 1 Tuesday 15 June, 2010 Today's adventure was to visit the Rocher de Dabo 20 kms from Michele's place in the Region of Lorraine, Department of Moselle. |
 2 Wednesday 16 June, 2010 The Rocher (rock) overlooks the Dabo vicinity which has 4 villages and 39 hamlets. |
 3 Wednesday 16 June, 2010 The village of Dabo, immediately below us, nestles in the hills of the Vosges |
 4 Wednesday 16 June, 2010 The Rocher of Dabo sits on sandstone rock that formed 240-250 Mya when this part of Europe was under an ocean. The land uplifted about 60 Mya to form the Vosges and has steadily worn away since then. |
 5 Wednesday 16 June, 2010 The Rocher is 647 metres above sea level and is topped by a chapel dedicated to St. Leo IX. Prior to his death and being canonised (made a saint), St Leo was Pope Leo IX,. |
 6 Wednesday 16 June, 2010 Pope Saint Leo IX's story: The Byzantines were under constant attack from the Normans in the south of Italy and turned to the Norman's own spiritual chief, Pope Leo IX, and begged him to liberate Italy. In 1053, Leo IX set out against the Normans in the south with an army of Italians and Swabian (Alsacian German) mercenaries. |
 7 Wednesday 16 June, 2010 As fervent Christians, the Normans were reluctant to fight their spiritual leader and tried to sue for peace but the Swabians mocked them - bad move - and a battle became inevitable. The Pope's forces suffered total defeat at the Battle of Civitate on June 15, 1053. |
 8 Wednesday 16 June, 2010 On meeting the victorious enemy, Leo IX was received with submission, pleas for forgiveness and oaths of fidelity and homage. Despite this, from June 1053 to March 1054, the Normans held him hostage at Benevento, in honourable captivity, until he acknowledged the Norman conquests in Calabria and Apulia. |
 9 Wednesday 16 June, 2010 He died on 19 April 1054. one month after his release and return to Rome. |
 10 Wednesday 16 June, 2010 This plaque is dedicated to Bruno Eguisheim-Dagsbourg who became Pope Leon IX. He was a German aristocrat who was born in Eguisheim (near Colmar), Alsace, Duchy of Swabia, and whom the Roman Catholic Church canonised as a saint. The chapel was built in 1890 (in place of a demolished church built in 1825) and reconstructed in 1982. |
 11 Wednesday 16 June, 2010 Michele takes a photo of me . . . |
 12 Wednesday 16 June, 2010 . . . while I take a photo of Jenni and . . . |
 13 Wednesday 16 June, 2010 . . . this is the photo that I took. |
 14 Wednesday 16 June, 2010 It was a bit cold and windy this day; the hoodie helped. |
 15 Wednesday 16 June, 2010 We came at the right time of the year as far as flora was concerned. The rocher is situated in the heart of a 4,000-hectare forest - it's very beautiful. |
 16 Wednesday 16 June, 2010 Looking east to the plains of Alsace. |
 17 Wednesday 16 June, 2010 The chapel is small but very elegant. The front walls are adorned with statues of the virgin and child and my uniformed guess is that the statue of the man, centre left, is a carpenter named Joseph. |
 18 Wednesday 16 June, 2010 We climb narrow winding stairs up the inside of the tower. We alight on a ledge without too many safety features and it was a bit scary. |
 19 Wednesday 16 June, 2010 Below are the winding steps that we climbed up to get to the chapel. |
 20 Wednesday 16 June, 2010 From the plateau we can see the restaurant below - our next port of call. I'm fascinated by the layers of sedimentary rock with rounded pebbles of quartz or quartzite embedded in them. |
 21 Wednesday 16 June, 2010 We walk back down the steps to the restaurant to have a coffee and snack. |
 22 Wednesday 16 June, 2010 We sit and have a coffee and tarte. I remember with great embarrassment shaking so badly that I almost emptied the cup. The lady very kindly cleaned up the mess and brought me another free of charge. |
 23 Wednesday 16 June, 2010 Meeting Michele was one of the happiest things to happen to us in our lives. The three of us get on fabulously and a great affection exists between us. |
 24 Wednesday 16 June, 2010 The rock has withstood 60 million years of weathering which makes it a fairly safe place on which to build a chapel. My guess is that the quartz (or quartzite) in the sandstone resists weathering and this is why the rest of the land has worn away leaving the Rocher du Dabo standing on its own. |
 25 Wednesday 16 June, 2010 We stopped at the Chapel Obersteigen in Wangenbourg on the way home. It was built by the Augustinians in late Romanesque style during the 13th century. Monastery buildings remain but are in ruin. |
 26 Wednesday 16 June, 2010 A chapel is a place of worship and can be part of a larger church, or at an airport, refuge, etc.. The word is drawn from the legend of St. Martin who divided his cape (chapelle) in half and gave half to a beggar, hence, half a church. |
 27 Wednesday 16 June, 2010 The significance of this place is that Michele's father used to play the trumpet here. The chapel is very austere which, I suppose, reflects the beliefs of the Augustinian monks who built it. We return to Michele's house in time for the evening meal. |
 28 Wednesday 16 June, 2010 When we were here last year, one of the many treats Michele's parent's prepared for us was pork, bacon, knack (Alsacian sausage), spaetzle and choucroute. I enjoyed it so much I asked if we could have it again. |
 29 Wednesday 16 June, 2010 Michele's parent's, Rene and Paulette, cooked this for us while we visited Dabo. |
 30 Wednesday 16 June, 2010 Rene and Paulette used to run the restaurant in Romanswiller which means they know how to cook Alsacian foods. |
 31 Wednesday 16 June, 2010 Rene and Paulette join us for dessert (that they also made). |
 32 Wednesday 16 June, 2010 Rene left early so that he could watch the second half of a World Cup soccer match. |
 33 Thursday 17 June, 2010 The next morning, it's time to leave and head into Germany. |
 34 Thursday 17 June, 2010 We leave quite happily knowing that we will see Michele and her family again when we return in a few weeks time to visit Paris. Next stop: the Porsche Museum in Stuttgart |
