Logelheim Again

     George Sassoon is a superWAISER, since he is addicted to maps and to the Web. He found tiny Logelheim on the map (despite my arsenal of maps, I have been unable to) and he found 66 references to it on the Web. However, like most moderns, he falls for publicity. He notes that there is a good Restaurant de la Vigne there, and is obviously eager to try it out. French TV marked le Halloween with a story about the delicious pumpkin soup in Logelheim, presumably at that restaurant, which has achieved the aim of sneaking an ad on TV so attract tourists from as far away as the Ross of Mull. This reminds me that the infamous Tennessee monkey trial was concocted by a small town which succeeded in putting itself on the map.
     George opens a whole can of pumpkin soup: "I would have thought that the whole thing was endemic in German-speaking areas, not just this place.." What does "the whole thing" mean? Halloween or just pumpkin soup? That is a question for a Germanist.
     George continues:
     "Further north, we found a village which described itself as the Capitale de la Choucroute earlier this year. It was full of very serious French couples looking for degustations, but there didn't seem to be anywhere for this, just cabbage-fields and factories."
     George clearly knows the area, so it is surprising that he would fall for the Logelheim ploy. Pretty soon some Alsace village will claim to be the home of haggis. George continues:
     "The choucroute episode reminded me of when we went to look at Clairvaux Abbey, which was founded by St. Bernard and was of interest what with the manna machine etc. Here too there were a lot of people looking lost and puzzled, as the Abbey had been turned into a prison after the Revolution, a fact not mentioned in the guide books!"


     My comment: I have traveled all around France looking at ecclesiastical buildings, but have never been to Clairvaux. Chalk one up for George. According to my 1910 edition of the Britannica, it was still used as a prison then. The long article does not mention "The manna machine, etc.", so I am wondering if George is in the same class as the tourists who came to the Stanford Museum and were disappointed the famous "Little Leland's last breakfast" was a hoax.
     George's wife "wants to go to Florida in the spring. She wants to fly down to Key West, which I gather is full of Hemingway lookalikes and queers so you have to wear your cricket box back to front. Anyway if that's what she wants we'll do it." What is a ·cricket box"? Are the Keys really like that? Is that the enlightened European view of Florida? Or is George trying to flatter us Californians?

Ronald Hilton - 11/7/99