 1 Tuesday 6 July, 2010 We are standing on a hill near Michele's place looking down into Romanswiller. These are the two Christian churches: Catholic on the right and Protestant on the left. |
 2 Tuesday 6 July, 2010 They share a common Christian graveyard however. |
 3 Tuesday 6 July, 2010 The old train station is now a private residence. From here we walk down the hill via Rue des Aulnes. |
 4 Tuesday 6 July, 2010 We see two magnificent homes walking down the hill; that is as we were walking down the hill. They are on the corner of Rue des Cormiers and Rue des Aulnes. |
 5 Tuesday 6 July, 2010 We get to the bottom of the hill, cross a pedestrian bridge over a small creek - La Mossig - and join the Ru du Lavoir heading towards the village centre |
 6 Tuesday 6 July, 2010 The creek is very rustic and the walls appear to be hundreds of years old. |
 7 Tuesday 6 July, 2010 This the Rue De la Synagogue. A synagogue was built in 1738, fell into decline in the 1840s, and a new one was constructed in 1849. It became the property of the township in 1956 and a music school now operates there. The Mairie (town hall) is the blue building at the end of this road in Place du Mairie |
 8 Tuesday 6 July, 2010 This old house in Rue de la Synagogue has a half-timbered top storey. |
 9 Tuesday 6 July, 2010 I thought this was incredibly interesting. The building was originally constructed in the half-timbered style but plastered over. As exposing the timber is now in vogue, this building has had some of the plastering removed as a first step towards restoring it in the half-timbered style. |
 10 Tuesday 6 July, 2010 What stories these buildings could tell. The building on the left has a modern first storey added on top of its original stone ground floor. The building in the centre has had a roof added, perhaps centuries after the original stone foundation was laid. The stones are pink, the same as the Strasbourg cathedral, and have been sawn. The top floor addition is made from moulded bricks and the plaster is falling off. The rightmost building is also built from stones, heavily mortared, but a modern roof has been added. |
 11 Tuesday 6 July, 2010 The Tomi Ungerer library is a half-timbered house dating from 1646. Tomi Ungerer was born in Strasbourg in 1931 and has received numerous honours and awards, including: Legion d'Honneur France (1990), Order of the Deutsches Bundesverdienstdreuz Germany (1993), National Prize for Graphic Arts France (1995), Hans Christian Andersen Prize for children's literature (1998), European Prize for Culture (1999), Officer of the Legion d'Honneur France (2000), Goodwill Ambassador for Childhood and Education of European Council (2003), Erich Käistner Literary Prize (2004), honorary Doctorate in Philosophy from the University of Karlsruhe (2004). |
 12 Tuesday 6 July, 2010 We loop back over the La Mossig creek on the Route de Wasselonne and head back to Michele's place. |
 13 Tuesday 6 July, 2010 The bridge is decorated with flower boxes. There are only 8 staff on the town council and I wonder if this beautifying was done by them or volunteers. |
 14 Tuesday 6 July, 2010 Michele's house is in a new part of Romanswiller on land through which the railroad once ran. |
 15 Tuesday 6 July, 2010 We spent the rest of the day recovering from our hectic past few days. That night, we took Michele and her parents out to dinner as a thank you for all they had done for us. Michele chose the Restaurant Freudeneck a few kms out of town on the Route de Wangenbourg. |
 16 Tuesday 6 July, 2010 We meet Michele's parents, Rene and Paulette, at the restaurant. |
 17 Tuesday 6 July, 2010 They drove their own car to the restaurant and met us there. The reason for this became apparent and hour or so later. |
 18 Tuesday 6 July, 2010 The meals were typically French - wonderful! |
 19 Tuesday 6 July, 2010 Once again I realised why French cooking is so highly regarded. My entree was almost meal size and was fish over (maybe) sliced turkey with the whole lot lightly battered and fried. The batter was more like a thin skin than batter. |
 20 Tuesday 6 July, 2010 The main course was some sort of game bird, pheasant maybe? And once again it was superb. Jenni had a veal dish that she also enjoyed very much |
 21 Tuesday 6 July, 2010 OK, so where's Rene? He left early so that he could watch the second half of a World Cup soccer game. Very funny. |
 22 Tuesday 6 July, 2010 It got cold so we went inside the restaurant for coffee. It was a great evening and we were pleased to be able to do something to repay the kindness of three generous and welcoming people. Next stop: La Petite Pierre |
