French Food

Perhaps the best part of the whole trip was living for three weeks with access to French food. 

We mostly went to a Lidls (similar to an Aldi) or this Match supermarket.  All the supermarkets use these carts that require you to put a one euro coin in the slot to take your trolley. You get it back when you return the trolley. It helps to leave a one euro coin in your car so you always have one available. Our exchange family had a plastic coin which worked fine. It's a good system because everybody brings their shopping cart back and they aren't rolling about the parking lot banging into cars.

Opening hours.

We also went to the huge Intermarche in the northern part of Selestat. I was intrigued by the little electronic gizmos that displayed the prices. You can click on the picture to enlarge it.

How they spray their vegies.

There's something really luxurious about a chocolate croissant fresh from the bakery for breakfast. The orange juice came from Spain and was quite inexpensive.

Snails for dinner. They came in a pack of 12 already stuffed with garlic butter for under 2 euros. I shoved them in the oven for a few minutes and they were ready to eat and quite delicious.

The sauerkraut we bought at the market.

Camembert and red wine. What a combo.

Some lout had his feet on the chair. No doubt he was stuffing himself with more bread and Camembert as he sloshed down the plonk. We mostly ate indoors, but occasionally out on the terrace when the weather was nice.

A shopping receipt from Lidls. Click on the picture to enlarge it. One euro is about US $1.40. We thought food and wine was very inexpensive.

This Camembert was quite good when you let it sit out for a while to soften.

A hard sausage coated with pepper that we got at the market. It cost about 3 euros.

Most mornings I would walk up to the local bakery to get bread but occasionally we got it at a supermarket. It was still good. The French don't know how to make bad baguettes. Interestingly on Sunday mornings, the bakery only seems to have male customers. The wives are probably still in bed.

We drank this beer for lunch. Each bottle held a quarter litre (250 cl) and it was very tasty.

The muesli I ate for breakfast. Not quite as good as the stuff I get in Australia, but not bad.

Marianne out in the backyard in front of the terrace.

The exchange family had a cat called Capsul who took one look at us when we arrived and promptly fled. Marianne did leave food out for it and towards the end of our time there, it became more visible, but it wouldn't go back in the house.

Dinner on the terrace.

A tarte flambee which is a specialty of Alsace. We went to a restaurant in Kintzheim for lunch to try one and most of the other customers were having them as well. It's similar to a pizza but different. The crust is very thin and instead of using mozzarella cheese, they use creme fraiche. We ordered one with smoked salmon and it was absolutely delicious. As you can see, it came on a round piece of plywood. Luckily we arrived early and had a great table by a window where we could look out at the street. The restaurant then filled up and some people were having huge meals where each person started off with a large tarte flambee as a starter and then moved on to the rest of the meal!

I will be trying to make one now that we are home and I have found this video that explains how to make creme fraiche. 

Finally, it seems most of the toilet rolls in France are flushable. It seemed like this blog on food was the most appropriate blog for this photo.

The train station at Selestat

This blog is for me and those who love trains. In a couple of weeks time I am off to Australia where I will travel on most of Australia's long distance trains. The only one it won't travel on is the Indian Pacific from Sydney to Perth. Yes, I do have a thing about trains.

The front entrance to the station.

I see to remember there were eight platforms which is quite a lot for a small town.

The main hall at the station. Since we were due to leave early in the morning, I walked over to the station the afternoon before to buy our tickets. You never know how long the queue is going to be.

The back entrance to the station. We used this entrance since it was closest to the house.

This was a neat way to wheel your suitcase up and down the stairs. Just put one wheel in the little trench and your suitcase stays under control. It worked quite well.

Some older style carriages. They are not very common these days.

It's probably what you think it is.

There are lifts (elevators) to the platforms from the tunnel.

Our train arrives, right on time. Because the house was quite close to the station we could hear the train announcements fairly clearly. They are quite distinctive and here is an example.

A TGV passed through without stopping while we were waiting. This line is not actually a high speed line where the TGVs can go at their regular speeds but it still was moving pretty fast.

Nuts and Bolts - Packing

We've had some questions about how we travel. In this blog I will discuss packing.

I'm standing at the door of our exchange house just as we left to walk to the station to catch the train to the airport. This was our luggage for the three weeks. I had a smallish suitcase on wheels which I check at the airport. I use this bag if I expect to be using public transport. If I am renting a car for the entire trip, I use a larger old ordinary bag from Lands End that is about 20 years old. It is very lightweight but very strong and it holds quite a lot if necessary.

Marianne used the small blue suitcase (Lands End) which she checked and the white bag for carry on. We knew that the house was close to the train station so she did not have to carry it very far. It only weighed 13 pounds.

When you are standing at the luggage carousel, it really helps if you can distinguish your bag from 10 yards away. If you have a black bag with wheels that looks like all the other black bags with wheels, tie a piece of coloured yarn to the handle.  Put some identifying coloured tape on the front and back of the bag. It helps you identify your bag easier and may prevent somebody else taking your bag by mistake.

Unless you have the special locks that allow security personnel to examine your suitcase, I recommend using twist ties to fasten the zips together. I actually keep a spare twist tie on one zip as well.

The blue duffel bag came from Lands End probably about twenty years ago and that is what I take into the cabin. It has a zip pocket at one end where I keep important documents that I know I will need at the airport such as a passport and tickets. This bag also holds my little netbook, camera, a jacket, a spare set of underwear, sox and shirt for the occasion when I miss a flight across the ocean and have to catch the plane 24 hours later. Marianne does much the same with her white bag.

It doesn't look like much for three weeks of travel but we try to travel light. We never have to worry about the airline luggage weight limits.

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The main objective in packing is to take as little as you can get away with.

The first thing to do is analyze your trip. It makes it easier to decide how you are going to do your packing. How many days? How much public transport? What if there are no elevators (lifts)? How will I wash clothes if necessary? Is the weather going to be hot or cold? Dry or rainy?

The second objective is to take only what you absolutely need. Remember in most places you can always buy what you didn't bring and now need. If in doubt, leave it at home. If you only plan to wear something once, really consider leaving it at home.

The third objective is to wash often. That also means to dry often, so you need to think about that aspect as well. I have run some experiments and have found that seersucker dries the fastest. Because seersucker is already wrinkled, I don't have to iron my shirts.

Read the various travel guides which are full of good advice about what to pack. 

Consider this statement:

Nobody knows who you are. They will never see you again.

Selestat - the old city

I realized the day before we are due to leave to come home that I had not done the blog on the old city of Selestat. So while Marianne is busily vacuuming, I am busy blogging. How's that for division of labour.

Let me first say that we have really enjoyed our time here. It's only a few hundred yards from where we are staying to the old town and it is a pleasant walk.

Of course, Selestat has oodles of old half timbered houses in all shapes and colours. Most of the streets are narrow and not really suitable for cars, but they fit them in somehow.

There is just such a huge variety in these houses that after almost three weeks, it is still a pleasure to look at them. I like the unpainted wooden shutters on this one.

Oddly enough, it's not the cars you worry about but the hoons on motor scooters that rush round the sharp corners at high speed. The cars are going slow. Hoon is a very useful piece of slang.

Even the unpainted houses are interesting.

I have no idea what this is.

Selestat is just as pretty as Colmar but it doesn't have a 'Little Venice' section with a canal.

What does make it better than Colmar is the relative absence of tourists. There are some tourists of course, but you get the sense that the citizens of this town 'own' the town, not the visitors. 

There are some outdoor cafes, but only enough for the people of the town. 

The one thing you don't see much of are empty shops like you do in the US or many outback towns in Oz. Of course like many other countries, France has its share of economic problems, but Alsace seems to be doing quite well.

The old gate to the town.

Yes, it's a drain pipe.

If you love colour, come to France. They know how to use it.

It's great to see how many people use bicycles. When you think about it, you can see why. The temperatures are relatively benign. For example, the hottest it got here was about 85 degrees and mostly it was in the 70's. That makes for more pleasant riding. In Selestat itself, there are few hills so a simple bike will do.

A solar powered parking machine. These French towns have a sensible attitude to parking for visitors. There is always free parking just outside the old city so that visitors are encouraged to come and linger. The idea is to get visitors to spend money in shops and restaurants and not have to worry about whether they are going to get a ticket for overstaying their parking time limit. 

But they do charge if you want to park in the old city itself which discourages people from parking their cars in the prime tourist areas. The French may think differently but they are always logical.

You don't see too much graffiti in France. Or galvanized iron for that matter.

I never worked out what this building was. Looks impressive though. 

So this has been a great place to do a house exchange. First, there is plenty to see within short walking distance and driving distance. I spent only 60 Euros on diesel for the car which is nothing for almost three weeks of travel and if you have looked at the other blogs, you can see that we visited a bunch of places.

Second, we hoped we would be able to live as the French do and I think we mostly accomplished that goal. We shopped at the same places, ate much the same food and drank the same wine. And of course, I had a siesta after lunch. The French have a great lifestyle.