Rodemack unseen
Dec 22, 2012 22:28:37 GMT
Post by Deleted on Dec 22, 2012 22:28:37 GMT
The village of Rodemack is so close to the border of Luxembourg and Germany that it can just barely be considered to be in France at all. I had never heard of it myself, which can be considered rather strange since it is my ancestral region. Most of the noteworthy places were a source of immense pride to my extremely patriotic grandfather (mayor of his village for almost 25 years), but I don't recall of any mention of Rodemack. Yet we drove by just a few kilometers away countless times on our way to Mondorf-les-Bains in Luxembourg, the closest source of cheap petrol and apéritifs to my grandparents' village.
Oh, I can think of a few reasons that it was not on Pépère's radar. Just the fact of being in Moselle rather than Meurthe-et-Moselle would make Rodemack not French at all in the eyes of my grandparents. When they were growing up, Moselle and Alsace were part of Germany, and they never really shook this off. And the fact that Moselle and Alsace still operate under German inspired laws even in the year 2012 certainly does not help to make them more "French."
Thank god that younger generations do not worry about this sort of stuff anymore, but nevertheless, until somebody finally decides to cancel the German laws still in effect, this part of France will never be considered to be completely French. One thing that is preventing the change (from what I understand) is that the social security system is better in Alsace-Moselle, so nobody wants to abandon that. But there are other ridiculous things such as the fact that clergymen are government employees, paid by the government and financed by a religious tax, that absolutely must be abandoned, the sooner the better.
Okay, back to Rodemack. I saw a television report about it many months ago, and I immediately wrote down the name. How could anything referred to as the "Lorraine Carcassonne" have escaped my notice?
So I decided that I absolutely needed to see it and would include a visit in my next trip to the area. Unfortunately, my "next trip" was this week, and a trip in December entails certain huge problems, such as how short the days are at this time of year.
I took a train to Metz, picked up a car and checked into a hotel in Thionville (more about Thionville elsewhere) and decided that I had to drive to Rodemack immediately. Unfortunately night falls at 5 p.m. at the moment.
Of course, this detail allowed me to rediscover that the local population is extremely involved in Christmas displays. I knew this already, but the Christmas lights have definitely amplified in the past few years.
Believe me, this stuff was everywhere! However, I did finally manage to arrive in Rodemack. It seemed as though it was already the middle of the night.
