In Which Carol Visits Me and We Have Buckets of Fun, Part One

Our feet on the floor of the Palais Universitaire (Theology Departments!).










Carol's sweet feet on French cafe soil! At the Cafe Brant for a late petit-dejeuner.





























And then we decided to climb the cathedral!























Halfway up the staircase:

















































On the platform!






















My dear Place Kléber, seen from the air.

























































































And then we climbed down and kept walking!

To be continued . . .

(Note of clarification for infrequent blog-visitors: I am no longer in Strasbourg! This is a belated posting from May.)

La plus petite jardiniere (un premier coup d'oeil)

I'm getting ahead of myself, since I haven't finished the trips to Mont Ste-Odile or Domremy. But look at these flowers!


Alium, in the same family as garlic (l'ail).








Les pavots finis (finished poppies).











Pivoine! (Peonies!) This was after a day of rain (during which I trimmed roses and got drenched).









Philadelphius coriolanus (sp?).






















Capucines! (Nasturtiums!) And a kind of oeillet to the right, along with iris leaves. This is what I did the first day--pulled out everything around the capucines so that they can grow out and flood the main walkway by the end of the summer.

La gaufre

I celebrated the end of my Strasbourg semester with one last meal at Bistrot et Chocolat, a small and charming place which specializes in (yes!) chocolate of all types in all kinds of dishes.

If you've spoken to me at all in the past few months, you'll have heard about this waffle ("une gaufre"). While the "gaufre au chocolat et chantilly" is pretty standard snacking fare in France, everyone else just gets it wrong. The waffle is always so sweet that the chocolate and chantilly are excessive, and you end up not wanting to eat any more than a fourth of it. The texture is often problematic too; the waffle is sort of hard and crusty, and the chocolate gets lumpy or is too watery.

Not so with this waffle!




What's immediately evident and most important is the waffle itself--it's texture is like twenty very thin crepes folded over into a waffle shape. That is, it's very floppy and sort of chewy. AND, not too sweet at all! The taste is soft, flat, and subtle; more like a good bread than a dessert.

And the chocolate. *swoon*. 70% cacao, melted to the optimal consistency and slightly warm. Not too sweet, not too bitter. With a glass of cool water, a cafe au lait, and some good reading, this is (was) the best way to spend a lazy afternoon.




Ah, and don't forget the good view! Just a few steps away from my most favorite building in France.