It’s been very nice to hang out at the countryside for a couple days: the roosters start to crow at 5:00 am – six of them in the village doing early morning round calls and at 6:00 am the bells of the church start to ring every quarter of an hour - at least you know at what time you woke up. But believe me, the first morning was difficult, then I started really to relax and slept like a baby. Except for the mosquitoes.
Yes, I’ve been to a very exotic place: Munchhouse a little village in Alsace where my friend Barbara moved from Paris last year. It is not the Alsace of "winstuub", timbered houses and gothic cathedrals, but rather a non-pretentious place: people living there, raising their kids and some chickens, the cats around the houses are still considered animals with a varying degree of wildness in their behavior. Wonderful.
On Saturday we made a little excursion to the Vosges, the counterpart of the Black Forest on the French river of the Rhine. Lunch "a la ferme” with Muenster, Paté and red wine. On a little 
hike around the Rainkopf, we started to appreciate the native flora: “knorrwuchsige Zwergbergbuchen” and the “homegrown banana bushes”. The Vosges are wider and smoother than the Black Forest, and so beautiful that Barbara and Eddi started to imagine what a nice thing it could be to operate a “ferme” welcoming hikers and foster children, 
proposing a simple “plat du jour” with some local wine, and one day a week something very exotic dish like red-shrimp-curry in coconut-milk. Unfortunately I lack the picture of the cows - giving the coconut-milk - it is a very particular race, the “vogiennes”, with a fur like heavily used blotting paper.
And for the regional stereotype: here is a photo of a stork in the city of Muenster (from where the cheese is coming). After being nearly extinct and effort was made for them to come back living there. Storks are fascinating: big, loud and leaving a lot of dirt behind, but so cute when husband and wives stand in their nests. There are always some singles as well. Zip glass of Riesling and start imagining the stories of their lives.
I am sincerely happy to have spent cosy hollidays with friends and not travelled by myself to any far away country.
it's ordered only in part because a total one may not be useful early on and may not get a response if late... (RLE-474)
Posted by: m.visaya | September 04, 2005 at 12:26 PM
flight, just like skaterboy without falling... (ANZ-677)
Posted by: m.visaya | September 12, 2005 at 11:26 PM