|
Post by Deleted on Aug 27, 2011 19:54:44 GMT
I don't really know if it is appropriate to put this in the "post cards" section, because there is not much to look at, but since I took a certain number of pictures last Saturday, I figure this is as good a place as any. The event was the 80th birthday of family friend Marcel, referred to by my mother for many years as "snotty nosed Marcel." She is six years older than he and in grammar school she always made it sound like she spent 50% of her time wiping his nose. (Since it was a very small village, all of the kids interacted even when there was a significant age difference.) Although it was Marcel who was from the village, it was his wife Gertrude who locked in the relationship between my family and hers. She was one of my grandmother's best friends. There was a lot of municipal interaction between them because my grandfather was the mayor, and Gertrude was very much involved in all of the charity work of the village. Even now, she is the Red Cross representative of the village and spends great amounts of time visiting the nursing homes of the region. I have always been invited to the family events over the years, having become a member of the extended family. Gertrude is the more unusual element of the family because she is German, and believe me, it is absolutely not easy for a German person to be accepted in that part of France. If I am not mistaken, Marcel met Gertrude during his military service in the French-occupied Saar, which was administered as a French protectorate from 1947 to 1956. It was returned to Germany in 1957 after a referendum. The whole postwar era was a very strange time. Nevertheless, Gertrude is totally accepted in the village, even though younger generations know her as “Jeannette” and her original nationality is never mentioned to them. She does not have a German accent. However, she does have a German family, and they are always invited to these events. It creates a remarkable moment of Franco-German harmony each time, since most of the Germans speak French and quite a few of the French people learned German as their primary foreign language. Anyway, the event was being held in the courtyard of her son Eric’s house. He has a pretty big farm compound on the edge of the village, with room for the 80 guests. The nearby fields are the fields of my childhood, which I showed in another thread. I was one of the first people to arrive, so it was interesting to see the people presenting themselves at the compound. As a "family" member, nobody finds it strange for me to wander around alone to see the animals, kitchen garden and fruit trees. I was informed of an unfortunate tragedy that week -- they had 8 turkeys and 7 of them died during the week for an unknown reason. The remaining turkey was not looking well. The geese, however, were in perfect annoying health with their ugly honking and aggressiveness.
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Aug 27, 2011 20:03:27 GMT
|
|
|
Post by mich64 on Aug 27, 2011 20:55:44 GMT
What a lovely use of the coal rail car/cart in the garden, respectful of the industry and history of the Region. I also think your families compound is beautifully maintained, it must take a lot of effort to keep the flower and vegetable gardens looking so wonderful. The photo with the two towers, are they towers from the mines? They look so familiar to me. Were you any where near Forbach, Stirling Wendel, Merlebach area? Cheers, Mich
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Aug 27, 2011 21:26:48 GMT
Those are typical water towers, simply built differently because they are from different decades. I'm glad you noticed them, because they are the most important element of the photo for me. They were the destination landmarks of long family walks. When we reached the water towers, it was time to turn left on the next road.
The mining carts are a theme all through the region, and anybody with connections to places like Stiring Wendel will obviously recognize this, as you do. (This village is in Meurthe-et-Moselle, not Moselle, though.)
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Aug 27, 2011 21:56:54 GMT
Before the meal, there were beer kegs and sangria bowls and even lemonade. I didn't get any photos of the nibbles, but they were impressively excellent -- pizza squares, real quiche lorraine, German sausage rolls and all sorts of other things. Frankly, usually most of this stuff is dreadful, but I have to admit that the family in question comprises a number of fabulous cooks, and everything I tasted was excellent. Eric, for example, was a gendarme for most of his life, but before that, he went to pastry school and learned to become a pastry chef. Here is Eric, on the left, obviously. The woman next to him who is so full of mirth had just pretended to have engaged in some really weird scatological activity which I prefer not to relate. Once the alcohol begins to flow in this part of the world, the older people are really full of surprises. The number of guests slowly rose to the official count of 80. That figure had been used because of Marcel's age of 80. Otherwise, it would have been necessary to invite at least 150 people. During my past 3 or 4 visits with my mother, he remained hidden somewhere, because he cannot bear to see her in her current condition. Gertrude works with lots of Alzheimer's patients, so it is not a problem for her. A lot of the old people of the village remember my mother as a very avant-garde dynamic young woman who paraded around in shorts when it shocked their parents. I talked to several old men who still remember with extreme nostalgia my mother's cute ass. The Germans finally arrived. Some of the German women have a sense of style that I fear that French women will never match.
|
|
|
Post by mich64 on Aug 27, 2011 23:00:04 GMT
All of these photos are so similiar to those in our family ablums of our trips to visit with my husbands family. They are comforting to me, makes me feel like I have just spent the weekend with our family! Including the mix of French and German family members.
One of the cousins is currently engaged to a his girlfriend from Germany and they are expecting a baby girl they will call Norah any day now. We cannot wait for the announcement and pictures in the mail!
That is why the towers look so familiar and I can understand them being a landmark in your childhood. My husband has been to the mine in Stiring-Wendel where his uncle and many cousins worked until it was closed.
Cheers! Mich
|
|
|
Post by nycgirl on Aug 27, 2011 23:32:30 GMT
Lovely photos of the farm and garden. Looks like you got some gorgeous weather. I must say, Marcel is a handsome old gent and looks much younger than 80! Good for him. I admire the intrepid style of the spiky-haired girl with the stilettos. I like to dress up, but I tend to tone it down for family events. She doesn't seem to have such hang-ups. Those orange talons, whoa!
|
|
|
Post by lagatta on Aug 28, 2011 1:27:58 GMT
Once again, proof that real men - from a land of miners and steelworkers - DO eat quiche! Yes, I noticed the towers and coal cart as well.
German Eleganz, even without orange talons, is rather different from its French or other Romance-speaking counterparts.
A friend from another forum, but whom I've met in the real world, a nerd in the best and brightest sense of the term, will be working in Saarbrücken soon.
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Aug 28, 2011 5:33:54 GMT
|
|
|
Post by tod2 on Aug 28, 2011 8:10:04 GMT
Oh Kerouac, thank you so much for letting us see this wonderful celebration!! Marcel certainly does not look 80. Getting there ahead of the guests was an excellent idea and made the photo-essay progressively more interesting. I noticed some of the guests dressed in a party mood, like the little bunny tail pinned to the pants of a lady guest! May I ask if the handsome dark-haired gentleman is a husband/boyfriend/son? of the very tanned lady with hair to match her handbag? It is easy to see she must have been a real stunner in her youth. Gertrude is to be congratulated on her wonderful spread and I can see a huge amount of organisation must have taken place. The containers with the food look like they come from a professional kitchen. I can't imagine she called the caterers did she? Looked like wonderful weather for a wonderful birthday bash! Thanks Kerouac
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Aug 28, 2011 8:33:07 GMT
The only items that were not prepared at home were the roasted pigs and the cakes, which are still coming up.
|
|
|
Post by mich64 on Aug 28, 2011 15:04:01 GMT
The food looks like it was an amazing feast. I agree Marcel certainly looks young for his age and appears to be in good health. Looking forward to the photos of the cakes! I think I have a few from our last visit where we were treated to a lovely dinner party.
Lagatta, I too have been to Saarbrucken a few times, I really like it there, especially the Small World Park, which is also a favourite family memory for my husband as his Uncle used to take him there as a child and also took us as adults.
Cheers, Mich
|
|
|
Post by mich64 on Aug 28, 2011 15:32:58 GMT
A Blueberry Flan A Cheesecake Appetisers, pretzel bread with ham and cheese Cheers while I wait for Keuroac's desserts! Mich
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Aug 28, 2011 16:24:55 GMT
That looks pretty close to what one might find in my section of Lorraine, but one of the regional variations is the glaze on the bread rolls -- that is something you see almost exclusively in Alsace-Moselle. Anyway, back to my meal. Just before the meal actually started, this grandson (I think he is a schoolteacher) made a brief speech to honor his grandfather. Sorry that I cannot answer any questions about the guests, because I didn't know more than about 8 people out of the 80 people present -- almost exclusively from Marcel's family. Anyway, the grandson naturally said what a wonderful person Marcel is and how much all of his grandchildren and great grandchildren love him. So he announced the creation of the "Pépère's fan club." Pépère and Mémère are what we call our grandparents in Lorraine and the rest of France makes fun of us, but we absolutely don't care. They can call their grandparents whatever they want. After the speech, all of the grandchildren and great grandchildren came out wearing their official fan club T-shirts.
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Aug 28, 2011 17:32:25 GMT
I suppose I should mention the eldest daughter of Marcel and Gertrude, Annie. Her children were there (and I think that one of them was even the parent of the great grandchildren). It was obvious when I was a young man that Annie's parents had their sights set on me as a possible spouse for her, and to this day it is probably one of the reasons that I am constantly invited to family events. Annie was a lovely and intelligent young woman but we clearly did not have anything in common, so the parents' fantasies were quickly discarded. Annie married a fine young man and had three children. They lived in the Alps, where Annie had a job in a medical center for disturbed children. One night, one of the teenagers decided to burn the place down, and the lock on Annie's door was jammed intentionally. She burned to death in the fire. I always pause at her tomb in the village cemetery. It was one of her sons who read a poem written to honor his grandfather. He broke down and started sobbing during the middle of the poem, which had a similar effect on a certain percentage of the guests. A good excuse to bring out more bottles of wine. There were 100 bottles of rosé for 80 guests. Eric has an actual cold storage room in his house, so none of the drinks were lukewarm, not to mention the fact that all of the food was stored properly. Cheese and salad were available before dessert. Rarely have I seen a collective meal with such clean plates at the end. I was sitting with Eric and his wife, as well as quite a bit of the local gendarmerie. Eric has just retired at age 55, and he and his wife now operate a taxi service for handicapped children. She was a nurse in a nursing home before then. The family seems to be very much oriented in the service of others, which is admirable but not always easy.
|
|
|
Post by mich64 on Aug 28, 2011 18:26:33 GMT
Such a wonderful post card display of a special celebration for a very loved man. The mention of their daughter and what happened to her was so sad to read. People that give their lives to service of others are many times at risk and we tend to forget that that not only are they kind and warm people they are also brave.
Our cousin that is expecting his baby daughter soon is also a Gendarme in Moselle, his brother is an auxillery Gendarme and the other brother is a part-time Firefighter and on a helicopter rescue team. My husband and his cousin have each given one another one of their Firefighter helmets. Service people bond in a special way.
I really enjoyed looking at all the photos. Cheers, Mich
|
|
|
Post by bixaorellana on Aug 28, 2011 21:25:24 GMT
Oh, Kerouac! Of your many, many interesting, informative, and beautifully photographed threads, this one is the only one that made me tear up in empathetic appreciation of the way you showed that "happy families are all alike".
The grounds, the foods, the family, the photos -- all wonderful. But those meats! *want*
|
|
|
Post by hwinpp on Aug 29, 2011 4:42:26 GMT
I like that pig head being for the main man as a joke.
I Germany they try to pin the pig's tail on you without noticing.
What a huge family, it must be fun.
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Aug 29, 2011 5:10:41 GMT
The family really wanted me to stay the night, but I had switched to water well before dessert, and Paris was only 3 hours away...
|
|
|
Post by tod2 on Aug 29, 2011 13:28:38 GMT
So glad we got to see the birthday boy's cake plus all the other delicious ones! Gertrude may be 79 but I love her young hairstlye (very similar to mine...ha ha!).
|
|
|
Post by mich64 on Aug 29, 2011 15:39:19 GMT
What a tasty selection of cakes to complete the celebration! Beautifully presented as was the whole occasion. I would think that the two of them were very happy to have so many family and friends attend and enjoy this beautiful day together. Cheers! Mich
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Aug 29, 2011 16:39:31 GMT
The cake I ate was really excellent -- some sort of raspberry cream cake -- and I am generally not attracted to that kind of stuff at all.
|
|
|
Post by mickthecactus on Sept 15, 2011 15:04:00 GMT
An excellent thread Kerouac - thanks.
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Sept 15, 2011 17:12:44 GMT
I was noticing again how red Marcel becomes when he has a snoot full.
|
|
|
Post by Kimby on Oct 9, 2011 20:03:42 GMT
Too bad your mama wasn't there to wipe his snotty nose!
A nice vignette, well presented, K2
|
|
|
Post by frenchmystiquetour on Oct 9, 2011 20:20:28 GMT
Thanks for the behind the scenes look into the personal life of the travel forums' most well known mystery man.
|
|
|
Post by ninchursanga on Nov 3, 2011 2:54:10 GMT
What a nice thread, I really enjoyed this! (btw. not all Germans dress like that ;-) )
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Nov 3, 2011 6:04:38 GMT
|
|