Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Day Trip

We decided to take a short day trip to the Alsace yesterday.  It was lovely, even if we did not get to do all that was planned.

We managed to stop off at a artisan's shop that is the last of its kind produce the area's traditional linen called Kelsch.  It is a lovely shop with lots of tempting linen.  They also produce linen for stitching, and it is wonderful!





On the top is their traditional linen line, on the bottom its ALL linen for cross stitch.  If you interested in exploring their site it can be found here :  Tissage Gander

They have some very nice colors and their linen count is approximately as follows :  25, ~27, 30, 35, 37.5, 47.5 and 55 count.   At the current Euro price their linen is very reasonably priced - about $43.00 for a piece measuring a little over 1 x 2 yards.  

Here is what I managed to escape with :



The top two will me made into table runners.  The rest... well, big plans people, big plans....

Our next stop was a bust, unfortunately.  We wanted to see the massive underground WWI fort but we missed the tour, and that is the only way you can view the fort.  It is situated high up on a hill and is so large that with the 2.5 hour tour you only get to see about 1/20th of the entire thing.  Pretty impressive. 

Well, since that was a no go, we headed for Strassbourg for some dinner.  Here we are at the restaurant:


You can see that my friend Margit came along - which was quite nice.  

Strassbourg has a wonderful cathedral which I tried to photograph, but the church is so large the and surrounding square was not large enough for me to get the building into one photo so here are some just so you can get an idea of its beauty.





In this square was a house that really captured my fancy.



Here is a close-up.


It is difficult to see, but every panel has some sort of pattern on it.  It was a stunning house.

After dinner we found a cheese shop - you can't go to France and not buy cheese.


All the goat cheese you could want.



This was the cow milk section - lots of it made with raw milk.  This is what I bought:



A lovely local raw milk camenbert which won a gold medal at some cheese show in Paris ( so the lady in the shop told me - and boy, was she proud)  some really fantastic fresh goat cheese  and some older goat cheese with a lavender blossom accent.  Qn the edge you can see my crusty french bread that I ate these cheeses on today for lunch.  It was quite delicious!

I leave you with some pics of our wonderdog Mia who soon will be auditioning for the circus if Olivia has her way...




8 comments:

  1. Thx for sharing, great pics. Swooning over the linen:)

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  2. What great pics! That linen shop -- you lucky duck! I'm going to at least explore the website -- thanks for the link! I love the pics of Mia and Olivia -- so cute!

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  3. Mmm, goat's cheese - yum! I like the look of the one with the lavender very much. Sounds like you had a good trip - the linen looks wonderful.

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  4. Beautiful pictures of Alsace! I love the architecture!!

    Anyhoos, I need your mailing address for the giveaway winnings (which will be mailed in about 2 weeks). Send me an email at frggygrl@aol.com.

    Julie
    http://julies-creations.blogspot.com

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  5. Meinen allerherzlichsten Dank für diesen wunderschönen Tag!!! Ich freue mich jetzt schon auf Juli! ;)))

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  6. So viele herrliche Fotos - sieht aus, als hattet Ihr einen richtig tollen Tag! :D

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  7. Ok, I may have to argue with the phrase "all the goat cheese you could want"...because do I ever really get all I want? Mmm...cheese. What gorgeous architecture - amazing! And what lovely linens you've picked up...do tell what the big plans are!!

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  8. It sounds like a great trip! I loved seeing the photos. My daughter was there earlier this year but all her photos showed smiling teens and very little scenery! LOL

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