Ahhh…..Alsace! A picture Post

Roaming Alsace, a beautiful well with flowering pots

Alsace France is less than 45 minutes from my house.

This region is one of the COOLEST places in France (next to Provence, of course!) but I haven’t spent any time exploring it.

That was remedied a few weeks ago on a day tour, where I experienced  a lovely lovely time basically soaking up the French Sun, culinary tradition, and laughing with ladies.

The region belonged to the Holy Empire until annexed by France in the 1600s, and then later taken over by Germany. In fact, the name “Alsace” derives from the Germanic Ell-sass, meaning “Seated on the Ill“,^[2] a river in Alsace. Between the 19th and 20th centuries, Alsace changed hands four times between France and Germany in 75 years. Thus, the culture blends together. They’ve got their own language, although only 40% of the adult population, and probably less than 10% of the children, are fluent in Alsatian.

But really…what they have is FRENCH je ne se qua….You’ll see what I mean in this picture post of my day trip…

First off…Soufflenheim Alsace…the pottery town of the region.We had an small demonstration and personal tour from a man whose family has been using local clay for CENTURIES to make traditional cooking pots.

They use 75000 TONS of clay a year to make mold their pieces by hand

He introduced us to the Alsace speciality….Alsace Kougelhopf 

and of course, I purchased the traditional “pan” for cooking it. Almost like a bundt pan, this goodie is a leavened bread stuffed with raisins and a heavenly yeasty vanilla flavor. The pan was only $25 and will last 300 years.  I also purchased a “crock pot” or French Dutch Oven, for around $50. Better than Le Crueset and I can’t wait to make up coq au vin.

Eating Pastries at 10 am in the morning…

Hands Off! These babies are mine!

and LOVING the kougelhopf

Then traveling a stones throw away to a small village were we walked for an hour,

and then sat,

drank ONE EURO wine,

ate Foie Gras, Pate,

Bread (and more bread and more bread) smoked meats, salads and an apple.

Then we traveled on to a wine and cheese pairing. Robert’s family has been in the business over 500 years. Some of his French Oak Casks are 300 years old.

During this day, I marveled at how I am so happy with my place and philosophy and approach with my experiences lately. After this winter and being forced not to run or really “perform” for a bit, something melted in me, and now I approach each moment as a teacher.

.Alsace reflected my inner lesson…trusting myself to seize the day, receiving happiness, and recognizing GRACE