Pick, Pick, Pick, Drink, Eat & Repeat!

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2/10/05 - 7/10/05 Encore à Alsace

Arriving in Strasbourg was a relief in many ways. Paris is a wonderful city, but after seven days we are in need of some relative peace. We were only in Strasbourg one afternoon, night and morning, before collecting our lease car. Our hotel had huge rooms, which was a surprise, but unfortunately next morning we found out there was no hot water. So, you can imagine how impressed we were (especially Lorenza). We collected our brand, spanking new, Renault Scenic and made it to Niedermorschwihr without causing any major traffic incidents. Although I am sure the red coloured, tourist plates on the car scream a warning to keep well clear of our vehicle!

Niedermorschwihr

(Try saying that village name to a taxi driver when you are drunk! “Driver, please take me to …….”)

We arrived to a warm welcome from Jean, Beatrice, Jean-Frédéric and Nellie. The grape harvest was on pause due to the rain so we had a chance to chat and eat a lovely lunch. It is wonderful to see them again and they are our hosts while we are in Alsace.

For those who do not know my family history, the French (once German, then French again) province of Alsace was the home of my Great, Great Grandfather (his name was Gustavus). So, it is an oddly familiar place to us in many ways. Gustav had a brother Daniel, who was at one stage the Mayor of the Alsacien town of Colmar. Enough of the history lesson, I can hear you all yawning!

We also visited our cousins Pierre and Eliane. Together with Uncle Robert, Pierre and his wife Claudine as well as Eliane and her husband Claude, we dined with them at Chez Hansi in Colmar. Chez Hansi is a traditional Alsacienne restaurant and the chef’s wife is very, very friendly and was happy to again welcome Monsieur and Madame Kangaroo to her restaurant. We had a wonderful evening sharing good food and wine. Lorenza and I were amazed that Claudine did not produce her bag of magic tricks at the table; she must have been on her best behavior (more on this later).

Picking, Picking, Picking

Lorenza and I spent two days working in Jean’s family vineyard, together with a very international team of volunteers. In the lines of grape vines the group conversed in a mixture if French, German, English and Alsacien, plus a little Italian and Dutch of all else failed!

We commenced at 8am (which was just after first light here) and continued until about 6.30pm. At midday, the village church bell told us it was time to return for lunch. We started with a taste of the new wine and then last years vintage, over lunch we had Pinot Blanc or Pinot Noir, followed by a variety of different Schnapps, plus some very wonderful food prepared by Beatrice and Nellie.

The combination of the food and the drinks made it very hard to return to the vineyard after lunch and the grapes were much harder to find for the first 10 minutes or so. But, soon the conversation got going again, as did the snip, snip, snip of the cutting. By the end of two days we were both suffering from “pickers back” and in need of a soak in a warm bath.

The people that formed our picking team were wonderful, very hard workers, and always willing to share a joke and a drink! It is a great experience, but I am not sure how long my back will last!!! I think in our first day our small group hand picked 3 tonne of grapes. Which is small pickings for a professional team, but I thought a big effort from great bunch of volunteers (pardon the puns).

From the picking we also know an expression in three languages which is very useful “alice is good” in German, “alice is gert” in Alsacien or “ça va” in French, which all roughly translate to the Australian expression “she’s right mate”. The other all important term required was “seau” which is French for bucket, as in “deux seau”, meaning “I have two filled buckets with grapes, give me two empties so I can carry on picking”.

Something else of interest was that the different grape varieties grow slightly different, for example, the Sylvaner grow very close to the stem and are a bugger to pick, whereas the red grapes hang in big bunches toward the end of the vines and almost fall into the bucket by themselves.

Thanks to Jean for the experience and also to Jean-Frédéric for not using the “fouet” on us too often!

Haut Cuisine - L’Auberge de l’Ill

We dined at one of France’s finest restaurants, with Pierre, Claudine and Uncle Robert. L’Auberge de l’Ill is listed in the top 50 restaurants of the world. The menu included cuisine such as - La terrine de foie grass truffée, La coquille St-Jacques sur un risotto à la crème d’oursin, La côtelette de pigeon au chou et aux truffes.

I was very grateful to my French tutor Karima that I knew what coquille St-Jacques was, so naturally that was one of the things I ordered. The food was amazing, the service six star and the wine was magnificent.

The company was something else, Claudine did not fail us and produced her bag of magic tricks, such as a jar of mustard out of which pops a snake like item, a wind up penis, and many others. I am not sure that the other patrons appreciated her humor, but the staff certainly seemed to enjoy it, as did we.

It was a wonderful evening and one we will not forget for a very long time, many thanks to Pierre and Claudine for helping us experience such fine cuisine.

A few days before dining there, we had been given a tour of the kitchen and premises by the owners, plus had café crème with them and chatted about Australia, Alsace and the history of the restaurant. They may own an amazing establishment, but they are also very friendly and down to earth people.

8/10/05 - The Painter Who Boxes

Mulhouse is a half hour drive from Niedermorschwihr and I think is the second largest city in Alsace (Strasbourg the largest, then Colmar, then Mulhouse?). Mulhouse is also the home of our good friend Pascale Cuvelier. Pascale is a painter and also an exponent of la Boxe Française. You can see some examples of her work by clicking the link to her site ... Pascale's Website

Pascale welcomed us at her apartment and introduced us to her friend, life coach and English translator, Mareva (I hope I have spelt that correctly). Aside from wanting to meet up with Pascale, we also had to discuss some ideas we have for organizing an exhibition of her work sometime in the not too distant future. So, we had a lot to discuss. Plus, we now have a lot more research and planning to undertake when we return to Australia.

We set a rough plan for our next actions for the exhibition planning and went to lunch at a café in the town centre. Following a good meal and conversation, we dropped by the FCM Boxe Française Gym where Pascale trains, to say “bonjour” to Rachil Merabit, the head of the gym. It was good to see him again and we hope to catch up for some drinks with him and some fellow members of the gym later this month.

Pascale and Mareva survived my driving and we made it safely back to her apartment. There I collected some Savate combat canes I had ordered and were delivered to her address. It was great to catch up with Pascale, rather than swapping email messages and also to meet Mareva.

Tonight is our cousin, Caroline’s 30th Birthday Party and we are hoping she will enjoy our gift. More on this later, with some photos.

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Photos

Alsacien view
The view from our home away from home

Chez Hansi
Dinner with petite cousines

Picking
Rob actually doing some work

Pressing
Old fashioned method for personal cellar of Jean

Eau de Vie
The water of life

Comments

[Cousin Sue]

I did warn you about the afternoon Shift!!