The things you learn when you travel.
Belgians lay claim to inventing the french fry. According to the Frites museum (yes, Virginia, there is a museum dedicated to french fries — it’s in Bruges, Belgium, and is in partnership with the chocolate museum just down the street…how good is a day when you can visit both museums?) …anyway years ago, an American soldier snitched (my words) a fry from a fellow-soldier. The victim was a Belgian, but because he spoke French, the thief thought he WAS French (think Hercules Poirot) and dubbed the booty a french fry, and so it has remained. The instruments for cutting the lowly potato into those yummy, fat absorbing little strips look like they belong in a torture museum (and there are plenty of these gruesome places around). They are wicked looking kitchen tools!!! But the museum people, knowing their audience, kept the best display to the end …..the last stop in the museum was a chippy. And while it didn’t give free samples, it did give museum patrons a discount on the price of an order of fries. Yum. And then a discount on an entrance ticket to the chocolate museum. Double yum.
And more on the fry. Apparently, although this is not documented, the fry came about in a bad year for fishing, when Belgian fishermen came home without a catch. To fill their families’ plates, potatoes were cut into the strips we now call fries, resembling the small, absent, fish they usually ate, and fried them up. I’m sure they tasted different from said fish, but what can you say. You have to believe the display in the Fry Museum.
While we were in the Normandy area I had a long-time question answered. In both high school and university history classes I wondered about the Allies’ reconnaissance. How could entire battalions of tanks be missed? I learned the answer to that. Let me start by saying that not only am I a North American, but I am an urban North American. So when I heard the reconnaissance missed the tanks because they were hidden in the hedge rows, I went immediately to the hedges I knew…you know, shoulder high at the most, two feet across, trimmed, nurtured. I’ve now seen French hedge rows where tanks were hidden. You could lose a small town in those hedge rows. Well, perhaps a bit of hyperbole is involved in that statement, but I now understand how the tanks got missed.
Colmar, the capital of Alsace and the self-proclaimed capital of the wine growing region of the province was the birth place of inventor and entrepreneur Charles Xavier Thomas (1785-1870). Charles was a busy boy….he started a couple of insurance companies which merged eventually and became the number one insurance agency of the Second Empire (1852-1870) which after many changes and mergers still operates today under the name of GAN company. But before he did that he was in the French Army, rising in 1813 to be general manager of the supply store of all armies in Spain and shortly thereafter promoted to Inspector of Supply for the entire French army. He had paperwork galore as you can well imagine and to help him with all the math work he had to do, he invented the Arithometer, a mechanical calculator. He didn’t do much with his invention for a few years as he was busy starting insurance companies, but a few decades later, he commercialized the invention and by the time he died, his manufacturing company (did I mention he started a manufacturing company in there somewhere) had made more than 1,000 of the machine, making it the first mass-produced mechanical calculator in the world, and reliable enough that governments, banks, insurance companies (of course) and observatories used it. Manufacturing of the Arithometer continued until 1914. He was named Chevalier then Officer of France’s Legion of Honour first for inventing, then for manufacturing the Arithometer.
Colmar is also home to (or at least birthplace to) several other interesting folks:
- George-Charles de Heeckkeren d’Anthe who killed Alexander Pushkin in a duel. Pushkin, a touchy Russian writer of the Romantic era, defended his honour in some 29 duels before George-Charles nailed him. His (Pushkin’s) following generations made their way into British royalty when his great-grand daughter married Prince Phillip’s uncle. Huh.
- Frederic August Bartholdi who created the Statue of Liberty. At least two other examples of his work are in prominent US locations — the Statue of the Marquis de Lafayette in Union Square, New York, and the Bartholdi fountain in Washington, D.C.. He also created the Lion of Belfort (located in Belfort France of course and which is 50 or 60 kilometres from where we are staying) symbolizing the heroic French resistance during the siege of Belfort (in the vicinity of Strasbourg) for 103 days (December 1870- February1871), holding it with only 17,000 men against 40,000 Prussians. Of the 17,000 only 3,000 were from the military. The lion is 22 metres long and 11 metres high.
- Laetitia Bleger, Miss France 2004. She is notable for having to put aside her crown for six months for posing semi-nude for Playboy.
Almost everywhere you go in Europe there’s a cathedral which is famous for something. Bruges has two such cathedrals. First is Notre Dame, the Church of our Lady, which contains the only Michelangelo sculpture to leave Italy in his lifetime (reputedly), Madonna and Child. This sculpture differs from others he did of the same theme in that Jesus is a toddler, not an infant and Mary is looking away from him. The literature says that her pensive face shows she sees His future. Apparently we aren’t supposed to be able to look at this statue without being moved. It IS brilliant. I cannot imagine having a talent that brings stone to life and makes the folds of Mary’s clothing look soft and touchable. Second is The Basilica of the Holy Blood. The relic of the Holy Blood was brought to Bruges after the second crusade and is paraded around the city every year. Apparently about 1600 people take part in this annual parade, many dressed as medieval knights and crusaders. I think we missed it.
Albert Schweitzer 1952 Nobel Peace Prize recipient, was born and educated in various towns in the Alsace region. The multi-faceted man was born in Kayserberg (how you spell it depends on whether you are using a European map or a North American one), educated in Mulhouse (both Alsace communities), and attended Strasbourg University.
Burgundy produces more than 200 million bottles of wine a year.
And speaking of Burgundy and wine, vines in Burgundy vineyards seem to be shorter than their cousins in Alsace wineyards. We got up close and personal in both parts of the country. Vines in Alsace are taller than us. Burgundy vines are about elbow high on us. Hmm. And since I started this piece, we have noticed a few vineyards where the vines are barely knee high. Wonder why? I know the wines are very different. The Alsace whites are quite sweet to my palate, whereas the white wines produced in Burgundy that I’ve tasted are not even close to sweet. (and I loved them). And don’t even get me started on the wonders of French red wines.
Saint Patrick — yes the patron saint of Ireland, is said to have studied in Auxerres, Burgundy for a couple of years.
We visited a cathedral in Auxerres — Saint Etienne– and there in the doorway was a statue of Joann of Arc, in full armour on her knees parying. She had apparently halted in her journey to pray in the cathedral. She must have made a few stops because we found several statues of her in various churches and towns.
While researching Strasbourg, which we got close to but never into, we discovered that world famous mime artist Marcel Marceau was born there. So I did some research on him. He was born in 1923, and as a Jew, he spent much of WWII in danger and fighting. His father died in Auschwitz and he and his brother joined the resistance and were responsible for saving many children from the race laws and concentration camps. He had wanted to be a mime since seeing a Charlie Chaplin movie as a child, and he put this interest to work using mime to entertain children during various escapes. His first big performance was in front of about 3000 troups after the liberation of Paris. He was made a Grand Officer of France’s Legion of Honour and was awarded the National Order of Merit in addition to his many entertainment awards (e.g. an Emmy for his television work, and was elected a member of the Academy of Fine Arts in Berlin, Munich and France). While on business in Winnipeg before we moved there, Ken was eating out with a colleague and saw M. Marceau eating in the same dining room. In a very uncharacteristic move, Ken approached him and asked for an autograph which was willingly given. The autograph came complete with a sketched flower, like the one in his costume’s hat.
Several of the roads in this part of the world are really narrow. How narrow you ask, so narrow that the painted centre line is very, very skinny.
Clik here to view.
We soon turned off this major roadway onto one that was so skinny it had no centre line at all.
P.S. I know accents are missing all over the place, but I can’t find a ay to insert them in this program. Just like I can’t make photos go where I want them, or consistently make the text wrap around them. Such a luddiite.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
