Travels with Forty Roses: October 2020

Strasbourg. . . a quite different city from Paris, but beautiful in its own way, despite a drought ridden summer in France. Canals were exceptionally low, weediness prevailed as there had been little or no traffic throughout the canals during this year’s early confinement. The VNF (the organization that manages the French waterways) were unable to begin canal cleaning so boats that did move faced issues. Our boat was moved from Paris to Strasbourg by two wonderful friends along with their 2 cats, Cosette and Hugo. We know they had a challenging trip and are deeply grateful they came to Paris after we left in June and travelled the many kilometres to our current location: The Port de Plaisance at Parc le Citadelle just off the Rhine. Strasbourg is right on the German border so we can shop for baguettes in France and sausage in Germany. Both France and Germany are seeing a rise in virus infections and in France, in many of the large cities, tough measures are invoked again. Here the infections are lower, and we have not hit the High Alert designation of other urban centers. But we are being extremely cautious. Our appointment for flu shots are scheduled this coming week.

Strasbourg is an EU Parliament city where the government moves from Brussels at least once a month for 12 plenary sessions. The Parliament buildings are quite modern and located in a beautiful setting along a waterway as the city is circled by canals. Being a university city, the student population is large and like other similar locations students are certainly not as careful as they ought to be during this pandemic. We steer clear of the most populous student hangouts which seem to be bars and restaurants.

Thanks to friends who returned to the USA we share the use of their car, a used Renault that we who share, drive very carefully as the clutch is possibly on the verge of demise. It has been a wonderful loan and as our friends who brought the boat are here along with another couple who have their own car, we can see something of this beautiful area safely, in our car bubbles.

Yesterday we celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving and shared some traditional treats with our neighbours. However, we followed the Ontario /Canadian rules and dined on our own along with Oscar who ate more chicken than we did. Sadly, no pumpkin pie or cranberries but a tasty squash, our favourite Brussel sprouts, and a delicious lemon tart for dessert. Today we enjoy the leftovers with no cooking involved.

As John and Oscar joined me here on September 16, we have taken several little trips with more planned. We make them easy day trips as home is here aboard Forty Roses. The Black Forest High Road to Baden-Baden, the upper portion of the Alsace Wine Route {the lower portion to follow), the pretty town of Saverne, the Lalique and St Louis Glass museums and surrounding countryside being the primary trips. Naturally, I have photos of most of these trips. Forgive the multitude of flower images but they are too hard to resist. Never have I seen such glorious geraniums.

For those of you good readers who have expressed concern for our health and well-being we say this. We do have a couple of plans if things here become intolerable. We either close the boat speedily and return to Canada or we move the boat to a yard in NL, which is not an arduous trip. There we will have its bottom cleaned and repainted, as being in the water since November 2016, it is due. We will then head home from Amsterdam.