Exactly six years ago to the day, Jim and I are in the midst of a two-month walking trip of France. In a moment of creative brainstorming and looking to the future, we come upon this idea: a two-month hiatus from life-as-usual, a starting over of sorts, a change of pace to clear our minds and bodies. Our youngest has flown the coop and our lives are in a groove; it’s now or never. We dream of walking the Appalachian Trail but after perusing a book about walking in France, we’ve taken our first steps and find ourselves at the edge of a new adventure. We want to get to know France on foot for 2 months. And so it is that at the end of September, we begin our third walking tour by taking the train from Paris to Strasbourg and then a shuttle train to the small town of Barr where we get off in the dark and find our way to the bed and breakfast for the night. Our hostess, next morning over a breakfast of homemade bread and jams and piping hot coffee, tells us there is not really much to see in this town. Our goal is to take the train to the next town and then walk our way up and through and down the mountains and vineyards to another town. So we head out in the rain, loaded with our backpacks, towards the train station and decide to walk through the center of town. There we discover old, old houses with exposed timber on their second floors and painted an array of colours, blue, yellow, green,. pink, orange, with flowers hanging along the balconies. The streets are paved with old cobblestones that wind around to the town fountain, also decorated with flowers. Despite our hostess’ comment, we think it is one of the quaintest places we’ve ever seen, even in the rain!
We buy our trail map for this leg of the journey and start our hike in the town of Scherwiller. The air here is cooler and it seems like fall is in the air. The rain comes and goes as we fall into a walking rhythm. We have dropped down into the middle of the vineyards of northeastern France. The grapevines are loaded with fruit and we see the beginning of activity at the local wine properties. Even in the rain, tractors go by pulling loads of grapes and here and there, through an open door, we spot men bottling wine. Though our path takes us through the flat lands, all around us we see slopes and mountains. The colours of fall are everywhere. We are amazed at the beautiful houses, very nicely kept up, and at the age of some of the buildings. It’s hard to tell where one town stops and the next begins because it is all vineyards. But each little town has its own central hub with a church and a bakery and a little grocery shop. At one of these, we stop to gather provisions since we don’t know when the next one will be. We finally arrive at our next lodging in the town of Kientzheim. Here again, the grape growers are hard at work, picking, filling tubs full and loading them onto tractors for the ride back to the farm. We can even smell the grapes all around us. We soon spot our bed and breakfast and our hostess shows us to our room. When she finds out that we have been walking a ways in the rain, she quickly turns on the heat in our room and then leaves us to settle in. This tiny hamlet is right next to the mountain so we decide to test our legs on the very steep slope up to the top. We will have to climb this hill tomorrow with our packs on! After an all-day wet and exciting walk through the vineyards, we are ready for some down time. We spy a pizza place across the street and decide to splurge. We enter into a cozy space where it’s quiet and the owners themselves come to take our orders and serve us. We eat some delicious homemade pizzas and enjoy some wine and take our time as our legs slowly relax and our minds slowly unwind. Then it’s a quick dash through the autumn rain back to the bed and breakfast for a good night’s sleep among the vineyards so we will be ready to climb that mountain tomorrow. So here comes autumn in Indiana six years later and the following recipe takes me back to those vineyards of Alsace, France.
Sweet Focaccia with grapes
3 1/3 c. warm water
3 1/3 T. yeast
3/4 c. brown sugar
2 t. cinnamon
1 T. salt
1/2 lb. butter, softened
3 1/3 c. white flour
In a bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Let sit for 5 minutes. Add 1 1/2 c. of flour, brown sugar, cinnamon and salt. Mix well. Then mix in butter. Add remaining flour as needed, kneading gently until dough forms a smooth ball. Cover and let rise for one hour. Divide into 1-lb pieces. Grease some cookie sheets. Flatten each piece by hand into a 7 inch circle. Let rest a half hour.
While dough is rising, cut in half 1 c. cup of green grapes and 1 c. of red grapes. Mix with a little sugar, and a little wine. When circles have rested, make shallow indentations in them with your fingertips, brush them lightly with vanilla yogurt, then sprinkle on the grapes, pushing them gently into the dough. Bake at 400 degrees for 25 minutes or so, just until the dough starts to turn brown around the edges. These are especially good on a rainy fall day!
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