The Chou Crew

Earlier this week, Silas had to recite a poem from memory at school--20 lines in French--and, after some solid studying over the weekend, he did it! His teacher told me that his recitation was "formidable" and "parfait" and that we should be very proud.  In celebration, we went out for ice cream and an evening stroll around Strasbourg. Here are some pictures of the cathedral, a shop window, and the lights on the canals. It's a beautiful city.

Here we are last Friday (the 10th) at La Binchstub, a tiny restaurant specializing in tartes flambées that's about a 2-minute walk from our apartment. Great food, great wine, and a fun (if crowded) atmosphere! Luckily we didn't catch Covid. Hope everyone is well back home!

Going back more than 600 years, Pfifferdaj is the oldest medieval festival in Alsace. It's the day when the pipers (the pfiffers, I assume) would pay homage to their lord. So there's a lot of piping! The big draw for the day is a parade. There was a market with handicrafts, too, but it was very small--rather disappointing in comparison to American Renaissance fairs. Instead of shopping, pfifferdaj-goers seem to make a day out of sitting around waiting for the parade and drinking. (After the parade, there's free wine in one of the city fountains, but we didn't make it to the end of the parade.) Ribeauvillé is absurdly picturesque, too, so it's rather nice just to walk around--until the crowds get too dense, anyway. Plus, there are lots of people in costumes just wandering the streets. Skelly in church This dog was too ridiculous not to photograph. Lunch break with some costumed (or at least made-up) parade participants. The crowds are gathering Silas took pictures an...

On Sunday, September 4, we took the train and a bus to Ribeauvillé (less than an hour away by public transport) for a big medieval festival--the annual Pfifferdaj--about which more later. Because first we hiked up to the Castle of Saint-Ulrich, which means that this post is basically going to be a bunch of landscape pictures. So first, some pictures from the ascent, which was rather rugged and steep: See that castle on the left? We climbed all the way up to the very top of the highest tower. Skelly with castle. Silas posed with some really big rocks. And now some views from the top! The mountains in the way distance are (we're pretty sure) the Alps. We were in the Vosges. On top of the tower. Next up: Pfifferdaj!