Visite chez Taitai et Papi

Les filles et moi sommes venus rendre visite à mes parents à Sherbrooke et Alice et Lily ont inauguré la cour arrière en y jouant deux bonnes heures à leurs jeux habituels: course dans toutes les directions, ramassage de branches mortes et de brindilles, construction de petits habitats pour les fées, assemblages d'objets hétéroclites, etc.

Raphaël, qui est venu nous rejoindre avec Louis et Louise, a eu la gentillesse de prendre ces quelques photos.  C'est commode d'avoir un neveu photographe qui traîne toujours sa Nikon D30 avec lui !!

OUr favourite spot in Ludwigshafen

This is Paul who was originally dancing in the piece but had to step out. He came to help out for a few days. It was very nice to have him with us again.
This is Laurent - our lighting designer from France with Helge - the choreographer.
Peter with Anna - our marvellous production assistant.
Ludwigshafen is not the most picturesque of towns but it was spring time and we were delighted to find this bombed out church (all that is standing is a one room wide facade) that is now a restaurant and it immediately became our favourite spot. The owner we discovered in from Catania where we will be going to preform The Drift. He said of his home - "There are two heavens, one is in the sky and the other is Catania." Sounds promising.

France!!!

I am now back in Bremen after one magical week with my Eric and the girls in France. We have had a magnificent time as you will see... After my solitary wanderings in a rather grey Germany I was suddenly surrounded by a springing France and my two springing daughters so you may find that I have gone a little trigger happy on the camera but I just could not resist!

A sad good-bye

This was the heart breaking moment that we all knew was coming... the moment at the airport when Mummy had to go and get on her plane leaving her beloved family to wait for their plane taking them in the other direction. Sigh. A difficult moment for the mama's heart.

Lost tooth in Alsace

Lily left another little bit of her childhood behind in Alsace.

Our day with Hansi

This is Hansi, a donkey from a farm just up the hill from Daniel's place. We rented Hansi for the afternoon and walked up to the lake that we had driven to on our first day. Hansi was good company though he did rather prefer nibbling the grass to walking and he was not one to be rushed. We set off at 3pm and only just made it back before dark. when we set off the day felt like summer but once when we got to snow up hight and the day was coming to and end it got much chillier. Doco, I don't know if you can see in the pictures but Hansi had saddle bags that were used as saddle bags (instead of cushions), we find that they work equally well for their intended use!

Home in Metzeral

This is Daniel's home in Metzeral that also felt like home to us for a few days.

a favourite spot

Back in Metzeral, we spent most of the day in the garden waiting to accompany Daniel to his train in Colmar. The girls had a sisterly mix of fun and feuds in the hammock.

Colmar merry-go-round

After hauling the girls past play grounds and parks in our attempt to see the issenheim altar we stopped at the end of the day at this 100 year old merry-go-round the girls had a hard time deciding which of the creatures to ride on so they had to try them all out before it got going.

Colmar

We loved our late afternoon in Colmar. There are some magnificent buildings such as this the old 15th c. customs building. Colmar has been on the border of the ever-moving line between France and Germany for a very long while! The pruned plane trees Alice named the boxer trees.

An enormous Cyprus tree in Riquewihr

What a beauty!

The hills above Riquewihr

More Riquewihr

Once again Lily and Alice's favourite features were the animal ones... they each found them-selves a pet fish in each of the two fountains. They also loves raceing through the tiny streets especially one passage that was so narrow that none of the adults were inclined to follow.

Riquewihr

This is Riquewir, a double walled medieval village that is one of the few that was not destroyed in the war. This was as close as we got to a castle but it really is a fortified town with houses huddled up against the defending walls. This is the heart of wine country so the hills all around are covered with vines. We are told that the steeper the south facing slope the harder work the grapes are to harvest and the better the wine. There are certainly steep slopes a plenty.

Munster

Metzeral is just ten minutes from Munster where they make Munster cheese, in fact the whole valley produces the milk and the bacteria (as we discovered) that got into Munster cheese. Munster's other claim to fame are these cranes that now live there year round and make their nests on the tops of all the buildings. Every now and then they all start clacking their beaks and the town echos with - clapa-clapa-clapa-clapa-clapa-clapa-clapa.

The second lake

After walking down the trail from the first to the second lake we had a magnificent pick-nick that Eric and Daniel layed out for us. Alice and Lily set up camp in the mossy rocks over-looking the lake. Then it was back up the trail to the first lake and car.