Alsace

Is everyone bilingual in Alsace? On a recent trip there, I heard shopkeepers and restaurant owners switching between French and the local dialect, Alsacian, snapping from one to the other without batting an umlaut.

Alsacian is etymologically close to Swiss German — I heard lots of ja, ja, ja, mixed with the occasional ça va — which is fitting for this rich and diverse region situated on the French border with Germany.

A misty fog accompanied my journey, adding a poignancy to a landscape that has experienced losses from many, many wars, and traded hands many, many times.

 

And everywhere, from the village of Obernai to the vineyards outside Andlau, I saw autumn leaves.

The vines pictured above, by the way, produced the wine in this photo: beautiful, flowery whites with a brisk, mineral finish. I loved the elegant, long-necked bottles, too.

And though I'm saving tales of choucroute for my book, I can tell you I saw (and ate) cabbage. Lots and lots and lots of it.

In fact, choucroute turned out to be the perfect fuel for a chilly stroll along the canals of Strasbourg's Petite France.

Then again, so did a glass of pinot gris accompanied by a tartine prepared tarte flambée-style — that is, bread spread with crème fraîche, bacon and Munster cheese, and broiled until melty and crunchy. It was, one might say, the perfect blend of French and German.

P.S. Check out a few more of my photos here.

For wine tasting:

Marc Kreydenweiss

12 rue Deharbe

Andlau

tel: 03 88 08 95 83

For tarte flambée tartines:

L'Epicerie

6 rue du Vieux-Seigle

Strasbourg

tel: 03 88 32 52 41