Village Life

The last week of my vacation has been spent staying with my friends in the little village of Rhinau on the banks of the Rhine in France.  Thankfully, this area has not experienced the devastating flooding that is occurring right now in different areas of France, Germany, and Romania.  I've also had a chance to get caught up with some of their friends who live here as well. 

Sue and Keith with their neighbour, Klaus, who dropped by for a glass of wine the other evening.

Rhinau has around 5000 inhabitants and, interestingly, many of the houses in the village have barns in the backyards where farm vehicles can be kept and then driven to the surrounding fields.  The main crop around here, it seems to me, is corn.  No vineyards in sight unless you look west toward the foothills of the Vosges mountains.  Rhinau is a typical village with its tabac, boulangerie, hotel de ville, restaurants and weekly market.  This weekend, the circus is in town; however, I will be gone before it officially opens later this afternoon.  So, as a final blog, I thought I would post some photos of this pretty little village where my friends live.

One of the village's bigger houses - across the street

Roundabout with a sign advertising "the circus coming to town"

Flower-filled boat decorating the edge of the roundabout

Rhinau's main street

One of the village's three boulangeries

The Hotel de Ville (city hall)



In the market square, the "camion" selling auto parts, etc. is in town for the day

One of the village houses - typical Alsatian architecture

Flower box on the bridge over the Brunwasser

Au Vieux Couvent, one the restaurants - this one has 1 Michelin star

A neighbour's mailbox

Egg dispenser on the side of the road

Circus bigtop with the village cemetery in the foreground

For my last night here, we went to our favourite restaurant in the village called Aux Bords du Rhin.  Its specialty is trout which Sue ordered.  Keith and I had filet mignon.  All our meals were fantastic - and it was a lovely way to end my stay here.

The restaurant

Sue's Trout Almandine being prepared

The three of us at dinner

Saturday, I take the train to Frankfurt Airport where I will stay overnight for my flight home midday on Sunday.  It has been a great trip and, in spite of the glitches with the weather, I enjoyed exploring some new places and returning to ones I already love.  I hope my blog has been interesting to you.  Hopefully, there will be another one in the fall - once I figure out where I want to go!!  Thanks.

An Afternoon in the Kaiserstuhl

Every Thursday, Rhinau has a little market and one of the stalls has been nicknamed by Sue and Keith as "the chicken lady".  We were planning to stay in for lunch so I decided to walk over to the market and pick up a freshly roasted chicken.  As I often do when I am here, I paused on the way at the village's bombed out church to reflect on the impact WWII had on so many places over here.

The front of the ruined village church

Sign on the church

The "Chicken Lady" and her van full of roasting chickens

After lunch, Sue and I decided to head to an area called Kaiserstuhl (Emperor's Chair) in South Baden, mainly in Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald county.  We drove south down the French side of the Rhine about 22 km to Markolsheim where we crossed a bridge into Germany.  Our first stop was the Krauterhof in Burkheim (Herb House) which I had been to before.  There you can buy just about every herb and spice - fresh and/or dried - that you can possibly imagine plus check out an amazing array of teas, soaps, oils, incense and other herb or spice products.  The place is well known enough that tour buses come just so the people can shop. 

Some of the stock at Krauterhof

When we were finished there, we visited the village of Burkheim, not far from where the shop is located.  The Kaiserstuhl area is famous for its wine and apparently it also produces walnut oil.  As you look across the hills, you see miles and miles of vineyards and forests.  The village itself is charming and what makes it even more interesting is that there are photos along the main streets showing what it looked like in other times of its history. 

Buildings on the main street in Burkheim

More of Burkheim

The Village Well

Interesting "food" shop we went into

The amazing selection of noodles it had - we picked a garlic/onion one for dinner this evening

 

Photo of the street during WWI

Entrance to a winemaker's house

Intricate woodwork on one of the buildings

Looking across the hills of the Kaiserstuhl

On the way back, we stopped at another of the Kaiserstuhl towns, Breisach.  It was bigger than Burkheim and didn't have quite the charm.  However, there is a castle which towers over the town.  So, it was a lovely afternoon in Germany exploring some places I hadn't seen before. 

Castle and one of the streets in Breisach

Les Plaisirs de Saison

Today (Wednesday) turned out to be much better weatherwise than what was forecast so Sue and I decided to venture over to the Alsace wine road and visit the lovely village (a town, really, I guess) of Obernai.  It is about 30 km from their village and takes around 40 minutes depending on which of the many routes you choose.  I have been to Obernai many times before but each time I learn something new.  The town is surrounded by ramparts and each time I come here I swear I am going to do the walk around them but apparently it takes well over an hour and I never seem to have enough time for that - certainly not today.  Sue and I left here saying "next time". 

Above and below, some of the ramparts.

A sign I had never noticed before giving some of Obernai's history.

Once inside the ramparts, the town has typical Alsatian architecture and stores.  I always enjoy wandering around and checking out the shops, especially one called Dietrich.  We stopped in at the Tourist Information Office where I got a map and for the first time learned more about some of the historic buildings.

The Hotel de Ville (city hall)

Puits a six seaux - the Six Bucket Well dating from 1579

Place du Marche - a Monday morning market has been held here regularly since 1301

Halle de Ble (Corn Exchange) on the market square is a
former butcher shop built in 1554

The Synagogue (see below) which I have walked by countless times and never knew it was one!

A sign over the door indicates the synagogue was restored in 1948

Leaving Obernai, we headed back to Rhinau and, because it is "Spargelzeit" (in German meaning asparagus time), Sue had ordered some asparagus from her local supplier for dinner this evening so we could enjoy "les plaisirs de saison".  We stopped at the farm and watched the woman load the "asperges" into the machine which peels them and we happily set off with our bag looking forward to tonight's dinner.  Asparagus meals are typically just asparagus with hollandaise sauce but often there is an option of having them with ham.  Asparagus season is a really big deal in here as well as in German and Switzerland and the prices for a "spargel" meal are high - around $25 to $40!  As the sign says "Asperges d'Alsace - plaisir de saison".  Bon appetit!!

Alsatian Asparagus Sign

Entrance to the warehouse

The asparagus peeling machine

The white asparagus ready to be cooked and served with Hollandaise - yum, yum!