Vosges Mountains, Auberge du Sobach, Sainte Croix aux Mines, Alsace, France

Almost five days with no internet access. I am in the most beautiful country. High up in the Vosges Mountains of Alsace above Sainte Marie aux Croix. I see several things readily. The one lane mountain roads have fruit trees planted above and below to hold the soil and prevent erosion.

The food is exquisite. I have learned very quickly why my husband has the culinary expectations he has. The local specialties - none of this shipped in from far away - are sausages of many sorts. I saw blood sausages yesterday, such a wine dark as to be almost black.

Pork most often means locally cured ham. Turnips so sweet they melt in your mouth. I hear you saying, what on earth does food have to do with art. Everything! Food is art made everyday. A creation to feed much more than the body. It is intended to feed the soul.

Coming in from Strasbourg via Sélestat the cabbage fields tell me that the citizens prize cabbage so highly that I identified at least three varieties speeding by. I have no idea how many different cabbages I would find if I walked the lanes along the fields.

This is wine country. I see so may similarities with California, Napa and Sonoma Counties. It is easy to understand why the vintners of the nineteenth century chose the coastal mountains to root both their families and their vines.

Later today I will come down from my mountian perch and check my email. I am looking for WiFi; it is not easy to find. I understand I can go to the library. It is a formidable building, late eighteenth or early nineteenth century. What would be a mansion to you or me.



I have some motion tape already. I will try and pick up some still photos to add to this note today. Written 9.13.6.