Colmar, a medieval city in the Alsace region of France

Leaving Freiburg in southern Germany, we drove west across the Rhine River into the Alsace region of eastern France where we visited the small city of Colmar. It is a very popular tourist destination due to the beautifully restored medieval buildings, including impressive cathedrals, museums, and half-timbered homes, some with a distinct lean in the upper levels. On most any given street, the homes are painted in various pleasing colors, somewhat reminiscent of rainbow row in Charleston, South Carolina, but even more spectacular. The French definitely have an artistic flair...

Schwabentor: the Gateway to Freiburg

First built in the 13th Century, the Schwabentor is one of two remaining gateways in the medieval defensive wall of Freiburg. We walked through this impressive structure each day on our way to and from the city's historic center.

The exterior wall includes a working clock

The city's patron, Saint George, is depicted as a dragon hunter on the exterior wall

The interior

Painting of merchant with wagon on interior wall

Coping with the summer heat in Freiburg, Germany

It's been unusually hot this August in Freiburg, in southern Germany, including today with a high of 93 F.  The restaurants and stores we've visited, as well as the flat we're staying in, all lack air conditioning so we've felt the heat. People cope in various ways including an evening beer at a local beer garden and dangling one's feet in the local river.

Our favorite Freiburg Beer Garden

Cooling feet in the Dreisam River, Freiburg

Black Forest Cemetery

My partner and I are in Freiburg, in southern Germany, from mid-August to mid-
September, on a home exchange with a gentleman who is staying in our Asheville house during this time.
Freiburg is a vibrant University town located in a valley surrounded by the Black Forest.
Today we drove up to the Black Forest, a patchwork of forest, fields, and picturesque villages. Among the latter was Saint Margen, which has a historic convent and church. Behind the church, was a beautiful cemetery, with meticulously maintained living plants adorning each grave. Among the visitors were two small boys in cycling outfits watering a gravesite of an elderly woman.  Perhaps the grave of a grandmother? It was quite touching.

Church cemetery with living plants

A fox and a sunset at Saint Fabian-sur-Mer

Our last day on the Gaspe Peninsula for summer 2018 is today. So, yesterday evening we headed out to one of our favorite spots - the seaway at Saint Fabian-sur-Mer. It did not disappoint.

A red fox watching us as intently as we watched him at dusk

Enjoying the sunset

Chickens on summer loan

Much to our surprise, six chickens (a rooster and 5 hens) came with the house we bought in Le Bic this past June. We've enjoyed watching the chickens wonder around the garden, seek us out at feeding time, and collecting their eggs. A well equipped coop makes tending them quite easy. After feeding them in the early morning, I open up the coop, and off they go into the garden. About 5, they get 'dinner'. By sunset, they wonder back into the coop. Sometime later, I close and lock the door. I occasionally encounter a red fox in the nearby National Park, but I've yet to see one in the neighborhood, nor any other potential predator.
Because we head back to Asheville this week, the chicken guy came by the house to collect his chickens -  turns out, we had them on loan for the summer. In addition to having a couple hundred chickens, he has what the locals call a 'sugar shack', a place where sap from sugar maple trees is boiled down to make maple syrup and other sugary products. Perhaps he also has a sugar maple orchard to go with the sugar shack.
After packing up the chickens, he had a surprise gift, a can of maple syrup from his sugar shack and a small bag of raw maple sugar. He assured us we could "borrow" chickens again next summer. He's one of the many friendly Canadians we've met this summer.

Chickens feeding on grain in front of their chicken coup.

When the chicken guy picked up his chickens at the end of the season,
he surprised us with a gift of pure maple syrup and maple sugar

Edible fruits in the Garden

Our landscape in Le Bic is about an acre with a mix of native and ornamental plants, including a number of plants with edible fruits. Among the edibles are sour cherry, plum, apple, serviceberry, gooseberry, and raspberry. Next spring, we plan to add some blueberry bushes.
Currently, we're picking and eating ripe raspberries (yum! wish there were more), serviceberry (like in Asheville but ripe in late July rather than in early June), and sour cherries (tasty, some a bit sour, others not).

Raspberry (Rubus)

Serviceberry (Amelanchier)

Apple (Malus)

Plum

Sour cherry 

Gooseberry

Sour cherries mixed with serviceberries