After waking I went down stairs and took a shower. The
shower was quite a setup, there was a hand held shower head, a overhead rain
shower head and a bunch of nozzles that I could not figure out how they worked.
I told Burt I needed a manual to figure it out. I didn't figure out the
temperature settings but the water temperature was fine without modification.
We ate a typical French breakfast of bread, croissants, and
coffee. After breakfast, Denis and Bernard peeled carrots and potatoes while
Marie-Laure sliced the carrots and zucchini with a mandolin. The potatoes were
sliced for pom frites (French fries). Agnes fried the potatoes once, they will
be fried a second time just before serving.
Denis took Burt and I for a drive through Moussay and Bataville
to a series of small lakes. It was an outdoorsman's paradise. We saw some hunters
and fishermen; around Moussay they mostly hunt wild hogs. On the drive we
passed a canal and a small lock. There were a couple of boats on the canal.
According to Denis, in the summer there are lots of boats and it is very
picturesque. But today is gray and raining.
Along the way we pass a memorial to 3 American aviators who were killed by the Germans during WWII. I found the
Saga of the Shady Lady on the Internet.
Denis took us to Bataville. Bataville was a company town
of the Bata shoe company; prior to the closure of the shoe factory Bata was a
major employer for the region. For employees who didn't live in Bataville the
company provided bus transportation. Denis’ father-in-law drove the bus and
worked as a mechanic for Bata.
From the internet I learned that in 1932 Tomas Bata,
founder of Bata shoes, built a company town in Lorraine. The town was next door
to the Bata shoe factory. Apparently Bata built similar towns next to all of
their factories. Tomas believed that
happy workers would produce better results. Bataville had modern housing,
schools, gymnasiums, and all types of activities to keep their employees happy.
On the factory site, Bata controlled their production
womb to tomb. They had their own tannery warehouse and distribution center. The
factory closed in 2001 and only a small distribution center remains. All the Bata
shoe factories have been moved to Africa or China. I found a great article on
the Internet that described a similar
Bataville
company town in East Tilbury, Essex. Bata was
the major employer for the area; when the factory closed, people moved
elsewhere to find work.
Denis is originally from Alsace. He moved to Lorraine
when he got the job with Bata. His uncle worked for Bata and helped him get the
job. He met Agnes while working for Bata; she was a physical fitness teacher at
the local school and coached basket ball.
Denis currently works for the Ecco Shoe Company. He has a
small office in the building that once was the garage for the Bata buses. In
the winter the building is very cold so he often works from home.
We returned to Denis and Agnes house. Their son Cedric
and his family arrived. Cedric and his wife Laurens are both sports instructors
at middle schools in Strasbourg. Cedric spent some time in the US teaching
soccer at a sports camp near San Francisco. They offered him a job, but he didn’t
want to uproot his family.
After a few
munchies we had an outstanding dinner; Beef tournedos (filet mignon) with a
slice of foie gras, topped with an herb sauce, home-made French fries, steamed carrots
and zucchinis. The meal continued in the French fashion with cheese and fruit.
We had tiramisu and coffee for dessert. Americans eat, the French dine. Burt
remarked that is why the French have two hours for lunch.
During our visit Denis spoke of the changing norms of the
French alcohol consumption. Originally the French would serve a different wine
with each course including the appetizer and the dessert courses. (That was how
it was during our first visit to France in1998). Now the consumption of alcohol
has significantly decreased, due in part to stiffer drunk driving laws.
We left Moussay in the late afternoon and drove straight
to Mussig. It was dark when we arrived. Marie-Laure’s son Alexi was at their home
when we returned. He had spent the previous week in Berlin as part of his work
at the University of Strasbourg.
Day 8 Oct. 28 —
Mussig, France
On Monday, Bernard and Marie-Laure had to go to work.
Burt and I had breakfast with Alexi. Alexi was our designated driver. Bernard
owns an antique car, a Citroen 2CV. Alexi was allowed to chauffeur us around the
area in the car. We asked Alexi to take
us to the supermarket. He took us to the
“Supermarché” store in the nearby village of Marckolsheim. We were looking for
Tylenol but apparently in France you have to purchase it from the
pharmacy. We did buy some French mustard
and tea bags while we were there. We bought 4 bottles of mustard and 3 packages of tea for €10.20 or $17.53.
So Alexi took us to a nearby pharmacy. We asked for Tylenol, but apparently it isn’t
sold under that name there and they didn’t recognize the generic name.
Alexi drove us to his grandparent’s house where we were
to have lunch with my cousin Raymond and his wife Marie-Reine. They asked about
our upcoming Danube river cruise; they made a similar cruise several years
earlier. We looked at the pictures of
their trip.
Marie-Laure who works in Sélestat joined us for lunch. We
had a nice lunch with salad, meat in a tomato sauce served with Spätzle served
with a typical Alsatian white wine. Marie-Reine is an excellent cook, we enjoyed
our lunch.
We had nut torte served with American style coffee for
dessert. Burt was ecstatic. Marie-Laure told her mother we were disappointed
that she no longer had a regular coffee pot; all she had was the single serve
pod type coffee maker. Marie-Reine loaned us a regular coffee pot from their gîte
which was unoccupied for the current week. She sent the coffee pot home with
Marie Laure for our use during the remainder of our stay.
Raymond walked with us a couple blocks to my cousins Norbert’s
home. Upon learning of our upcoming trip to Europe, Norbert had sent me an
email asking us to join him and his wife Marylene for coffee and cake at 2 pm
and a trip to Germany for a flower festival.
It was good to see Norbert and Marylene. Raymond stayed and visited with Norbert, Marylene, and us for a short while. Norbert and Raymond both remarked that since they retired they haven't used their English as often and were a bit apprehensive about being able to communicate with us. Actually they speak very good English, much better than my poor attempts at French. Both remarked that the more time they spent with us, the more comfortable they were with English.
Marylene made an Apple torte for dessert. The French desserts are not as sweet as
American desserts; that was probably good for Burt and I as we had lots
of carbs on this trip. After our torte we headed to Lahr, Germany for their
annual
Chrysanthemum festival.
The Chrysanthemum festival is held annually in
the town on Lahr, a city located on the edge of the black forest. The city
center of Lahr was decked out in thousands of floral arrangements that feature Chrysanthemums
in a variety of fall colors. We wandered
through the streets and pedestrian walkways and took bunches of photos.
When we tired of wandering through Lahr, we returned to Norbert’s home for dinner. Marylene served a light dinner of vegetable
soup, a medley of salads (tossed green, celery root and carrot) and various
cold cuts. We finished the meal with coffee and vanilla ice cream.
After dinner Norbert spoke about the book he had
published, "
Mon pere, une famille, la guerre". The
book contains 275 of the 360 letters his father wrote to his mother
after he was conscripted into the German army during World War II. The letters were written in German and
Norbert translated them into French.
Norbert said while he was working on the book, he worked at the computer
6 hours a day for months.
Before he had the book published, he had it reviewed by a
historian and a philosopher for relevance.
Both told him that the letters told a significant story; how the common
Alsatian man was impacted by the war.
Although it is the story of Maurice, it could have been the story of many
other Alsatian men. He also included information about the impact of the war on
his uncles and his aunt. We looked
through some of the war mementos that were found with the letters. He
also told of how his grandmother was in trouble with the Nazis for speaking
French in her own home.
I purchased 3 copies of the book, one for me, one as a
Christmas present for my mother, and one at the request of my Aunt Bobbie. Norbert inscribed the books with a personal
note after which he walked us back to Marie-Laure’s house and said Good night.
Day 9 Oct. 29 —
Mussig, France
We started our day with brioche like sweet rolls and
American style coffee. Just before noon, Alexi drove us to my Cousin Agnes’
home for lunch. She and her husband Jean Louis had invited Alexi, Marie-Laure,
Raymond and Marie-Reine. Agnes served Salmon
en Croûte with a green salad and apple torte for dessert. Agnes is also a
wonderful cook. On our first visit to
Alsace in 1998 she made Tarte flambée that we still talk about. We had a nice
visit.
After lunch Raymond took us back to the farm of Patrick
and Gerard Reppel. When we arrived the conveyor system for the carrot
harvesting equipment was not working. Patrick has some Polish seasonal workers
were attempting to fix it. These particular fellows have worked for Patrick for
several years now. The farm still had 3 hectares remaining to be harvested by
December 15. This year's harvest is about one month late due to a late wet
summer.
While the Polish workers were attempting to repair the
conveyors Raymond drove us to some Celtic ruins that are near his mother's
fields. He pulled off the road into a muddy field. I was concerned we might get
stuck, but Raymond assured us he knew where to drive and not have a
problem. In the distance you could see a
number of mounds covered in green foliage. According to Raymond archeologists
have dated the ruins to around 700 bc.
We then drove to a nearby village where Sylviane and her
husband live and farm. Pierre is a part time farmer, he has another job, but I
don't remember what. In his spare time he is a volunteer fireman. Pierre has
built a corn crib; he plans to store the corn all winter and allow it to dry
out. It will weigh less in the spring, but he will receive a better price.
We then drove to “
La
chapelle de Notre-Dame du Chêne” (The Chapel of Our Lady of the Oak) a
small chapel located in woods in the Illwald Forest near Selestat. According to
Raymond, Papa asked to visit the chapel during his first trip to Alsace. He
said he and his boyhood friends would go to the chapel on Sundays. When we were
there the parking lot was pretty muddy. There was a sign with information about
the Chapel. I tried to get a picture of the sign, but my batteries were low.
Here is my translation of the information on the Chapel:
Legend states that around the 17th century a small statue of the Virgin
Mary was found in a boat by a couple of fishermen. The statue was
placed in the trunk of an ancient oak. There are documented pilgrimages made to
Chapel in the 18th century,
but the chapel is significantly older and probably dates from the 15th century.
Until the end of the 19th century, there were no roads in the
Illwald forest. Visitors would come by boats or by a path that crossed over the
meadows into the forest. The area was often flooded in winter, marshy and thus
dangerous. In summer, visitors were inconvenienced by the mosquitoes and the
horseflies.
In 1890, the oak, in a state of decay, was replaced. On June 18, 1925, the chapel, the
statue of the Virgin and the trunk of the oak were completely destroyed by fire. The chapel was rebuilt according to the original shape,
but from concrete to prevent destruction by fire. The inauguration took place
at the beginning of June 1927, and the new chapel was blessed.
The land near Mussig is very wet; the ground water is only
about a foot below the surface. In very wet years some residents will have
water in their cellars. In the winter time much of the land is covered by
standing water.
We then returned to the Reppel farm. We were just in time
to see the carrot processing. The process starts with a truck dumping carrots
from the fields on to a conveyor belt. The first station cuts the stems off and
dumps them in to a rotating drum that looks like a miniature cement mixer. This
is the wash station.
Upon leaving the wash station, the carrots move via a by
conveyor belt to the camera. The camera can be adjusted for various size and
forms. Based on the selected parameters, carrots that don’t meet the necessary
standards (splits, cuts, irregular shapes) are culled (they will be used for
animal fodder). The carrots that passed inspection are sent into one of two cold
water baths based on their size. The carrots coming out of the camera are
approximately 24 degrees c. The water baths chill them to 4 degrees.
Many of the processed carrots are put into coolers for long
time store and will be sold throughout the year. The ones going to market are
bagged; the bags have barcodes and are date stamped. The small carrots are bagged into small bags (like Burt is holding) and placed into shipping containers. The larger carrots are bagged in larger bags, the bags are then shrink wrappped into a pallet. They they are loaded into a waiting training to be sent to market.
We also walked through their vehicle garage. They have a
special tractor just for harvesting carrots. The harvester has a 2 prong tool
that strips the carrots out of the fields and they ride up a conveyor and into
the truck bed. The Massey Fergusons tractors all looked new.
We had dinner at Marie-Helene’s house. The dinner consisted
of various appetizers that had been prepared by Marie-Reine and Agnes. Raymond’s
brother Richard and his wife Fabienne were there for a short time. Raymond had
also invited another Reppel cousin “Fritzy” or something similar. He is a
retired chief of the Marckolsheim hydroelectric plant. A few years ago Fritzy organized
a Reppel reunion in France.
We also had a nice visit with Agnes’ daughter Melanie. Melaine
had visited our home in Florida several years ago. Her husband Eugenio and son Leo were unable
to come. Melaine told us about how when
she was in the US she developed a craving for Reeses peanut butter cups. We told her we would send her some.
We retired early as we had an early train to catch in the
morning.
Day 10 Oct. 30 —
Departing Mussig
Wednesday we awoke at 4 am and finished packing up. We
had a quick bite and a cup of American style coffee thanks to Marie-Reine and the coffee pot from the gîte.
Raymond picked us up at 5 am and drove us to the Strasbourg rail
station. Since our Eurail pass didn't include France, we found the information station and purchased the supplemental to cover the journey from Strasbourg to Kehl (just over the German border). It cost us 9 Euros for the two of us. When the train arrived at the platform we said goodbye to Raymond and France and boarded the train to head to Prague via Munich.
To be continued
