cheese invited me to take a taste and we got to talking about cheese. He invited me into the store (fromagerie) and I taste-tested many kinds. Oh my, it’s nothing like the stuff I buy in the supermarket-marche. This is to-die-for! I didn’t have time to stay and buy but I’ll go back. I took a picture of the store as I left so I could ask google where it is, since I was taking a circuitous route back home. (Ignore the people…)

Tuesday was cold and rainy so I didn’t do very much. I wanted to take a tour near the Cathedral but it was too …yea, cold and rainy. I was wearing a wool winter coat. There was something interesting that happened in class, though. Well, interesting to me. I don’t remember what we were studying in class but, the woman from India (the luxury consultant) told everyone about her sister’s recent wedding. She said that there were 2000 people there who partied for 10 days. She showed us photos and a video. They were in a fancy schmancy hotel ballroom with tables upon tables of food and there was live-band music. And this went on for 10 days???? THEN, the man who speaks Russian and is a lawyer who I think is from one of the “….stans” said that when his son got married, there were 500 people. He showed us a professionally-made video of the wedding which ran like a soap opera drama with the happy couple showing all the emotions of fear, anxiety and joyous union. It was quite the production. I guess my classmates are people of means. Well, it is rather expensive to go there.

On Wednesday afternoon, I went to Fabi’s to do laundry. There is a washing machine where I live but there’s no dryer and I needed to wash everything so I didn’t have time to wait for something to dry.

While the clothes were washing, Fabi and I went to a forest to have a walk. It was another really nice place with lots of nature. I loved it! Beer garlic was in bloom—yes, it’s thing. There were signs describing the birds, which I don’t think exist in the Pacific Northwest (but what do I know??) and there were exercise stations. 

We also came across a compound of sorts that was really old. I think it was a fort from the late 19th century when Alsace belonged to Germany. I don’t know exactly what this is but on Sunday we’re going to take a tour.

The aperitif was beer and chips. For dinner, Fabi made a delicious quiche. How does she get it so perfect? 

After dinner, Francis showed me his stamp collection. The postal system started in 1849 in France and he has stamps from then until now. I was impressed. Some of the pages have letters with stamps on them. Really really old letters. Really really old stamps. I like old stuff. (Appreciating “old” makes for good self-esteem, eh?)

On Thursday, as soon as class was finished, I went to lunch with Celine and Fabi. Celine went to Spain on Friday to go on a horse-riding tour for 10 days so we got together before she left. We went to a very traditional restaurant and sat outside. I had some sausages and French fries. It was a perfect day weather-wise and the food was great. (These two photos look like “Beauty and the Beast.”  Ha!  It was a fun afternoon.)

After lunch we went to l’Orangerie which is a humongous park—sort of like Manito park in Spokane. That was really really nice. 

I couldn’t stop taking pictures. It was such a nice green place. Here are some random photos but you can find *a fountain built in 1895, *the chateau that Napoleon built for his wife, Josephine, *one of the oldest, best and most expensive restaurants in Strasbourg (ooh la la!), *an insect hotel, *a night sky dome, *some koi, 

We also came upon some American tourists from New York who were in Strasbourg for a day as part of an 8-day tour on the Rhine.

We even stopped for ice cream. I can understand why it’s the best ice cream in Strasbourg….maybe in France….maybe in the world. Fat grams??? nah!

This park seems to be a haven for storks so I took lots of photos of them. They were even flying overhead and Celine told me about the time she was riding her horse, and a stork was flying overhead, and the stork let loose with a…. well, I guess it was difficult to get that stuff off of her horse’s rear end. Take a moment to imagine the scene…. (LOL!)

After l’Orangerie, we said g’bye to Fabi who got on her bike and went back to Bischheim….a little more than 2 miles. Then Celine and I went to Centre Ville. The only coffee shop that was open in the area we were in, was Starbucks so that’s where we ended up. Then we went “window shopping” and I learned a new expression for “window shopping.”  It’s “lèche vitrine” —lick the window. Ha!

On Friday, I had a very interesting and serendipitous experience. I had just left the school, when a woman stopped me and asked where the train station was. She was lost. WOW! If you imagine that the school is at 4:00 on a clock, the train station is at 11:00 (not a digital clock of course). She was really lost. Since I live near the train station, I said I’d walk with her there. I discovered that this woman didn’t speak French!!!! She did speak English. Here’s her story. She is a teacher/professor of German in Stuttgart Germany. She is Albanian and how she came to be in Germany must be quite the story. Her husband and children live in Budapest Hungary….another story for sure. She said that she had been in Basel Switzerland to catch a plane to Budapest for the weekend to see her family. She had found a cheap flight—€50–so she took the train from Stuttgart to Basel on Thursday and stayed with her brother. That is when she realized that she accidentally had booked a flight from Budapest to Basel, not to Budapest. OUCH! She decided to take the train on Friday from Basel to Strasbourg and then on to Stuttgart. She wanted to check out Strasbourg for a few hours before taking the train, since she had never been here before. Well… her adventure continues. After visiting the Cathedral and other wondrous places, she decided that it was time to go to the train station to catch a train back to Stuttgart, BUT! she discovered that her phone was completely dead. So, she was in a strange city; did not speak French; didn’t know where she was and didn’t have google to help her. Oh, my! She just started walking but was going in exactly the opposite direction from the train station. Thus, I came into the picture. I gave her my small portable emergency phone charger to use while we walked along the river to the train station. We had a lovely chat and really connected. I sent her an email later on that evening. I hope she made it back to Stuttgart without any more onerous adventures. She gave me one of her old business cards.

On Friday evening, I went to another speaking activity called “Parlons Française!” This was at a library called Mèdiathèque Andre Malraux. This is a huge place that is more than just a library—more like the downtown library in Spokane but way bigger. There were about 10, French-learners, who showed up for an hour and a half of speaking. The leader of the group happens to be a professor at Alliance Française but the event is not  sponsored AF. It was really fun and interesting with some games and activities for getting to know each other while practicing the language. Because most of the people in attendance knew only a bit of French like me, the leader/teacher reviewed the grammar structures before each activity. I understand the explanations but using the grammar correctly seems to be another thing entirely. Oh well, at least I can talk a lot and people seem to understand me…. 

An anecdote…I was really really really tired on Friday evening and had to really really concentrate to understand and speak French. When I arrived, I sat with others who were waiting for the leader/teacher to show up. There were 3 people having a conversation and I was amazed at how well they seemed to speak French. I got the gist of what they said but I was a little nervous about the level of the group. They seemed so advanced. THEN! To my shock, I realized that I was listening to 3 people speak Spanish and I was catching the gist of their conversation in Spanish. WOW! I was tired.

Here’s a pic of the huge building but not the group…

So, now I am half way through the French-study portion of my adventures here. I’m experiencing a bit of “down” since I don’t think I can produce the language that I’m learning. And writing it ….ha!  Not!  I studied French grammar in high school so on my own, I’m reviewing some simple stuff like present tense, and pronouns, but the learning is happening slowly… It brings new meaning to “brain dead.” I seem to be in a normal stage of culture (and language) shock. (Yea, I read that book, too.) Oh, well. At least I’m having loads of fun.

And that’s where I’ll leave it…