And a special tribute to my other roots also...

The end of the year and the winter solstice are usually a time of reflection on what came before and of regrouping for what comes next. A month ago I wrote about my roots in French Catalonia, in the village of Vinça. With the recent passing of the last of my grand parents, it seems also timely to write about my roots in Alsace, where I was born almost exactly 50 years after my grand father Fernand –or Fern, as he liked to be called.

A rare shot with my four grand parents, dating back to 1993 (when I still had hair): Fern (2nd from left; he's probably the reason I lost my hair...) and his wife Marcelle (far right) were from Alsace; Edmond (far left) and Paulette were from Vinça

Fern and I had always been quite close, and got even closer somehow even though I have been living abroad for 10 years. We saw each other on Skype almost every week, as Chrysa or also my former lab-mate Dave Zappulla could attest from our regular French chatter!

Fern and I in the early 1980s

Fern had always been somewhat of a "computer geek" and I remember we have had in our family all models of computers and computing systems, from one of the first ping-pong computer games in the 1970s, to the latest PC, through an Amiga and an MO5, among others. Fern loved to use them to make what he called "numerical art". A website with a gallery of his work can still be found online.

Artwork by Fernand Gebhardt (1926-2012)

Fern was my grand father on my mother's side. He was from Rosheim, but soon after I was born he and my grand mother inherited from a 15-bedroom house in the North Vosges mountains, in the village of Niederbronn-les-bains. The house had been built by the grand father of my grand mother in 1900.

Old postcard of Rosheim

Christmas market in downtown Niederbronn-les-bains

Family house in Niederbronn-les-bains, November 2012 – fun fact: about 12 years ago, I planted the tree you see on the left side...

Like his father before him, Fern was a dentist. He left his father's practice in Rosheim to his brother Jean-Paul, also a dentist, and opened his own practice in Strasbourg, where he bought the apartment in which my parents are currently living.

My grand parents Fern and Marcelle in the 1950s, when my mom was about 2 years old

View from Fern's apartment –which now belongs to my parents– in Strasbourg

My mum grew up in Alsace, and that's where she tied the knot with my Catalan father who had studied at the Ecole de Chimie in Strasbourg. After I was born, Niederbronn became a regular weekend home, and I've had a bedroom in that house pretty much since that time, not always the same bedroom, but always on the top floor.

Sandstone cathedral in Strasbourg

Panoramic view from the top floor over the village and the Vosges mountains

If I have always been so fond of forests and mountains, I think it is because whether I would be in Alsace or in the Pyrénées down in the South of France, that's the environment I would be surrounded by. I have always loved its quietness and peacefulness!

I recently hiked in the area again, and I paste some of the pictures taken from that hike below.

Niederbronn sits at the heart of the Parc Naturel Regional des Vosges du Nord

Forest near Niederbronn - check out the soft bright green moss on the ground, isn't that just awesome? Straight out of the Shire...

Further down the same hiking trail

A lake ("etang de Hanau") at the end of the trail. My parents actually got hitched there back in 1975!

As I hope these photos and previous blog posts can attest (e.g., 23 Dec., 2009 and 30 Sept, 2012), Alsace is a very picturesque area which has been drawing tourists for a long time. In my humbly biased opinion ;) it's spectacular in all seasons, much like Colorado!

Stories I also like to tell and that you may thus have heard —in spite of Chrysa protesting with a "oh no, not again!"— are that Alsace is the home of the Statue of Liberty, and of the glass ornaments we are so used to hang on Christmas trees :)

South of France and Alsace are as far away as Latin America and Scandinavia, in many ways: culture, mentalities, pace of life, etc. So it's been quite difficult to find my own identity. Over those years of living abroad, particularly in the US melting pot, I think I realized that I am a blend of both places! I am in particular grateful to my grand parents for having planted seeds of our traditions in me and for having watered them over the years.

Fern passed away on November 27th. Like that of Edmond, Paulette and Marcelle before him, his spirit goes on, with me and the new generation it is now my turn to help raise. Such is my promise to them!

A week after Vinça, another pilgrimage to a cemetery where my ancestors are buried

Rose on my grand father's grave

C and Q with Fern in Niederbronn in April 2010

Where I –Quentin– really come from (and all the 'Vicens' before me...)

Last week I met up with my dad in our family home in the village of Vinça, in the Catalan part of France. It was a very practical trip –we cleared out a lot of old crap and I brought back baby stuff my sister had stored there- but also a very emotional trip.

I have not gone back to this place a lot since living in the US and DK, and it is what I still refer to as 'my true home' as our family roots in the area date back to the early 1600s, when it was actually still Spanish.

I spent a lot of time in Vinça when I was younger, and I learned a lot about life from my grand parents, whom I still miss a lot. I even went to school in the village for one trimester! Vinça is therefore loaded with history and memories for me - a place where I can connect to my lineage in a sort of unequivocal way.

It is also a breathtaking place, right by the Mount Canigou. I hope you'll get to visit some day!
More on that part of France here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-20444110

What to see/visit in the area:
http://www.francethisway.com/places/a/vinca-pyrenees-orientales.php

View over Vinça from outside of the cemetery - the bell tower dates back to the 12th century and was restaured in the mid 1700s

Persimmons I collected from a tree in our ~3 acre yard (dare I call it 'a park'?)

The view from the graves of my grand parents and great grand mother in the cemetery of Vinça - not a bad place to spend eternity! The peak at a distance is mount Canigou (2,700 m = 9,000 ft)

Our house in Vinça, which was built in the late 1800s and acquired by my family in the 1920s if I recall correctly what I've been told about our history

The lake in Vinça - our house is on the other end of the lake, behind the patch of trees that can be seen in the center

Cozy tea-time by the fire place which bears the initials of my grand father and my ancestors before him: 'EV' for 'Edmond Vicens' 

My bedroom for the past 36 years!

View from a balcony in our house - I've always sworn this was the same hill that Zorro would wave from when leaving in the sunset!

Recycling wood 'the Catalan way' ;-)

Sunset over a field of olive trees at the Provence border, right by the highway! Photo taken on my way back to Nice

Mer, Soleil, Paris, Aznavour, la Famille

Place de l'Opera

Champs Elysees

How to park your Smart car

The Seine by Notre Dame

Rue de la Montagne Ste Genevieve

Stained Glass in Eglise St Etienne du Mont

"France makes me happy!" :)

Eglise St Etienne du Mont

A new coat in front of the Pantheon

After the concert

In front of the Olympia concert hall

Charles Aznavour rocks!

Another nice day by the sea...

We spent our time from Sept. 11-18 between Nice, Strasbourg, and Paris. The heat wave was still hitting Europe and we enjoyed days at the beach as if we would be still in July... Quite a treat coming from Denmark where the summer had long long long disappeared...

Our main motivation for going "North" to Paris via Strasbourg was our tickets to a concert by Charles Aznavour at the famous French music hall called l'Olympia. At 87 years old he had booked the concert hall for an entire month with plans to then tour the rest of France until Christmas.

In a shape that most of us near 40 could envy, he sang 27 songs over 2 and half hours, with no break! The warm energy in the room was quite palpable, even to C who was missing out on half of the French lyrics. This evening really illustrated how Charles Aznavour is sort of a grand father to pretty much any family in France. People just love him, and he clearly loves to be on stage. It looked like he was at home, at least more than on the TV sets where he has been spending a lot of time these days, advertising for his concerts, his new album, and his latest book.

This evening was not only great, it felt like a so unique and perfect way to spend an evening in Paris! Especially with a fine early dinner before at the old Parisian restaurant Chartier and an aperitive on the boulevard, at sunset, right before the concert... Chrysa also chose this opportunity to get herself a brand new and cheerful coat from Desigual that has since attracted much envious looks from other women ;-)

We also spent a fair amount of time exploring Paris' past and history, by visiting some of its oldest sites and paying homage to Sainte Genevieve, one of Paris' first patron saints who rests in the church of Saint Etienne du Mont in the Latin Quarter. During our visit we met a French fan of 17th century painting who joined us on a tour and shared his knowledge of what we were seeing. We ended this quite inspiring day with a dinner at L'epigramme, a modern Paris bistro. We ate there with Q's sister Sigo, who will be studying in Paris this year, and her boyfriend, Manu. Then Sigo took us all to the Grand Palais (built at the end of the Champs Elysees avenue at the same time as the Eiffel tower) for a special exhibition and "meditation in action" for the victims of the Fukushima nuclear accident.

On our way to Paris we made a stop-over in Strasbourg to return Q's parents car that we had been borrowing for too many months now... That was a quick but always enjoyable opportunity to cross Q's beloved Switzerland, and also to remain in awe at the wonderful vistas on the Aosta valley in Northern Italy. After this scenic but a bit long trip (10 hours in the car...), we were welcome by Q's parents and grand father. We enjoyed a fine dinner, with C now able to participate and even launch complete conversations in French with Q's family! They were all quite impressed (they should be!).

Dynamo Fukushima - Grand Palais

Meet the parents

South of France is an enjoyable place to be...

At home when surrounded by art!

C'est pas mal ici, non ?

Arriving in Saint Paul

A narrow street in Vence

Mosaic by Chagall in Vence's cathedral

Une jolie fontaine a Saint Paul

La chapelle Matisse a Vence

View over Vence

My favorite place in the Nice area

My favorite place in the Nice area and my favorite person (not just in the Nice area)

My favorite...–oh, you probably get the picture by now :-)

From Q: It's sunny here in Aarhus today so the climate invites some friendly memories from my sorely missed four weeks in Nice last month. It's also Sunday, a day on which the family typically gets together for a copious and joyful meal. For these two reasons, it's perfect timing to pay a tribute to my parents who visited us in Nice while I was there.

My parents, Mireille and Jacques, were very helpful in helping us get an apartment in Nice. They also served as our references for the lease, as we could not come to visit the apartment ahead of time nor meet the owner. They were both psyched when we announced we'd be settling down in Nice, since they plan to spend most of their soon-to-come retirement in the cute village of Vinça where we have an old family house. This area is about 5 hours away by car, but still in super-scenic and magical South of France, as you can see on this post from last summer. It's just Spain instead of Italy on the other side of the border...

My sister is already in Montpellier, raising her daughter Mila with her S.O. Mathieu. My other sister Sigo almost made it down there as well but she is still in the midst of her studies, so life fluctuates a lot for her. It looks like she will definitely make it further South than Brussels, Belgium though!

My parents stopped by for two days on their way from Strasbourg to Vinça, right before Bastille day. So Chrysa was at work in the day time, and joining us for dinners in the evening. I spent the days with my parents, walking around historical towns, visiting museums, and going to the beach.

There were mainly two themes during my parents' visit. My dad grew up in Nice from ca. 1947 until 1960, so we went back in time... We found where he was living, we even went inside the building and it was fun to hear my dad comment on what had changed, what had not... Isn't there's just something always fascinating about hearing some insights about one own's parents lives "before you were born, son". Always makes me feel like we're getting to mysterious land.


We also went to swim in Beaulieu-sur-mer, where my dad did his first swim in the late 1940s. For sure the town had grown since, and he was not so sure about which beach has had been to any longer... But already back then apparently the most quiet time to go to the beach was 6am! That's when my grand father would take my dad for a swim. We also visited the beaches in Villefranche and Saint Jean, that Chrysa and I both like a lot (and prefer over Nice's beaches).

The second theme of this visit was contemporary art. My dad's first hobby has always been art. Painting and making collages (see here for one of his recent exhibits). The Côte d'Azur is famous for having attracted the most talented artists over the years, such as Matisse, Picasso, Cocteau, Renoir, etc. The vibrancy of the art community down there reminds me of that in Taos/Santa Fe in New Mexico.

We walked around the very cute village of Vence, which has a mosaic by Marc Chagall in its cathedral, and of course a few art galleries. We visited a chapel designed by Matisse on the outskirts of Vence. Matisse considered this chapel to be his most accomplished piece of work, and it is truly a wonder.

Most of the art galleries were in super scenic and now (mid-July) super touristy Saint-Paul de Vence, where Chrysa had already been in June. We spent quite a fair amount of time talking with various artists and gallery owners, which got me to suspect my dad's trying to get that kind of business started... stay tuned...

Fine dining in Beaulieu

My parents' visit ended up with a dinner on the harbor in Beaulieu with our friend Christiane, who was the best friend of my now-deceased grand mother. After dinner we enjoyed great Bastille day fireworks that were shot from the jetty. My parents left early the next day for Vinça, which they will leave again at the end of August.