Impressions from Eguisheim (France) By Satis Shroff

EGUISHEIM IMPRESSIONS (Satis Shroff)

Alsace is a region of lovely countryside, much like the Schwarzwald where we come from. I was in a Hinterhalter bus from Oberried driven by a fellow singer named Bernd of our men's choir (Kappel). We'd decided to spend a morning in Breisach near the French border and the rest of the afternoon at Eguisheim.

It was a lovely day and there were lots of clouds on the vast sky, as the bus sped from Freiburg, past the vineyards of Kaiserstuhl.

Our first stop was the restaurant-am-Rhine in Breisach. Once you cross the Rhine you’re in France. There were benches below the trees along the bank of the Rhine. We were served champagne, or the German version thereof which is called ‘Sekt’ because of copyright laws, after which we had a hearty brunch.

The restaurant staff were friendly and there was a big choice of dishes. The after-brunch promenade along the Rhine was good for the soul.

We crossed the Rhine barrage over to Alsace (France) in a bus full of singers and their partners. A motley crowd in casual wear this time and not in the usual blue-and-black uniforms. Due to the fact that France and Germany are both leading nations in the EU the customs posts have been done away, and you can drive to France with nothing to declare. It works the same way when you're coming from France. This is one of the advantages of being in the EU. When a Brit comes across the chunnel he or she might be obliged to undergo the passport and other formalities. When the British pound goes down in value, why, the Britishers will not be ordering 8 litres of beer as usual.

Ah, the blue Vosges mountains and the vineyards appear after crossing the Rhine. Yes, that's us waiting for the others to arrive at Eguisheim and posing for a group pic.

After that we headed for Eguisheim, where we strolled along the cobbled streets and admired the small town decorated, almost everywhere, with seasonal flowers.

Eguisheim is a lovely town with ancient walls and statues dating back to the 13th century and  was the capital of Habsburg's Vorderösterreich before the governmental instances moved to Freiburg following the Westphalian Treaty.

 There are also modern part like this shop selling dried and candied fruits: mangoes, papayas, cranberries, coconut, melons and a host of other leckerlies, as they say in Switzerland. If you've got diabetes and tumors stay away from such seductive shops. You can stroll around the cobbled streets, lick your ice or try out all those edibles from the local bakeries, sit under the many trees and fountains and watch the world go by. There windows are all decorated with geraniums and the fountains and streets lined with summer flowers. The aroma of the bakeries, coffee and Assam or Darjeeling teas mingle with fragrance of the flowers. 

On the church top you see a pair of storks on their flat nests, busy cleaning their feathers or feeding the younger ones. Every village has its church in the middle and a marketplace around it, and the houses are built around the church in concentric circles with the streets leading to different cardinal directions. We even went to a parish church (St. Peter and Paul) built in the 13^th century-1810. Outside the church you peer at the elegantly gabled belfry, the only surviving element from the earlier Romanesque church, which was built in the basilica-form in anno 1220.

 

Inside, the carved lintel illustrates the parable of the wise and foolish virgins. The stained glass windows of the 19^th century go back to 1954, and they retrace the life of Bruno of Eguisheim (1002-1054) who became the Pope in 1049 with the name Leo IX. A copy of the painting ‘Madonna of the Rose Bower’ by Michael Schongauer is displayed to the left of the altar. The original can be seen in the church of the Dominicans in Colmar.

The church organ is interesting as it comprises 2214 pipes of Callinet origin, constructed by the Callinet brothers of Rouffach in 1839. It was Alfred Kern of Strasbourg who restored the organ.

In Eguisheim you see miles of vineyards for it is the cradle of viticulture in Alsace (France). In the earlier days, the bishop of Strasbourg and other abbeys owned extensive vineyards in the area. Bruno d’ Eguisheim, who later became Pope Leo IX, was born in the residence flanking the main square. The present buildings around Eguisheim date back to the 19^th century. There was a castle on this site 1100 years ago.

When you take a walk around the olde town you see the 12^th century walls surrounding this small town, with its winding, narrow lanes and really quaint half-timbered small houses. The exquisitely old houses display a date and coat-of-arms. The people of Eguisheim love to show their collection of traditional vineyard tools for pressing the grapes, as well as old agricultural implements in front of their houses.

The others who are waiting for the stragglers to arrive, all smiles after a lovely walk in the small wine town of Eguisheim. Suddenly it started raining and we decided to take shelter in a nearby church, where we sang songs: Evening Rose, Heaven is a Wonderful Place and Irish Blessing. Petrus must have liked the songs. The resonance was good and it has stopped raining. Songs work miracles,eh? There were so many wine shops and cellars where you could try out the different wines from the local vineyards. When it comes to wine testing, the vendors in Alsace are a bit miserly--but in Southern France and elsewhere the French are generous. Anyway, we tried a cellar where they had sylvaner, muskat and gewürztraminer. I bought a bottle of gewürztraminer after the testing because it has a lovely, sweet and spicy taste. That's my favourite. 

During my university days I come out to Alsace with a friend named Wolfgang Mangler and we'd buy a lot of bottles of wine, which we'd drink over the warm summer days to the music of Moustaki, Zorba the Greek or the French singers of yore.

The wine was good and it was afternoon and most of us settled down in the cafe to enjoy the eclaire, tortes, brioche, ice-cream, and lots of goodies. Right near a local fountain there was a memorial erected to remember the fallen French soldiers in World War II, which had brought a lot of misery and the French and the Germans were at their throats in World War I and II. You could read the names of the French soldiers. 

In Freiburg we also had a memorial of a battle at Belfort but the statue has been removed because the Siegesdenkmal area is being reconstructed. Freiburg has been receiving a lot of money for such projects from Stuttgart and also the refugees, and now it has a deficit in its treasury. Oh, la-la. 

Caveau d’ Eguisheim is known for its superb collection of wines. The caveau is an old patrician’s house with a genuine 18^th century wine press. You go to a cellar in the premises and see three outsized wooden kegs, which were formerly used to store wine from the region.

A wine festival in Alsace is a classic event complete with brass bands, folklore and, of course, the traditional Flammkuchen. There are 30 Sylvaner wines and 150 different wines in Alsace, half o which are known to be of bio-quality.

Eguisheim even has a monument to Alsatian wine with the ode:

 

Ode au vin
Mon Dieu donnez moi la vie pour longtemps
de l’Amour de temps en temps
du Boulot pas trop souvent
mais du Vin d’Alsace tout le temps.

 

 Ode to wine
My God give me life for a long time
Love from time to time
Work not too often
But Alsatian Wine all the time

The Gewurztraminer can be taken as an aperitif, with cheese and with desserts. Then there’s the Pinot noire, which is suitable for fish dishes, grilled cuisine, curry and cheese. Cremant d’ Alsace is ideal as a vin de cocktail, a refined aperitif, and also to accompany a dessert.

Some houses date back to the 15^th century and when you look at the old walls you notice that that the facades have been well-kept and the cement holds longer. In the 18^th century home-owners were allowed to do whatever they wanted with their home and there was no uniformity. The old church was reconstructed with the money earned from the vineyards. Even though the Catholic priests were obliged to practice zolibat, the female cooks and the cleaning women were often the girl-friends of the priests, and as a result they became occasionally pregnant.

 

The road of the five castles: the castles are Pflixbourg, Hohenlandsburg and the three ruined castles of Eguisheim, depicted by Yours Truly. They were built in the 12th and 13th centuries. The towers of Eguisheim stand amidst woodland on top of a hill with a fantastic view of Colmar, the Rhine Valley and the Schwarzwald.