Tuesday, March 13, 2007

EUROPE: Day 7 (Seebach, France)

We've spent so much time in big cities that I almost forgot what it was like to be in a small town. Seebach is a very small village just west of the German border. Actually, the town is surrounded by Germany on 3 sides. It's a quaint little French village, though. Phillipe was nice enough to let us sleep in for the first time in a few days and it felt glorious! When it was time for us to leave, we found out that European eating schedules are precisely what they sound like, schedules. In Italy, food was programmed into the schedule and we ate when we were supposed to. We quickly found out that there are only small windows in which you can eat. There's breakfast, of course, and lunch. After about 1:30 or so, you can't eat at a restaurant or get food at a supermarket until around 6:30 PM. They stop serving food after 9:00 or so. After that, you're out of luck, and especially in a small village like Seebach. I said all that to say nothing was open except McDonald's at the time we went to eat. Guess where we ate. Yes, I got pics there, too. ("Ya know what they call a quarter-pounder with cheese in Paris? A royale with cheese." Name that movie.)

After Mickey D's, we went to the concert hall to set up our sound equipment. Come to find out, we didn't have the right power conversion system for that venue, so we used what they had. It's interesting to see us doing a concert with wired mics instead of our normal wirless ones. Such is life. We ended up doing a great concert with a pretty full house (I was told around 580 French and German people). They even asked us to do two separate encores!

Between set-up time and sound check, we met up with a professional tour guide named Don. Don is originally from Canada, just north of Toronto, but now resides in France and doesn't speak English very often. He and Phillipe took us to an old World War II bunker that the French people in that area defended their border from. It's amazing to think of that area 60-70 years ago as a war zone, but that's the way it was. Beautiful country. Lots of farm land for cattle raising. We spent the rest of the day with Don, even after the concert for a short while. He was a complet joy to work with and we are so priveledged to have met him. He is a choral conductor and a professor of music. His 280 member choir sings all kinds of music but he places his emphasis on gospel and liturgical type music. It's his ministry and we pray that God will bless it to its full capacity and then some.

Okay. Bed time. We have a 6 hour drive ahead of us in the morning and have to get up early. I need my beauty rest. Did you think to pray today?

Peace, Love, and Chocolate

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hi, My name isalso Don, and I am an American. I happen to live in Seebach, France (Rue des Eglises). Some clarifications: Seebach is near two German borders, not three. Restaurants stop serving at 1400 hours, not 1330. Large supermarkets (Match, Intermarche, ATAC)are open all the hours of the day. Small ones like Shopi and Coop in Seebach, do close for several hours. They are family operations. The bunker outside of Seebach in only one of many hundreds nearby. The large fortress, Schoenenbourg, is 6 stories under ground, and has a rail line at the bottom, along with its own electricity production, kitchens, toilets, bathing facility. The Germans never penetrated it.
Hope you enjoyed your stay in France. Great food in all restaurants in the area.
Don Neuland