Second Act

Garbage strike. There is a garbage strike. Which means piles of garbage. Everywhere. Outside homes, and apartments, and stacked high on street corners in town. Fortunately it has been below freezing, which minimizes smells. But jumbled black bags do not make nice scenery. I suppose we shouldn’t be surprised. It seems like strikes are normal. It is common for the trains to be on strike, more than once a month. When the government automatically withdraws money from paychecks to support union organizations (called work councils), regardless if the individual would like to support this group or not, the result is powerful unions. And it appears the garbage collectors union is no different.

The transition following the Christmas break has been difficult. We spent a very enjoyable 2 weeks in the US, seeing friends and family, conversing in English, eating spicy food, and buying cheap clothes (compared to few friends, no family, only brief snatches in English, munching bland food, and only window shopping for expensive clothes). In addition Shereen has not been able to tutor English as she was before the break. Her visa is labeled “Visitor”, which means she cannot work. We are told we can appeal again in March, but that leaves weeks of downtime. Both of us are concerned about getting through the next few months. Shereen is still going to the gym and has started cooking once a week with one of our American friends, but our tennis club seems to be on hiatus due to the cold weather. This leaves long hours with minimal activities.

In addition, my job has become much more uncertain. ArvinMeritor announced that they are no longer planning to sell the Light Vehicle Systems (LVS) division, but will break LVS into pieces: Wheels to remain with ArvinMeritor, Chassis to be exited, and to pursue a sale of Body Systems. I am currently working with the Body Systems division. I am still on a US contract with plans to return to the US later this year, but with LVS being split up, there may not be a corporate position for me in Detroit. The other option may be to extend our stay in France, but I don’t think this is fair to Shereen. At this point I am prepping my resume and preparing for anything. I would like to get back to the US later this year, but to do so I may need to find another job.

On a more positive note, we had an active social weekend our first one back in France. On Friday night we went to a restaurant with our Minnesota friends and their young boy. It was the guy’s 40th birthday, so his wife brought out napkins with “Happy 40th” on them at the table. The place specialized in fondue, with a twist. The traditional French fondue uses raclette cheese. The guys ordered the raclette while the girls ate huge salads. We were brought a plate of sliced deli style meats, primarily varieties of ham, and a bowl of baked potatoes. The cheese was brought as a large half round and placed in a metal contraption at the side of the table. The round of the cheese nestled into a curved, flat metal holder and a linear heating element (think of a stove coil straightened into a narrow U with long sides) was slid near the flat side of the cheese. As the cheese heated we used a wooden spoon to slide the melting cheese into a plate beneath. From here it was simple dip and chomp on meat, potato, and cheese. Very tasty, but fooled us into thinking we were eating less than we actually were, which led to some discomfort after the meal.

On Saturday afternoon we visited the home of my French boss, Denis, to eat la galette des rois or just la galette (the cake of the kings, known as king’s cake in the US). La galette is a round, flat cake with a flaky, pastry style crust between which is, typically, a filling of either lemon or pear and chocolate. Hidden inside the filling is a small toy, usually ceramic. Whoever finds the toy in their piece is obligated to wear the paper crown provided with the cake and may crown a queen (or king) as well. The formal tradition is that the king is required to buy la galette for the next year. Shereen was queened after I spied the corner of the toy in my piece and gave her that part to sample.

The evening was spent at the home of my American VP, Matt, for dinner. Our Minnesota friends were also there. We were served fresh oysters, cracked open minutes before eating, with a spectacular cocktail sauce followed by rice and seafood casserole. Later in the evening I served as referee between the two 3 year old boys as they negotiated via violence who would have the trains. No results were achieved when one took full swings at the others head, so the reverse headlock was attempted, before returning to whacking with train in hand. The dads seemed amused; we thought it was a bit ridiculous. Eventually I gave up and bunkered in amid the screaming as the parents feebly attempted to restore order. An interesting if not necessarily enjoyable finish to the day.

Alsace

In December, before the Christmas holiday, Shereen and I took our last weekend trip of the year to Strasbourg. During the weeks leading up to Christmas, many of the larger towns in the area have Christmas markets, including Orleans. But the market in Strasbourg is said to be the crème de la crème of Christmas markets. This piqued our curiosity, only to be satisfied by seeing it for ourselves.

Strasbourg is located in the Alsace region of France very near the border with Germany. Ownership of this area has changed hands from France to Germany many times, so much so that the culture is a unique blend of French and German. The drive from Orleans was “only” 5 hours, so we left on Saturday morning with plans to spend the afternoon and evening in Strasbourg.

After parking in a garage on the perimeter of the city, we walked across the river that encircled the town and followed the stream of people toward the unseen market. Typical of European towns, the streets are narrow, preventing one from seeing your destination until on top of it. We began to pass huts collected in gaggles, aligned to funnel passerby up against the display fronts. Available were various Christmas ornaments and lights, lace doilies, wooden toys, plastic Santa’s climbing ladders and spinning, amongst which were interspersed food huts offering thick waffles with chocolate, strawberry or sugar toppings, crepes with similar coatings, pizza on baguettes sliced in half long ways, roasted chestnuts from locomotive style roasters, and the popular “vin chaud”, hot wine flavored with large chunks of fruit floating in plastic cups. One gaggle contained huts from different areas of Europe, with jewelry from Romania and scarves from Slovakia among others.

We bit into waffles as we wandered, looking for something interesting to buy. The streets were packed with people and among the huts it was difficult to move through the traffic. The main market was located at the foot of the cathedral, another imposing architectural marvel. Next a bag of chestnuts and vin chaud helped us to keep the cold at bay. Other than making a few purchases in a chocolate store, we were struggling to find something we were interested in buying, the offerings either seemed to be cheaply made or expensive (particularly with the detrimental exchange rate). The cold began to get to us after a couple of hours. After spending too much time cramming through long, narrow passages between huts with an impatient, elderly, German woman using her large purse to push you from behind, we decided to make our exit.

Our hotel was another budget job over an hour drive from Strasbourg. Clean and comfortable, but small.

The next day I decided, against Shereen’s objections, to drive back east to visit Colmar. My interest was to see the Unterlinden Museum which houses the Isenheim Altarpiece. Since Shereen was not at all interested in seeing the city or the artwork, we stayed only long enough for me to enter the museum, walk past the other displays, and listen to the audio guide at the altarpiece. This artwork is as famous in Germany as the Mona Lisa is in the US. It was created for the Isenheim monastery, which served as a hospital that specialized in treating skin diseases. In particular ergotism, caused by eating fungus infected grain, was quite common in this area at the time the painting was completed. Since the altarpiece was intended to comfort those suffering in the hospital, the image of Christ is painted with skin displaying the marks of ergotism: Christ suffered as you do. Other significant features are the cross bowing under the weight of Christ which pulls his shoulders out of there sockets, the varying and realistic expressions of grief on the observers at the cross, the uniquely dramatic “exploding” resurrection, concert of angels including Satan among the choir, and the vividly gruesome temptation of St. Anthony. For more see: http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/html/g/grunewal/2isenhei/index.html

I did have a chance to walk through Colmar for a few minutes. The city is smaller and “cuter” than Strasbourg, having more interesting houses and streets. Colmar should be your first choice if touring Alsace.