St Pourçain

Chez Georgette

Aujourd'hui, lundi 30 aout, Robert, Josette, Lena et moi sommes allés à St Pourçain (Allier) rendre visite à Georgette Thomas. St Pourcain m'est très proche au coeur, déjà c'est là où ma mère est née, et aussi où mes grands parents habitaient. Jusqu'à mon départ aux Etats Unis en 1996, j'allais y passer 2 ou 3 semaines chaque été, aussi j'en ai d'excellents souvenirs. Georgette est la belle soeur de ma grand mère maternelle, elle est d'une grande gentillesse. Nous lui avons fait la surprise d'une visite, elle ne m'avait pas vue depuis plusieurs années, pareil pour Lena. En partant, nous avons fait un petit tour sur les quais de la Ronde (jardin, jeux pour les enfants, passage de la Sioule) où Lena et moi nous sommes bien amusées.

Motorcycle ride

Today, my cousin Renaud and his girlfriend Jessica stopped by for a visit. He has a motorcycle Yamaha FZ1 (1000 cm cubic) and since the weather was beautiful today, we drove around the area. Jessica also has a motorcycle, she got her permit 2 years ago and bought her first bike (Yamaha FZ6, 600 cm cubic) last summer, so she's still very carefull. Renaud, who has been riding for 6 years, is an excellent driver. As we were cruising from villages to villages and were nearing the highway, he asked me if I was afraid of speed. I told him to go for it as I loved speed. Also I have total confidence in him, so it wasn't a problem for me. So off we went and reached a speed of 215 km/hour (133 mile/hour), what a feeling! You do realize how fast it goes, but when you trust the driver, it's such a rush of adrenaline! The important thing is you shouldn't move an inch!

Grenier family



Titisee, Germany

 Yesterday, I spent a few hours with my cousin Sebastien, his wife Sandra and their adorable daughter Emma. Luise and I drove to Titisee (a lake in the southern Black Forest) to meet them all in the morning. After a quick walk by the lake and a coffee, I had to part with Luise and said goodbye. I enjoyed the hour drive to Mulhouse seated next to Emma who talked to me the whole time (she'll be 4 years old in November), she's very chatty! We had lunch in a restaurant in Mulhouse and went to their cozy house in Reiningue (in Alsace), I had never seen it. End afternoon, Sebastien drove me to Beaune (Emma and Sandra stayed home as Emma needed to take a nap) to meet with my uncle Robert (Sebastien's father) and aunt Josette. We visited for a while before hitting the road to Clermont Ferrand, we arrived at 10pm, starved!

Goodbye Germany, bonjour la France !

Well, today was my last day in Germany... I'll be going to central France to visit my uncle (my mom's brother) Robert and my aunt Josette. I'm so excited as I will first see my cousin Sebastien, his wife Sandra and their 3 and a half year old daughter Emma, I have not seen them in 3 years, Emma was just a baby! They live in Alsace, near Mulhouse and they're picking me up near Fribourg, Germany in the morning and will drive me to their house (which is also new to me). Then they'll drive me to Beaune in France where we'll meet with his dad (Robert) and Josette. Finally, end afternoon, I'll go home with them in central France: Clermont Ferrand (home of Michelin factory). I had such a great time in Germany with Eugen & Luise who are great hosts, I've seen so many things and did so much with them. I am so thankful to have such a wonderful family.

Hike in Switzerland

Yesterday, I went with a group of ladies to Toggenburg, a large mountain range in the Swiss canton of St Gallen. We took the bus which drove us to the city of Alt St Johann, located at an elevation of 895 meter (2936 ft). There, we took a chairlift and enjoyed a beautiful and smooth ride to the Sellamatt station, 1390 meter (4560 ft). We had an extraordinary view of the Säntis, famous mountain as it is the tallest mountain in the Alpstein massif of north-eastern Switzerland; at 2,500 meters (8200 ft) above sea level.  The panorama from the summit is known to be spectacular. Six countries can be seen if the weather allows: Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Lichtenstein, France and Italy. Of course, we didn’t go there, one must be in excellent fitness condition to hike to this giant peak! From Sellamatt, we followed a path called “Klangweg” for 4 hours till we reached a very small village called Oberdorf. Along the way were set several forms of sound instruments that one could try and play; for example bells, pipes, flipper, horns, etc… There were also so many cows, free to roam the mountain, we enjoyed the sound of their bells.  We stopped for lunch after a couple of hours, ready to eat our sandwiches or whatever we had prepared at home. One lady even had the great idea of bringing a small bottle of Schnapps, so we all could drink a small shot glass to bring new energy! Which we needed, because it was pretty hot in the afternoon, even in the mountain. We later came across 2 small tiny lakes “Schwendiseen”, one of them we saw several people swimming in. From Oberdorf, we started walking back down the mountain where the bus waited for us in the city of Wildhaus, 1090 meter (3576 ft). We were all pretty exhausted but certainly enjoyed this wonderful day.

Lindau island

Port entrance with the light house and Bavarian lion sculpture

Today, my grand aunt and I took the train to Lindau, a bavarian town and an island on the eastern side of Lake Constance, located near the meeting point of the Austrian, German and Swiss borders. There are many ways to discover Lindau; stroll through the charming old town center and admire the old city hall, pay a visit to the beautiful harbor entrance with its 33 meter light house and the Bavarian Lion sculpture (the heraldic animal of Bavaria), take a boat to Bregenz, Austria which is just across the bay or buy souvenirs from the main shopping street Maximilianstraße. By nightfall Lindau starts to glow and shows another, very romantic face. Around 6.000 lights illuminate the harbor and turn it into the backdrop of a fairy tale, but also the skillful restored architectural jewels of the town cast their magical spell on any visitor.

King Ludwig II castles

During my short stay in the Bavaria region, I visited one of King Ludwig II castles: the world famous Neuschwanstein. It was commenced by Ludwig II in 1868 high above his father's Hohenschwangau Castle (which I also visited) in the area he knew so well, and was never actually completed as he died while it was still only a construction site. It was opened to the paying public immediately after his death in 1886. Since then over 60 million people have visited Neuschwanstein Castle. More than 1.3 million people visit annually, with up to 6,000 per day in the summer. I heard so many Americans, Japanese, Chinese, Italian! The palace has appeared prominently in several movies and was the inspiration for Disneyland's Sleeping Beauty Castle. Due to the great number of visitors, the tours through the castle are relatively short (30 minutes) and only a few rooms are being shown. I greatly recommend the visit of both castles (Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau), the walk between the two is about 20 minutes. You may stand in line to get your ticket for more than an hour (I was in line for 1.15hr) if you didn't purchase online, but it's truly worth it. The wealth, the paintings directly on the walls (they saved money on frames) and the heritage of these castles are breathtaking. http://www.neuschwanstein.de/englisch/palace/index.htm

Another day in paradise

We have been blessed this week with the weather and today was particularely wonderful, a sunny 28C/83F day with little white clouds, and a little warm breeze. So this afternoon, as my grand aunt was preparing our pizza for dinner, I grabbed my Zune MP3 player and went for an hour walk around the area. I've often been on this stroll, the area around here is just absolutely georgious; fields and forests, hills with beautiful view of the Hohentwiel. Today I passed many people; walking, jogging, biking, walking their dogs. All were very friendly and relaxed, everytime I passed someone, we exchanged the typical southern Germany greeting "Grüss Gott" (salute from God). As I returned home, I was welcomed back with a delicious salami pizza!

Trüsche dinner



 Another great and unique meal this evening. Eugen had gone to the fisherman's shop in Switzerland a couple weeks ago, which is located right on the border between the rhine river and the lake Constance. Eugen was ecstatic when he saw two beautiful big Trüschen. He told me they are very hard to get and seldom available at the fisherman's, therefore bought the both of them right away. The Trüschen, aka Quappe, is a freshwater fish that is only found in Lake Constance. These two were big enough for the 3 of us. We enjoyed them with a french sparkling wine (Vendome Blanc de Blanc). Prima !

Reichenau island

Vegetable farming

Today Monday, August 8th, Luise and I went to the Reichenau island, which lies in Lake Constance. From the main land, one drives on a beautiful tree-lined road to reach the island. We parked the car by the famous St George church and took a stroll on the island. They are a huge amount of vegetable farms there.

Escargots

My first post about food, call me Deven! If you know my friend Deven and follow his Facebook page, you'll understand my comment. Anyway, today Eugen & Luise served escargots for dinner, they were delicious!! With that, we enjoyed a good bottle of the local wine Hohentweil; a tasty white wine from the hills of Olgaberg. Mahlzeit!

Hop yard

Hop field

Today, we drove to Ittingen in Switzerland and visited a small village near a small hop field. Germany is the number one producer of hops in the world, the US come second! For those of you who are not familiar with hops (I wasn't until today), they are the female flower clusters of a hop species. They are used primarily as a flavoring and stability agent in beer, to which they impart a bitter, tangy flavor, though hops are also used for various purposes in other beverages and herbal medicine.

Black Forest

Yesterday, Monday August 1st, we drove through a small part of the Black Forest, a wooded mountain range in Baden-Wurttember. It is bordered by the Rhine valley to the west and south. The name Schwarzwald (Black Forest) goes back to the Romans who referred to the thickly forested mountains there as Silva Nigra , i.e. "Black Forest," because the dense growth of conifers in the forest blocked out most of the light inside the forest. Wood-carving is a traditional cottage industry in the region and carved ornaments now are produced in substantial numbers as souvenirs for tourists. The cuckoo clocks are a popular example; they have been made in the region since the early eighteenth century and much of their development occurred there. The Black Forest ham and the Black Forest cake both originated from this region. We stopped in Baden Baden where we enjoyed a cup of coffee and piece of cake.

Marie & Hans Schuster

Avec les Schuster & Hofer

Pour la famille. Dimanche 31 juillet, nous sommes alles voir Marie & Hans. Marie est la soeur de Eugen et de Josephine. Ils habitent toujours Engelsbrand en Foret Noire, encore dans l'appartement derriere la petite boucherie. Ils etaient tres contents de nous revoir. Moi, cela faisait au moins 20 ans que je les avais vus ! Ils m'ont montre des photos et un vieux film de nos vacances ensemble avec les parents en Autriche. On a tous bien change ! Je les ai trouve remarquablement bien. Ils font toujours de nombreuses randonnees, et Hans joue toujours au ping pong et continue a prendre des cours de piano. Nous avons passe un bon apres midi.