Blogs from Alsace, France, Europe - page 14

Hi, We are halfway through our trip and spending a week in Obernai, Alsace, a delightful German-style French town on the Route des Vins between Strasbourg and Colmar. We have had a wonderful tour of Germany and I will report on it too now that we have paused to take a break and once I get my photos downloaded and sorted.! Our daughter Louise who lives in London will join us here for a few days which will be lovely. Weather:mild spring, Food fabulous: cheeses, cheeses, cheeses and terrines, asparagus, vins régionaux, gateaux, berries, .... Weight gain is almost balanced by the walking we have been doing! Yesterday we did a 2 hour hike between 2 ruined chateaux-forts and we do enjoy wandering the villages just to see the historic or the picturesque views. We are ... read more

My day of freedom finally came on Friday when as scheduled, I went over to Colmar to see Daniele, the English teacher from school. Her holidays had been worse spent than mine and she was clearly full of bitterness, hurt and sadness, making conversation with her sometimes difficult and I found myself constantly praying for protection around myself against the negativity emanating from her. I began to think that perhaps it had been a mistake to do something with her, getting the impression that she wasn't really in the mood to enjoy herself. But God puts certain people in our path for a reason, right? We headed off from Colmar to a small picteresque town called Riquewihr. On the way we stopped at a war memorial for the Allied Forces which acts as a great look-out ... read more

I had told myself that the Easter holidays would be used for getting out, exploring and actually doing something rather than staying in the rural, dull and secluded world of Rimlishof. It's funny how quickly we forget the Proverbs which says "We can make plans in our mind but it's the Lord who decides what we shall do." God had clearly decided that I would be staying in the rural, dull and secluded world of Rimlishof and on top of that, I would undertake fille-au pair duties. What fun..... As Laetitia was still pregnant when I got back from Switzerland, we waited still for the arrival of the new baby. And we waited.....and waited.....in the meantime Laetitia was back and forwards to the hospital and the midwife. On Friday, I spent a stressful hour or two ... read more

In stark contrast to the previous week, this week has been busy and fun, the highlight being my afternoon out with Lydie, my French teacher. After doing the round of cleaning at school, we headed off to the picturesque Alsacian town of Kysersberg. As we descended the road into the town, I was delighted to notice what looked like a medieval look-out tower with a stork perched in its nest on top - a real stork! This time I would definitely take a photo! It was certainly a very pretty town, typical of Alsace with its brightly coloured buildings, shuttered windows and quaint little streets. We wondered or rather huffed and puffed our way up to a medieval castle which gave a great view over the rest of the town. We then explored the rest of ... read more

Yesterday afternoon, as agreed I went down to Rachel's so that we could 'get bored together'. This commenced by watching Mansfield Park from Laetitia's Jane Austen dvd box set with Rachel making sarcastic comments all the way through, completely robbing it of its seriousness but I guess it made it more fun to watch and gave it a hint of reality so that at the end, rather than sighing wistfully at the romantic, happy-ever-after ending, we laughed mockingly and thought silently 'Yeah, like that ever happens in real life.' After the dvd we put on some face masks from the goody box which Aida had given me for my birthday. It was good fun and gave us another opportunity to laugh, distracting us from other depressing thoughts. I suggested we end our afternoon together by going ... read more