Monday, November 28, 2011

Christmas is coming

Flyspring No 2 arrived at Zurich airport last Tuesday.  Fortunately, she managed to synchronise quite well with mother fly, and we met up in the pick-up lane outside the Arrivals Hall.  Unfortunately, it was a day of thick fog, so nothing much was seen of Switzerland or Alsace as we drove back home.  The same heavy fogs continued through the week, and while driving around some picturesque villages and tripping in to Strasbourg were still possible, it was all within the ambiance of autumn fogs.  

An interesting experience on the drive to the airport:  Fly stopped at a servo on a Swiss autobahn to fill in some time. (Can’t be too early in the pickup lane at the airport, only allowed 15minutes.  And once you progress out of it and are back on the unavoidable network of autobahns, goodness knows how long it would take to get back in again).  Bought a sandwich and coffee, asked if I could pay in euros.  Of course, yes, but we only take notes, and we give the change in Swiss francs. For some reason this reminded me of the taxi drivers in Vietnam, who were very keen to be paid in US dollars, but gave change in Vietnam dong (14,000 dong=US$1)

She is off again now, train to London and there met up with her tour bus.  A phone call last night indicated that already she has come across French officiousness.  I remember 30+ years ago being he subject of this because I trespassed on some grass near the Eiffel Tower.  Flyspring was shouted at for standing in the wrong place outside the Louvre while taking pictures.  “Why you no can read?” shouted the official.  A sign, in French, was some distance away.  It is true, unfortunately:  French officials do not ask, they order, usually very peremptorily. (But the French people – not officials – are usually very nice). 

Now that Flyspring 2 has gone, the fogs have lifted of course, and Alsace is sunning itself under beautiful blue skies.  Still very cold – temperature range has been around -2 up to 8 degrees.  Very exhilarating.  On Sunday fly visited the very lovely village of Ribeauville, as did very many other people.  Managed to get a park outside the town walls, and wandered up and down the cobbled streets admiring the Christmas dress that now adorns the buildings.  It is everywhere, on businesses and private dwellings – taking the place of the wonderful floral arrays that were the feature a couple of months ago.  Civic buildings are not excluded – the “decorations” line in the local council budgets must be very generous.

It is interesting to see that variety and nature of the decorations.  There is the usual of course – wreaths and trees and tinsel and bells etc.  But there are also a lot of places decorated with stuffed toys – teddy bears in particular.  And also polar bears, penguins, and Eskimos are features.  The village of Andlau just near here has a whole tableau set up in the square of an Eskimo village, complete with igloo, and people fishing in the ice and polar bears eyeing it all off. I find this an interesting departure from the usual insistence on their own culture and style. 

Today in Barr, the town square was being set up with little wooden chalets for their Christmas markets.  The same is happening in all the squares in Strasbourg.  Barr has also spread grit over all its cobbled streets already, getting ready for the snow season.  

 Ribeauville - On the round-about outside the town walls

Grand Rue with the Chateau ruins up on the hill above the vineyards

This Teddy was blowing bubbles.  Must have had a vacuum hose in his mouth, and his hand kept moving down to the bowl to pick up the suds and up to his mouth.  Children of all ages were entranced. 
Christmas at the bottle shop


Santa's train at the entrance to one restaurant

Several carriages!


More teddy bears.


The houses are like licorice all-sorts.

Monday, November 21, 2011

Andlau March de Noel


Andlau is one of the villages just a stone’s throw from here.  It is about 2 ks in that direction.  Barr is about 3ks in another direction, Mittelbergheim, .5ks (yes!) in yet another direction, and Itterswiller 2.5 the other way.    Easy distance to walk between them, and I have, but there is not really provision for walkers.  The roads are edged with ditches before the vineyards start.  So if traffic appears and one has to get off the road, one is in a ditch.  

This weekend, Andlau had its Christmas Market. It is a bigger village than Eichhoffen, rating such facilites as a post office and a tabac (tobacconist/newsagent), though not quite of sufficient size to have any sort of bank or ATM.  There were crowds, cars parked every which way, (orderly parking never a strength here), and rugged up people with rugged up babies traipsing into the village centre.   There are very few tourists around now, so most would have been from all the neighbouring villages.  They must each go to the others’ markets.  I don’t know how the sales go, as this one and one other I went to here were offering much the same type of goods – hand embroidered table ware, pottery, soaps, ceramic Christmas-tree decorations etc.   The food outlets were doing brisk trade, but that is always the case. I bought a couple of decorations for the Christmas table; but other things I would have liked to bring home were too large or heavy.  There was a heavy emphasis on wreaths – for doors and tables – greenery embellished with red berries and nuts and spices and  quartered oranges etc.  The Advent Wreath is big here too – table wreath with four large candles, which are lit progressively as the four Sundays of Advent pass.  Some were quite spectacular.  And they were really selling. 

   

I made my first acquaintance with St Nicholas.  He was wandering about, dressed up like an Archbishop, handing out sweets to the children.  One little girl solemnly refused a sweet, saying he had already given her one - obviously out to make the right impression for Christmas.
St Nicholas was accompanied by a small person in sackcloth and ashes who trailed behind and looked miserable (as you would of course). This was a mystery to me, but well solved by Wikipedia.  He is the sinner, to show what happens if you are not good, I suppose.  Must keep things in perspective. 


Musical diversion was provided by four trumpeters – of the type usually seen out on the hunt.  They set themselves up on opposite sides of the square, and played antiphonally, though, it has to be said, not very tunefully.  Flamboyant costumes did compensate somewhat. 


I love seeing how babies are rugged up here for the winter.  There are all sorts of garment arrangements to keep them warm.  Dogs also do well.  They have graduated from baby breast slings in the summer to leather shoulder satchels lined with fur.  Just a little head peeking out the top. 

 Oh, And HATS!!!



And just for interest – last night our very own City Homicide popped up on the TV, dubbed in French.  Such comedy!

Saturday, November 19, 2011

A Week's Worth


It has been a few days since the last post. We were blessed with one beautiful sunny day last Saturday, and headed into Strasbourg again. This time Chablis and the fly kept our minds focussed, and managed to get lunch and coffee times correct.  Lunch at a little place that serves the best soup and ‘tartines’.  Fly had cauliflower soup.  Who would ever have thought that could be divine? Fly also bought new shoes – they are lace-ups like the ones the nuns used to wear, only more saucy, which are very fashionable now.  (Things are accumulating here - already consulting the rules re overweight baggage at QANTAS).  

The Grands Crus tasting at Kientzheim Chateau on Sunday did not disappoint.  The setting was magnificent – three huge rooms, all thick timber beams and pink stone, in the Chateau,   which is now the premises of the Association of Alsatian wine-growers.  The walls of the stairwells were hung with large portraits of the various presidents, decked out in  religious-looking regalia with a huge gold chain of office – like our own Lord Mayor wears when dressing up. 


For an entrance fee of 10 we each received a tasting glass  inscribed with Vins d’Alsace and a book listing all the growers and the wines and the type of soil in the field in which the varieties were grown etc.  There was a full page for writing comments for each wine.  Chablis was ecstatic.  She tasted everything and made copious notes.  Fly wrote “too sweet” against a Gewurtztraminer, upset a wine-grower by using the word “sharp” with reference to the wine,  and then became absorbed in observing the somewhat ungraceful art of using the spittoon.  It soon became apparent that there is a degree of one-up-man-ship going on – who can hit the spot from furthest away.  Spittoons here are in themselves art pieces.  I would love to bring one home, but too heavy. 

There was a very hail-fellow-well-met atmosphere amongst these grands crus wine-makes.  Our friend Deiss was there and Chablis had a long talk with his son. (Son has spent time in South Australia working the vintage with one of the big names there .)  He really does have huge status in the industry here – when we moved from the Deiss stand to another, the woman was embarrassed about our tasting her wines directly after the Deiss.  Even though her vineyard itself has grand cru status. (It is the vineyard that has the grand cru appellation). 
No cheese was provided, too much competition for the taste buds I suppose.  But there were baskets of thinly sliced bread to nibble for clearing the palate.
There was one notable chap, very tall, stalking around in a driza-bone and outback hat (only person in the place who did not remove his hat).  I could not determine if he was Australian – he was speaking perfectly fluent French. 

The Peugeot took to the German autobahns again on Monday, driving Chablis up to Heidelberg.  She will leave for home from Frankfurt later in the week. Heidelberg is just a beautiful city, situated on the Neckar River, with its Schloss keeping watch from the hillside above the town.  It has been in a state of disrepair, but there is restoration work going on.  I watched one poor workman trying to lay stones to rebuild a round tower, in the -2 degree temperatures.  There were students on bicycles in all the cobbled streets.  It must be an idyllic place to study. 


On Wednesday, the fly and the Peugeot tackled Switzerland.  It was a quick trip, to check out the airport at Zurich.  Flyspring No 2 arrives there next week, and it seemed a good idea to find out how things work there.  Zurich is only a couple of hours from here on the autoroutes.  A surprise at the border however – a fee of 40 was required to “drive on the autobahns”.  Toll-roads have been encountered before, but usually about 4-8.  Some surprise, but then some relief, when the woman stuck a little electronic tag inside the windscreen and said that would last until January.  One feels an obligation to drive around Swiss autobahns a bit to get the money’s worth. 
The chocolate box imagery of Switzerland has evaporated. The country appeared to consist of autobahns and tunnels.  It seemed that as much time was spent underground as above.  Massive system, all very efficient and well signed.  Found the airport and located the arrivals area etc and got out again very smoothly.  A slight misunderstanding  involving  fly, the Swiss signage, and the Voice resulted in the peugot travelling through Basel instead of past it. Then into St Louis, which is really the other half of Basel, but in France, and then eventually back onto the French autoroute, which felt like coming home! 

Another trip to Strasbourg on Friday.  Messages day.  Tickets to London for a week in December, when fly and Flyspring No2 will meet up there.  Post Office to send home some packages.  Again, surprise to find that it costs much more to send goods to Australia from Strasbourg than it did from Amboise.  The postal service looks as though it is national – same livery etc here as in Amboise.  But a parcel of the same weight cost 40 from Amboise and 70 from Strasbourg.  Odd.  

The soup shop again.  Broccoli soup, but made with coconut milk.  Too sweet.  
They are still decorating the Christmas Tree in Kleber Square - week 3 now. And in the Cathedral Square a huge covered stage has appeared, where a Christmas Show was being reheared.  Visitors wanting to get a good shot of the front facade of the Cathedral in the next two months will be frustrated. 
And finally, the University Library.  To find it is closed, undergoing a major facelift.  No doubt the collection and staff are distributed across various other university locations.  It is a wonderful building and will be magnificent when finished.
The Place de la Republique, onto which the Library faces, is the site of four of the most stunning trees in autumn foliage that I have seen.  Beyond magnificent.  Quite transcendent.



Friday, November 11, 2011

11-11-11

Armistice Day.  France is closed for the day.

Food and wine


A day of gastronomic excellence. The focus of the day, on setting out at about 11.30, was to visit the winery of Marcel Deiss, in Bestheim, about  which, apparently,  people speak and write only in superlatives.  We stopped by the craft shop in Itterswiller that fly has previously visited, and were distracted by the cost warmth of the adjacent restaurant, and encouraged by the carloads of people pulling up to go in.  It was the best lunch ever. Pumpkin soup to rival my previous best (enjoyed on the west coast of Tasmania), and then the ultimate Onion Tart.  Chablis had the onion tart as starter, and then steak, perfectly seared, with a potato gratin.  Not being the driver, she was able to have a pinot gris with the tart, and a pinot noir with the steak.  Fly, being the driver, had to be content with inhaling the aromas.  

Perhaps the aromas were too much, or maybe it was just overconfidence, but we did get a little lost on the way to Bestheim, and although the detour was a pleasant drive, it was nearly three when we arrived at Marcel Deiss. 

It lived up to Chablis’ expectations.  Even fly enjoyed the ritual of tasting, which was conducted by Florian, and facilitated by  pictures and videos on a plasma TV on the wall to show which particular vineyards the fruit came from for which wines. (Engelgarten (Angel garden), Altenberg, etc - they all have names, which is then the name of the wine.)  And also, with a bit of practice, fly is appreciating the aromas and tastes.  My favourite, of which I bought a bottle for Christmas lunch, as it is said to be perfect with poulet, was the Schoffweg (see below).  Note description of the terroir on which the grape is grown - very important in this winery.


The last three wines we tasted were blends of several varieties. Chablis asked Florian how they decide which varieties to include in a blend, and was surprised by his response – the variety is not critical, what matters is where they are grown. So a number of varieties, but all grown in the same terroir, are included in a blend.  The blend is the expression of the terroir. Chablis bought a bottle of the Schoenenb0urg to take home, about which the current Deiss (don’t know how many generations there have been), wrote: The production of this wine is a milestone in my life as a wine-grower and marks a break with the variety-over-terroir dominance under which the Alsace region has suffered so greatly for the past 100 years.  Jean-Michel Deiss  (Pic) 


This is a somewhat iconoclastic viewpoint apparently.  Chablis took quite a while to mull it over, here education and training so far having emphasised the importance of variety, but is beginning to think that maybe there is a thesis topic here.  

Then Florian gave us the good news that on Sunday there is an event at the Chateau of Kientzheim where of all the grands crus of Alsace bring their wines for tasting. Chablis was absolutely ecstatic, such a golden opportunity.  So she has changed her plans to go back to Germany before flying out from Frankfurt next week, and we are off to the grands crus tasting on Sunday.  Even fly is excited.

It was pitch-dark and still foggy when we left Deiss, though only 5.15pm.  Something was happening around that part of Alsace, as we saw several flashing blue lights of the gendarmerie; and in one village we were stopped at a road-block.  Very handsome gendarme checked my licences (Australian and international) and my car papers (ownership and insurance),  but I think it was the French delivered in an Australian accent that convinced him we were not the do-bads they were after.  We were dismissed.

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Shopping with Chablis


It was another misty grey day, but for those shopping in Strasbourg, this was of no account.  We did shoes and hats and cashmere cardigans.  There were some perplexities.  When we tried to have coffee at 12.15 we were told no, we had to eat a meal, it was lunch time.  Later, at another place, when we did want to eat, we were told no, it is too late to eat now, you can have a coffee.
But the shoes and hats and cashmere compensated for these hiccups.  First picture shows fly wearing a new hat (beret really) , standing near the Cathedral.  Second picture shows fly and Chablis, both in hats.