Castles, Cakes, and Crudites: Overwhelming Alsatian Hospitality

We gained happy pounds from our four days in France with Bill's incredibly hospitable extended family. Bill's grandma (his dad's mom, Caroline) lineage was from Griesbach, France, even though she was born in Philadelphia she maintained a close relationship with her family and friends back in France. Griesbach, population ~400, is in the Alsace region of France, which has a wild history of being tossed back and forth between Germany and France multiple times. As a result, the folks of Alsace have a charming mix of French and German customs, and speak Alsatian, which is just as you might expect, a confusing mix of French and German. The countryside is incredibly green and everything grows beautifully there. 

French hydrangeas

Bill speaks decent French, and I speak a little German, so between the two of us, we could understand about 50% of what was going on.  Some of the family members speak some English as well, which was very helpful.  

Caroline's best friend, Berthe, lived to be 94 and had six wonderful daughters (currently between the ages of 62 and 80), who made it their mission to feed us and spoil us like you wouldn't believe. All of the sisters still live in or close to Griesbach and see each other almost every day. One sister cooks lunch, the biggest meal of the day, for the other sisters and any other family members who may be around, and then the next day the cooking assignment rotates to another sister. That way, you don't have to cook every day and you get to see everyone. Pretty much everything at these lunches came straight from their gardens, and all the cakes were homemade and wonderful. After all, these are French people with high standards for food and let me tell you, it was all so delicious!

A gluten free walnut cake they made for us. Yum!

And another homemade cake, just because. 

Homemade cream puffs

We stayed with sister #2, Marthe, and her son Yves, who spoke excellent English. Since Yves is a professor in Strasbourg, and is off for the summer, he took us on several day trips around the Alsace area. These included visiting the Grand Wintersberg Tower, which had an incredible view of the surrounding lush green countryside; visiting the charming village of Wissembourg; and touring the Château du Haut-Kœnigsbourg, a restored castle from the Middle Ages. We also visited Strasbourg a couple times. More on that later.

Bill's grandma and Yves' grandma were best friends

Grand Wintersberg Tower

Wissembourg

Part of the Koenigsbourg castle, which had an amazing view of the countryside. 

With Yves and Marthe at the Koenigsbourg castle

The Griesbach church is shared by the local Protestants (early service) and Catholics (later service). It is undergoing renovations (it's several hundred years old), so everyone is currently going to church in a neighboring village of Gundershoffen. We tagged along, and heard hymns and readings in both German and French, of course. The entire family gathered for a huge lunch afterward in the same house that Berthe and her six daughters grew up in, which is essentially a mini-farm (one cow, 25 chickens, and oodles of veggies). As usual, we were overwhelmed by everyone's hospitality.

The Griesbach church, which is currently being renovated inside.

Everyone together for Sunday lunch. 

Alsace is known for its sweet white wines, and Yves and Marthe took us wine tasting at an award winning winery from whom they always get their white wine. Folks drink wine at pretty much every lunch, the bigger meal of the day.

Award winning white wines

Strasbourg has charming old houses and buildings, a magnificent cathedral, which was the tallest in the world from 1647 to 1874, and the most university students in France, outside of Paris. We did a tour of the river by boat. We also got to see a special light show projected on the side of the cathedral at night. It was so creative. For example, at one point, the cathedral appeared to be under water, with fish swimming in and around it, and at another point, it appeared to be part of a huge clock mechanism, with each part moving just slightly like the inner workings of a watch. It was truly spectacular.

Light show at the Strasbourg cathedral

Light show at the Strasbourg cathedral

One final note from our last when Yves and Marthe took us to the Stuttgart airport so we could leave town. On our way, we decided to stop in the little town in the suburbs to take a walk down memory lane with Marthe. During WWII, Berthe, her husband, and her three oldest daughters, who were very young at the time (Bette, Marthe, and Erna), moved to Stuttgart for about six months because Griesbach wasn't safe for them. Marthe showed us the house they stayed in during that time, and she could remember the town's castle up on the hill. She hadn't been back there since the war. It was pretty neat to explore her old memories with her. 

So, all in all, we had a lovely four days in Alsace, and loved getting to meet and see extended family members who treated us like royalty. 

Next up, Berlin. Ich bin ein Berliner!

7/30/16, Correction, I initially had written that my grandmother was born in France, not so, she was born in Philadelphia and learned to speak Alsatian from her parents.