One of the things we noticed this trip is the difference in attitudes between Lorraine ducks and Alsatian ducks. The ducks in the Lorraine are reserved, generally PFwD’s (Professional Fowl without Ducklings), and disdainful of handouts. Alsatian ducks on the other hand are usually big families, gregarious, and quick to partake in a shared baguette or two. Carmen however, was not prepared to accept this generalization — she’s got some pretty strong feelings about stereotypes, often very sensitive about it, not at all breezy, downright adamant about pigeonholing… can lead to extreme pinching and hitting if you are not careful — and set out to correct the situation. <\/p>\n
Since we had left the Lorraine behind so quickly, she had days to devise, rehearse and perfect her plan. And then day yesterday she rolled it out for the world. It began with some breadcrumbs and a lone PFwD. She went to the bow, leaned way over, and in her sultriest voice, quacked a stern yet righteous greeting, exhorting our fowl friend-to-be to partake in the communal largess, and to embrace the communopoly!<\/p>\n
The duck flew away. <\/p>\n
The squawk of indignation from the bow kinda rocked the whole boat back. To make things worse, the reticent duck had landed a couple of hundred feet upstream. This time as we approached the PFwD didn’t even hesitate. He took off and was gone before Carmen could even bend over. <\/p>\n
She was not going to be defeated. The next duck got it all: Carmen’s tail feathers twitched and waggled, the quack had just that perfect air of je ne sais quoa and all at once a huge thunderclap rocked the Canal du Marne au Rhin and voil\u00e0! That PFwD ate itself some bread. And let me tell you there was one smug, waggling Carmen in the cabin. <\/p>\n
Last night we ended the evening with the stars Carmen had ordered. She must have twinkled right at the clerk because we got some stars and then we got some more stars and then there were so many stars that some were actually falling out if the sky. Now you may be thinking to yourselves that this was after two 100cl bottles of red plonk and perhaps there is a bit of exaggeration going on here. Mais no! There was tout la stars in the sky. <\/p>\n
As we lay on our backs the sky just lit up around us revealing that no cathedral can compare to the majesty of nature. <\/p>\n
This morning we got up and as we have no locks to negotiate I was not at the mercy of the crew’s tardy ways… and no more time and a half! I cast off and headed to Gondrexange to visit their Alimentatiere for provisions. We tied up and walked into town. It was a busy little tabac with a little of everything. We grabbed enough for supper tonight and stopped by the church. While the door was open, the lights were off so we wandered away and found ourselves back at the boat. 2 or 3 klicks down the canal and we came to the branch. Left to Nancy and right to Sarreguimes. We went right with the intention of tying up at the marina beside the etang and walking around. The huge \u00c9tang de Gondrexange was supposedly originally built by monks as a giant fish pond and it’s open to fishing and non powerboats. As I tried to back into the marina, the proprietor waved us off as there was no place if we weren’t staying overnight. A couple of hundred yards back down the canal and we staked up and tied in in preparation for a walk. <\/p>\n
Up the steep bank where Carmen ignored the offer of my hand and grabbed my pants instead. I still don’t get her logic there, but she insists she has some. Leslie, always the lady, accepted the gracious offer of my hand as she stepped delicately up the canal bank. At least she makes sense to my male-centric outlook. It could be she panders to me, being a Doctor and all, but I prefer to think shes just more logical and realizes I have the tenderer ego. <\/p>\n
Up top you could see how the canal is separated and runs alongside the main body of water. These etangs are one of the sources for water for the canals and all 3 run downhill from here. <\/p>\n
We headed back to the junction and wandered down towards Nancy just a bit. Eventually I pulled into a little harbour and we had lunch (baguette dogs) and a small rest. Carmen made same saucy noises about wieners but, in the end it was all talk and no bun. <\/p>\n
Afterwards Carmen attempted to thread a needle and worked at preventing a wardrobe malfunction. Seems that while her ‘Mommy’ had patched one side of her jeans, she had failed to spot the incipient disaster waiting to occur on the other side. And while Carmen apparently had enough bras to bring modesty to an African village, pants were in short supply. All I’m going to say is if Carmen offers to pack for you, I suggest you demure… using any excuse possible. <\/p>\n
After lunch we read some interpretive signs about the circle of privileges of toads and the presence of forest cats. I caught up on the blog and then cast off on our last journey back to Hesse. <\/p>\n
I asked Leslie for some entertainment as we cruised along and so she stepped into the bow and treated me to a brief Uninterpretable Dance. Very… umm…<\/p>\n
Anyway, next thing you know she’s talking about dance lessons and A Chorus Line and omg I think I’m going to have to watch dance movies when we get home… Anyway, there was dance. And later an encore for Carmen. No veils though… <\/p>\n
Back in Xouaxange we decided to stop and once more see if we could find the invisible chateau. For some reason the dock is now roped off so we tied in exactly the same place as we left this morning. A nice stroll through town revealed the same church, the same closed restaurant and the same bridge over the tracks. As we paused to contemplate life, the universe and invisible chateaus I glanced unto a field and espied a wall-like pile of rubble partially covered in vines. “A-ha!” I decried.<\/p>\n
As we meandered back into town and down the hill, Leslie spotted Rue de Chateau on a street sign and muttered something about obvious and seeing the signs in front of our face. Down the street, across the culvert and into the farmers field. As I set up the obligatory group portrait to prove only we among all Other Tourists had the fortitude and intrepitude to actually find the ruins, an old, old, old, older than the ruins, old dog came over for a visit. I’m pretty sure it was deaf as well from the way it was ignoring its owner. <\/p>\n
So, having succeeded, we headed back to the boat, cast off and left town to the sounds of ringing bells, cheers, fireworks and the sounds of thousands of streamers floating down from tall buildings. It was glorious and I reveled in it. The girls didn’t seem to notice it, but then again they are often clueless to the magnificence that is the world that I perceive. <\/p>\n
Anyway on the way back we passed the barge that we had first seen in Strasbourg. And it all came full circle. That barge had a banner in it that said Tchekov and theatre. Xouaxange had posters that said Tchekov and theatre. The dock was closed because supposedly a theatre company was coming in. The dock area was filling up with young, fit happy people with beards. The lightbulb went off and I finally realized there was a itinerant theatre barge following us up the canal putting on performances of Chekov in all the small towns! I am a genius. <\/p>\n
We hit Hesse at around 4:45, and I backed in between two boats. Now that we are done, I’ve almost got this boating thing. We talked to the office and a mechanic came along and flipped a breaker in the engine compartment and voila! Shore power. Leslie and I went for a walk and, typically, headed the completely wrong direction. Good thing about these small French towns, it doesn’t take long to reach the end of town and realize you need to head the other direction. We checked out the church which has some bits left over from the 12th century but it was locked up tight. I have to say, this cruise has been not as scenic, town-wise, as our other two. <\/p>\n
Leslie remarked it was easy to see we were in the Lorraine now. The town architectures are completely different and there’s not a half-timbered house to be seen. All in all I am glad we went to the Alsace. It really is a micro-culture worth experiencing. <\/p>\n
Back to the boat and a pre-dinner bottle of Pinot Gris. We only have two left so we will have to pace ourselves tonight. The base is pretty quiet, I think we’re the only hire boat on the dock. All the visitors seem to have moved on. Carmen is whipping up some lardon and pasta and I’ve organized and cleaned up. We need to catch a train tomorrow around 10:30 so I want to be organized. At the very least, more organized than the other two so I can lord it over them tomorrow. <\/p>\n
I think we’ll eat on deck one last time. It’s a bit breezy but the sun is out albeit fading a little as it’s 7:30. Overruled. Leslie said we were indoors because it’s breezy and the sun is fading. Um. <\/p>\n
Dinner was tomato salad with shallots. Pasta with sweet lardon, canned mushrooms and tomato sauce. Leslie opened the 2009 Muscat and we finished off the last of the baguettes. Leslie had already devoured 3\/4 of the chocolate I had picked up that morning so she generously allowed Carmen and I to finish off her leavings. I called dibs on the crumbs and C licked the last piece. Somehow she thought that would stop me. <\/p>\n
A quick clean up of dishes, some pics of the incredibly still night on the water and a session of Witchy-boobs postcard writing brought us to our last bottle. It’s a Riesling. And probably the last Alsatian wine of the trip. Tomorrow we are off to the Mosel and Germany. We’ll wait a few more minutes and stretch out our last evening a bit more. <\/p>\n
Before we popped the cork I wandered the boats in the harbor, eyeing up the next trip and considering the options. I really do think I might try the West Coast if I can get my certification. I also think that 2-3 weeks on one of the Kuhnle boats might be an option. They have some amazing 1-way options in France and Germany. <\/p>\n
With the 220 shore power going Leslie’s iPhone is charged again and we have music.<\/p>\n
Louis and What a Wonderful World help the sun fade on the horizon and the tea lights are shimmering in their couscous beds. Time to open the wine and let the first phase of our trip fade to black.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
One of the things we noticed this trip is the difference in attitudes between Lorraine ducks and Alsatian ducks. The ducks in the Lorraine are reserved, generally PFwD’s (Professional Fowl without Ducklings), and disdainful of handouts. Alsatian ducks on the other hand are usually big families, gregarious, and quick to partake in a shared baguette […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/macblaze.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3332"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/macblaze.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/macblaze.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/macblaze.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/macblaze.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3332"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/macblaze.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3332\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/macblaze.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/macblaze.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/macblaze.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}