Visit to Lembach, Alsace, France
Trip Start
Oct 10, 2005
1
13
14
Trip End
Oct 24, 2005
Lembach,
Alsace,
France
Friday, October 21, 2005
We finally took off for France about 11:00 a.m. We had a bit of trouble finding Lembach, Canton Wissembourg, where Judy's great-great-great-grandmother lived in about 1850 with her second husband. We stopped for lunch at La Couronne (Crown) à Wissembourg, a lovely Alsatian hotel/restaurant. Steve had pork medallions in a pepper-cream sauce with mashed potatoes and autumn vegetables, a nice salad, and a chocolate flourless cake that tasted more like very rich frosting-it melted in his mouth (and in Judy's too). Judy had poached salmon, boiled potatoes, and very tender spinach-all swimming in butter. Her starter/entrée (appetizer) was escargot (snails) in a wonderful garlic/parsley/oil mixture. Yummm.
From Wissembourg (population about 20,000) the road climbed up and up until we reached a pass at 423 m. (1388 ft.) Then the road went back down, past grape vines, corn fields, and forests. This area is in the Parc Naturel Régional des Vosges du Nord (Regional Natural Park of the Forests of the North). At last we arrived in Lembach. It is a beautiful little town of approximately 2000 people. (We couldn't believe all the beautiful towns in the area! Like fairy tales come to life.) We stopped at the local bakery to buy a baguette for dinner and while asking for information about Judy's family, met Daniel Lubrez and his son, Jonathan. Mr. Lubrez said that he would be happy to help us by calling other villagers to see if anyone remembered a street named Rue Bourg, where Minette Thalsheimer Siess Lehman lived at No. 124. He took us to his house, a few blocks away, and made several calls, but to no avail. He offered to check with the Lord Mayor on Monday to see if there was perhaps an old map or book that could help. He said that there were even some records of the old Jewish synagogue (no longer standing) at city hall. He said that Siess or Suess is not a Lembach name. It might have come from Mattstal, the next town to the south, but we didn't have time to try there. We also found a town called Molshem about 25 km. west of Strasbourg. Perhaps this is the town on great-great-grandfather Leopold Siess's gravestone as his birthplace
Jonathan scaned a copy of the information Judy had with her. We took their address and email address and will stay in touch. Mr. Lubrez (Daniel) teaches in a technical school in Hagenau, about 20 km. to the south. He used to teach German; he now is their librarian-small world! Jonathan, who just turned 25, works in Strasbourg, about 50 km. south, and is an engineer (even smaller world) who works with welding equipment.
Then Mr. Lubrez gave us a short walking tour of the town. We found the two churches (Catholic and Lutheran), the cemetery (divided the same way), several homes from the 18th century, and the home of the grandparents of Russell Schweickart, the astronaut. The home was built in 1722. We crossed over the Sauer River and saw where women used to wash clothes in the river. We saw a water fountain with a poem by H. Mertz, a poet whom Mr. Lubrez's mother knew. The foundations of the Lutheran church were built in the 14th century and the pulpit is in the form of the biblical tree of knowledge, complete with apples and a serpent. It is very appropriate since one of the primary products of Lembach is apples and apple juice. (Mr. Lubrez served us some Jus de pomme de la Vallée de la Sauer (apple juice from the Sauer Valley)-very sweet, fresh, and delicious. (Now Judy understands her love of apples.) We stopped for a minute at the Auberge du Cheval Blanc (Inn of the White Horse). It is beautiful and we'll have to stay there on the next visit. We also stopped into a tobacconist for directions and found lovely porcelain plates with scenes of Lembach that begged to be bought (also some postcards, a map of the area, and a Lembach bumper sticker for our car).
We again had a bit of trouble finding our way. The road to Landau (Germany) was blocked by construction, but after asking a few people we finally got around it and onto the autobahn to Frankfurt. Note: When we crossed from Germany to France and back, there one stopped us to ask for identification-imagine that! ) By now it was dark and raining, a great chance to see how the new car handled-and it handled great! We got back to Frankfurt, stopped at a grocery store to buy a roll and butter for Judy and yogurt for Steve for dinner, ate and packed, and went to bed-tired but happy about our day.
