Erma and Bin Laden

Soon after I arrived in France, Mike and I took off to Brussels and then to Essen, Germany, for Mike's work. After that we took a long weekend and did some sight-seeing in Germany and northern France. We toured the valley of the Mosel river in Germany -- its a huge white wine-producing region, picturesque with the winding river, the trees changing autumn colors, and tiny lovely towns dotted along its sides. Once in a while you also see a castle originally built to defend the river, and to extract payments from passing boats. Had some lovely zweibelkucken (onion tarte) for lunch with some local white wine.

We stayed in the town of Cochem and visited the medieval castle the next morning. A lovely autumn day (see photos in next posting).

Our last night, we found a Chambre d’Hotes, (a bed and breakfast), in a tiny farming hamlet called Domremy aux Bois, in the Meuse Region, which is northeast of Paris. Lucky for us, our host, Erma, whose entry hall was wallpapered with newspapers (yes, really), also does Table d’Hotes, which means you sit at her kitchen table and eat whatever she’s making for dinner for the family. We had an amazing evening with Erma, who hails from Luxembourg. She married into the Tchaikovsky family. She had lots of home-spun remedies, lots of stories -- all told in mostly French, some German and a very light dash of English. She had a cat named . . . bin laden . . . yes, you heard correctly. Very strange. didn't dare ask exactly why she named him that!!! (see a photo of Erma before her fireplace in the next posting).

She fed us a salad of lettuce just pulled from her garden. The main course was endives wrapped in thin slices of ham (jambon), and baked in a cheese sauce. It was truly delicious. She also plied us with various forms of alcoholic beverages and alcohol-soaked fruits which she had made herself. Sent us home with a bottle of her own grape juice and champagne aperitif – its quite yummy.

After dinner she showed me through her supply of herbal remedies. Lucky for me I could recognize some of them even in their dried states (angelica, for instance), and the others she tried valiantly to explain to me. Often because so many plants have Latin names, I could recognize them.

On our way back to Paris, we drove through the northern French countryside -- its mostly rolling farmland and forest with tiny hamlets every here and there -- reminds me a lot of Ireland, but there's a different beauty here -- it seems more gentle, with softer colors, and more tidy -- we could definitely fall in love with a little country place north of Paris.

We urge everyone to visit Erma at her Chambre d’Hotes in Domremy aux Bois. . . and bin laden, of course.