Alsatian Villages

 

The town hall in Barr

Last week I took you to Strasbourg, and today we're traveling on from there deeper into Alsace. This region is characterized by charming villages and large vineyards - and a very eventful history when the region belonged to France and then to German states and then to France again and then to the German Reich (1871) and so on and on. Since the end of World War II it has been part of France, however, with their own local law in certain areas that differs significantly from the rest of France. Germanic and French influences are blended; today, most Alsatians speak French, but you still hear a lot of German as well as Alsatian which is an Alemannic dialect closely related to Swabian (and therefore, not unfamiliar to me). German is taught already in kindergarten in Alsace, and German elementary kids east of the Rhine in that area learn French. 

We first stopped in Barr, a small town with cobblestone streets, charming timber frame houses and narrow alleys.

One of the streets was decorated overhead with a long line of colorful butterflies. We couldn't find out what was the reason for this, so we simply enjoyed it.

One of the windows for a wine shop was decorated with decals that showed the traditional costume of the region. It bears some similarity with the traditional costume that is worn in the Black Forest (Germany has more traditional clothing beside Dirndl and Lederhosen).

We followed the Route de Vins d'Alsace which meandered along backroads and, at least for the first part, didn't touch any of the more famous places. We were pretty much on our own in the small towns and villages we visited.

We first drove through Dambach-la-Ville and then decided to stop and explore the sleepy little town a little bit more. It is bordered by two old town gates.

Again, we walked along narrow alleys, crossed beautiful squares and saw many old buildings. There was almost no one out there - it was siesta time. We had all the time in the world to explore this charming little place.

Beautiful archways were almost everywhere that allowed views into courtyards, small doors in old walls, pretty windows with shutters (and the shutter holders I had written about earlier), and fountains made out of barrels.

These two windows were in the basement where the cellar is. We are not quite sure what the function of these openings are. They are too high for shoving coals in the cellar for heating in the winter; maybe they are there for air ciculation in a root cellar.

We discovered little details everywhere.

We finally reached the upper town gate and saw who made their home on top of it. When I think of Alsace, I always think of storks as well.

The last time I had seen storks was in 2018 in Turkey, so I was very happy to see some again. 

Eventually we went back to the parking lot right next to the old town wall.

The wine - an Alsatian rosé - was delicious after all the exploring. With this, I cheer to the T gang that comes together for T Tuesday that is so generously hosted by Elizabeth and Bleubeard.

Tree Woman

 

On the fifth and last day of her "Between Roots and Rings" challenge, Melanie Rivers asked us to draw a 'tree woman'. She gave us a reference photo of an old woman she found on Pinterest, and of course I cannot find that anymore. However, I can tell you that the graphite drawing of my woman doesn't bear any similarity to the woman in the photo. I was struggling with this and found it hard to draw an old woman.

I'm linking this to Nicole's Friday Face Off.

And just because, I'm sharing another face, one that is so much lovelier - sweet Otis. The photo was taken by the Geek.

Have a wonderful weekend, everybody, and stay cool.

Between Roots and Rings

 

Last week I participated in a 5 day creative challenge that Melanie Rivers hosted. These were very short challenges that could be done in less than 30 minutes, sometimes as short as 10 minutes, but of course if you wanted to spend 2 hours on one challenge, you could do that as well. The general subject was "trees".

We started out in creating four backgrounds (I forgot to take a photo of the fourth one) with torn papers, gesso and some paint or ink. That was the first challenge. In the second one we collected words and made a "poem" - oh well, mine isn't a poem after all, but just snippets that fit my mood at that time.

No. 3 included a photo - maybe you recognize this picture from my "Tree Face" post. I combined it with a beautiful quote that I have loved for a long time.

On Day 4 we were asked to draw a tree. Melanie encouraged us to find the picture of a tree on Pinterest or in a magazine. I took one of my own photos of my favorite tree at the lake. I used a graphite aquarelle pencil by Faber Castell.

My drawing does not resemble the original very much, but who cares?

This is for Rain's Thursday Art and Dinner Date - and of course we'll have food, too.

While we were in Alsace, we ate some of their local, but also more widely known French food. There are little restaurants everywhere that have lovely patios where you can eat and avoid the crowds inside.

Soup d'oignon - onion soup - is a very typical first course that is well known all over France. So far I was never able to make a really good one myself (you know, one that actually tastes "French").

One of the popular Alsatian dishes is Flammekueche (tarte flambée) which you can get in all kinds of variation. The original Flammekueche is with ham, onions and crème fraîche (left). The one in the middle has onions, pesto and escargots and on the right mushrooms are added as well.

A typical meal in a French restaurant has at least three courses, so what about dessert? Of course I had to have mousse au chocolat (right) which is my favorite. One evening I ordered a chocolat Liégois (left) - it was huge and I couldn't finish it. Good thing Kaefer was there to help me!

Which ones of the desserts would you have ordered?

Crossing the Border

 

After nine days in Munich, we left the city for our mini road trip during which we crossed into several European countries. Our first destination was Alsace where we planned to spend a few days. On our way there we decided to stop for lunch in Tübingen, my old stomping grounds.

I moved to Tübingen after I had graduated from high school in order to study at the university. Tübingen is a mediaval town with narrow alleys and hidden corners, all of which I got to know and love so well during the 22 years I lived there. I was very lucky that pretty soon after graduating with a master's degree I found a job in a town nearby. I commuted for many years because I simply didn't want to leave Tübingen. Coming back after so many years to a town that will always have a special place in my heart was a bit weird - and interesting. The routing of streets was as odd as it was more than 20 years ago and thus felt very familiar. Some well-loved pubs and restaurants weren't there any longer; in their place I saw modern shops that no one seemd to visit. One of the restaurants where I used to spend many lovely times was still operating and this is where we had our lunch.

Through the Black Forest we made it to Strasbourg where we first checked in our hotel that we had booked some time during the day and then took the tram to the city center. Other than in Munich where almost everyone wore masks in public transportation, France behaved like there never was a pandemic. Only a couple other people and ourselves were the only ones who wore masks in the rather crowded tram. Clearly, no one cared about COVID anymore. My daughter - the budding epidemiologist - was not impressed.

The famous cathedral is visible from almost everywhere.

Strasbourg, located right on the border between Germany and France, is a cosmopolitan city through and through. It is the largest city of the Grand Est region of Eastern France and the official seat of the European Parliament. The most attractive part of course is the historic city center, the Grande Île (Large Island), which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. As the name suggests, it is an island that is surrounded by the main channel of the Ill River on one side and by the Canal du Faux-Rempart on the other side. Strasbourg lies on the Rhine which is the bordering river between France and Germany.

We spent most of the evening on the Grande Île, wandering along the streets and narrow alleys. It was a warm evening and many people were out and about. 

The Cathédrale Notre Dame de Strasbourg or Strasbourg Minster is an impressive old building of outstanding Gothic architecture. The cathedral is the sixth-tallest church in the world (the tallest one is the Minster in Ulm, Germany) with just one octagonal tower instead of the originally envisioned two spires. Here is the west front with its spectacular rose window and gallery of the apostles:

The Place de la Cathédrale was busy with restaurants getting ready to welcome dinner guests.

We weren't ready for dinner yet, but preferred to walk around a bit more, looking for the famous "La Petite France", probably the most touristy spot in the city, but beautiful.

I enjoyed looking at the old houses and finding pretty little nooks and niches (the pots on the balcony are of the famous Betschdorf pottery industry).

Or weird shop window displays... (I couldn't resist taking this picture!)

We eventually had dinner and just enjoyed the lively atmosphere before we headed back to the hotel. It had been a long day.

The next morning we found a little street café where we had an excellent breakfast with wonderful coffee and very tasty bread, butter and homemade jam. This is my ticket for T Tuesday that Elizabeth is hosting every week. After that breakfast we headed further into Alsace (more posts to come).

 

Hardware Faces

No, it's not the doll's face that I want to write about in today's Friday Face Off, hosted by Nicole. Look at the bottom of the shutters - do you see these little dark... uhm, things?

These are shutter holders or shutter hardware, designed to keep the shutters open and attached to the wall when not in use, i.e. shut closed in front of the window. Other than American shutters on houses that only have a decorative purpose, these shutters are supposed to be shut when it gets dark so no one can look into your rooms. During hot days they also keep the sun and heat out when closed. You can find them everywhere in Southern European countries and in some parts of Germany, especially the South and Southwest.

But these ones are not just any kind of shutter holders. These are heads with faces. 

They are a wonderful little addition to the lovely shutters that make all these houses a little bit more special. I discovered them in May while we were in Alsace.

Abstracts and Clafoutis

 

Yesterday we were without Internet almost the entire day, so I wasn't able to post anything. It was actually a nice change not to be at the computer, but instead I worked in the garden, started knitting a hat for my Etsy shop and finished reading my book.

In July I joined the online Artist Soul Retreat that Laly Mille hosted, one of my favorite artists. It was mainly about abstracts and since Laly likes to work in series, we did that as well. When I had done my first few layers I felt that this wasn't my cup of tea. I didn't know where this would go and this was the moment that I walked away from my four "abstracts".

I came back to them several days later and decided I would go a different direction, leave the idea of "abstract" behind and add some images. I felt much better with that and started to like my little creations. The last touch was, of course, birds.

Even though I didn't create "abstracts", this was an interesting experiment and a good learning process. I was a bit surprised as well since I had seen a video by Laly about abstract landscapes that I loved and created my own landscapes. This one, however, was very different.

On to some sweet stuff for Rain's Thursday Art and Dinner Date! In last week's TADD I showed you the photo of a clafoutis that I had made when my neighbor gave me plums from her garden. Well, she gave me more after that and I was looking for a different recipe for a clafoutis. I found a gluten free one - it is with cherries, but you can use other fruit as well. I think this would also work with apricots, peaches, even strawberries. I altered the recipe a bit, I didn't use brandy and instead of almond flour and almond milk I used regular APF and dairy milk. I did add a teaspoon of almond extract to the batter to get the almond flavor. You can find the recipe here.

You will need:

After you have halved the plums and removed the pits, put them in the bottom of a greased cast iron pan or baking dish. Preheat the oven to 350 F.

Make the batter and pour it over the plums. Please note that I am still using my faithful Krups hand mixer from Germany. I have been using it for 30 years. I think the 3Mix is one of the most well-known hand mixers in Germany. I'm so glad I brought it with me to the US (I have a step up and down transformer so I can use it here).

Bake the clafoutis for 60-70 minutes until it is no longer jiggly in the center. Let it cool a bit and then enjoy!