Haut-Koenigsbourg

Last wednesday I went to the gorgeous medieval Chateau du Haut-Koenigsbourg. Thought to have been built in the 12th century, this castle has a lengthy history. Strategically placed, its rocky, promontory site was ideal for observing the main routes in the region, and provided a good fall-back point. It was pillaged and burnt during the 30 years war, despite fortifications built during the 15th century. It lay in desolation for some time, and then towards the end of the 19th century the town of Selestat gifted the castle to Kaiser Wilhelm II. At this time Alsace was German territory and Wilhelm decided to undertake a great restoration to symbolically mark the western extent of his empire. The restoration was one of great scientific process for the time. The architect, Bodo Ebhardt, listed all the archaeological remains found on the site, studied archive documents, analysed the architecture… and when in doubt, referred to examples chosen among structures built around the same time. Restoration work was carried out from 1900 to 1908.
Then came the Treaty of Versailles in 1919, and the Haut-Kœnigsbourg was handed over to the French government and awarded the status of National palace. The Haut-Koenigsbourg has now been completely restored, and was classified as a historical monument in 1993.

Being a castle from the Renaissance, there are a few must haves:

Keg of wine -- 80 HL of it

Impressive dead animal display

Weapons for skewering people

Weapons for skewering the people's horses (there is a difference -- these are longer)Despite the rain, or maybe because of it, the castle seemed to have grown up from the mountain.
They incorporated the castle into the natural rock structures:

I miss WNC mountains. I felt I was very close to home though, up on the mountain of the Haut-Koenigsburg castle:

Me, Celine, Patrick

Salut!

Hello again! It's been a little while...

I'm adjusting ever more in tiny increments. I think my french comprehension is getting better, but I'm still frustrated with how much I miss and how little I can say.

I haven't written in a while partly because I feel like I haven't done much of note, and partly because I'm beginning to slightly resent my computer and the easy access to the outside world which it allows me. How can I truly be "immersed" if I have the power to speak, read, and write english with friends and family back home on a quite regular basis? This is not to say I don't enjoy talking and staying in touch with everyone. I just feel like it's somehow cheating, and I'm not gaining as much as I possibly can while I'm here.

That being said however, I continue to write...

Today was a really great day for french immersion and for an uber nice headache. It being near the day of Christ's ascension (I won't say anything else), my Catholic-practicing family went to Communion today in a neighboring village. Afterwords, we walked to a friend's house for l'aperitif, and then on to a fancy lunch out, then back to the friend's house. Nine hours of upwards of 25 french people talking non-stop. I feel I have earned my excuse to write an entry in english :-).

I got new nylon strings for Viviane's beautiful Alhambra and have been playing both classical and the steel string. I have to cross the ocean to re-discover my love of playing music. It makes me want to go to Spain! So close too!

Remember the other church in Strasbourg I was telling you about? I went back last monday while Jean-Baptiste had a four hour long law/business exam (!).

St. Thomas (also protestant):

Taken from the University of Strasbourg's green space:

It was very warm today...I think somewhere around 27 degrees. Gettin my uneven tan on!

I have some more photos, if somewhat unrelated. (I forgot to take my camera today so that I could actually give you pictures of people.)

Une petite mouche (...playing with my macro)

A few hours to spend in Rosheim (??? je pense...?). Spent it at churches.

à bientôt

5/16/09




Saw two gorgeous churches in Strasbourg (no tram today -- Jean-Luc was driving to visit his maman anyway). I spent the most time in the first one I visited: St. Peter le jeune.




It is a Gothic styled protestant church, built sometime during the late 13th century. Originally Catholic, the church has switched between religions a bit. In 1524 the parish of New St. Peter's adopted the Protesant Reformation. In 1681, after Strasbourg became part of the Kingdom of France, Louis XIV returned the chancel to Roman Catholic use. A partition wall was built to separate the Protestant nave from the R. Catholic chancel! Soon the R. Catholic portion of the church was to small to accommodate all of the RCs in attendance and a new church was built. The entire church of New St. Peter's was then used solely for Protestant worship.




The cloisters were beautiful.




Presently the church awaits restoration.




I'm not entirely sure of the name of the other church that I visited...I didn't have much time to spend there. I will try to make it back though b/c it too was stunning.
Love,
M.

On driving

5/14/09

As far as I can tell there are no posted speed limits here. Jean-Luc has confirmed that in some places there are, in fact, no speed limits at all. And while the cars are not all small, there aren't many american "mini-vans." As such, everyone tightly and neatly weaves in and out of traffic, bicycles, old women, etc.
All the cars are also very nice and well-kept. I was talking with Jean-Baptiste about driving in France and I can now understand why those people who can even afford to own a car, can afford to own a very nice car. The cost JUST to get your license is...dun dun dUH...ONE THOUSAND EUROS. Keeping in mind that 1 Euro= 1.4 US dollars. On top of that insanely high price, one must pay for the test to see if you're ready to even have your license. Ridiculous in my opinion due to that fact that it's ALSO required that you have logged at least 20 hours of practice driving (your teacher determines whether you're ready after 20 hours) at around 20E/hour. Once you have your license legit, you actually need to get a car. Jean-Baptiste told me that it's impossible to get a car that runs for anything under 3,000E.

Viviane has let me drive her car several times which is immensely surprising to me considering said cost. Today I picked up Paul-Eric at his school (called college here, but is the equivalent of junior high).


I'm having a lot of fun with this blog. I feel like the language center of my brain is being repeatedly wonked, zapped, and all kinds of stimulated -- making not just my mouth excited, but my brain and fingers too.

Mathematically, visually, sensually wonderful flowers from Viviane's garden.

Today was my first early day, but relaxed nonetheless. I got up at 7am and went with Viviane to l'ecole were she teaches religions and sat in on two classes (second grade). I took pictures. I biked around Dorlisheim with Paul-Eric. I also found out there's a bakery 3 minutes away that makes gluten-free bread! Yeah baby, I'm in France now.

my solo adventure

5/12/09

I went to Strasbourg again today via the tram. I couldn't figure out how to buy un billet (a ticket), so I decided that once I got on the tram I could pay whoever was taking tickets. However, once I got on the tram there was no one to see whether I had paid or not. So I got to Strasbourg free of charge. Upon arriving, I decided to walk straight and see if I found l'office tourisme which is next to le cathédral. Luckily, the tower of le cathédral is visible from many places in the city and I was able to find it fairly quickly. My first interaction with a french person (no, I lie...the second) by myself was in l'office tourisme, so that doesn't really count. But I did speak french!

After getting directions I went to la Musée de l'OEuvre Notre-Dame. Student discounts are great! After a brief period of confusion, I got a handset guide (the audio was in english :-(). The museum was in several gorgeous Gothic/Renaissance/17th cent. buildings, the center of which was and still is the foundation of the house of Notre-Dame. Since the 13th cent. it has been the resting place of the institution responsible for the administration of le Cathédral construction. The museum itself portrayed the evolution of art in Strasbourg and the regions of the Upper Rhine between the 11th and 17th centuries. There were beautiful stained glass, Rhenish art, tapestries, gold, magnificently carved furniture, and some still life paintings (Sebastian Stoskopf?). All very catholic.

I am so mad at myself...I didn't bring my camera on my adventures today because it was raining in Dorlisheim this morning. So of course it wasn't raining in Strasbourg.

When I was done at the museum I people watched, got some euros from the bank, and started out in the wrong direction to the tram station. Luckily I figured that out pretty quickly and changed direction. I bought une poire (a pear) from a man on the street! It was absolument délicieux!

The automated ticket-givers at the station wouldn't take my card -- it's a visa though! I just followed some signs to the tram to Selestat, which Viviane had told me was past the Dorlisheim stop (and Dorlisheim is such a small ville that it wouldn't be on the signs). ...To make a long and painful story short: 17.40€ and 2 hours later (should have been 15 minutes) I made it to the Dorlisheim station and walked home. It's cold and rainy tonight.

->regression<- is disheartening

I feel like I have ->regressed<- (case in point: I meant regress, not digress) in my language capabilities somewhat. Switching from french to english and then back again has made it so I am unable to readily form a grammatically correct sentence in either language. I tell myself this is because I am tired? I'm also coming to realization of how little I truly know. Le passé composé et imparfait? Quoi? I suppose the main idea would be to get my point across, which would mean past and future tenses are something I shouldn't worry too much about for right now...right? So on to verb, noun, adjective memorization.

Today I took Viviane's bike and explored Dorlisheim and the neighboring village. I even learned how to say that in the past tense! Aujourd'hui, j'ai fais un velo. I didn't work up enough courage to actually go into a shop and *gasp* interact with someone. It will come. I did, however, find a impressively well-kept war memorial graveyard, and an equally impressive church.









And the number and age of people on bikes! I love it! Everywhere you go is very biker friendly.








The pollen in the air is literally visible!





I discovered that Viviane used to take classical guitar lessons and still has her guitar. (Very exciting because I didn't bring mine.) Even more exciting is that it's an Alhambra (the company that made mine)! Unfortunately it's currently missing the top e-string, but that's temporary. They also have a decent steel string. Yay!


Today I went to the store and got an adaptor for my laptop -- go qwerty layout!

In france the keyboards are very different...

Hello all!

This will be a short post due to my unfamiliarity with the french keyboard. Hopefully tomorrow, when the stores are open, I will be able to get my laptop sorted out.

I landed without any major complications yesterday morning (only yesterday?!) at around 6:30am Frankfurt time, feeling like it was 1:30am. Jean-Luc, the father of the family I am currently staying with, picked me up after customs...for which I am very grateful for. The Frankfurt airport is by far the largest airport I've been in. In addition to the minor complication of me not speaking any German...

To my surprise, Jean-Luc lead me to a comparatively large-sized car and proceeded to get into the driver's seat on the left side. Apparently France has long been a right-side-of-the-road driving country, a fact of which I was unaware of (I know, good research for the american here). However! Just for kicks, along the of Avenue du Général Lemonnier in Paris (some 350 meters) traffic drives on the left!

The Servias, the family I'm staying with, live in Dorlisheim, a small village 30 minutes outside of Strasbourg. Despite the continuous drizzle it is very pretty -- such cute houses! Many things I thought to be stereotypes are actually reality. Grey-haired ladies ride their bikes with a basket full of baguettes along the narrow cobblestone streets, while accordionists pump out passionate tangos.






Today we went to Strasbourg (Jean-Luc's maman is in the Strasbourg hospital due to heart trouble). It was gorgeous. I especially loved le Cathèdral with its hand carved stone exterior and the vibrant stained glass windows.








The language barrier is both overwhelming and wonderful. I feel like I am understanding a lot more already. I also *think* I'm putting together more coherent sentences. This morning I woke up thinking a sentence in french! Yet I get frustrated and have to keep reminding myself that I still have many more days, weeks, to improve. I also haven't had to interact with any complete strangers by myself yet. I think in part because it is the weekend and everyone is home with time to help me.

So maybe not such a very short post.
peace.