The Octave and such...

The Spires of Notre Dame de Luxembourg.

 This week the Ville hosts two separate festivals that may, somehow, through the weirdness of time and space be distantly related. The annual Octave began last Saturday and is a religious event which sees pilgrims from all around the region descend on Luxembourg in a ten day celebration honoring the Virgin Mary. The other major happening in town is the Foire de Printemps being held out at the LuxExpo. You may recall this venue from such occasions as the annual International Bazaar.

Quite the Fussball table, non? Or, as it's called here, Kickerball.

The origin of Luxembourg's Octave dates back to the 17th century when a plague ravaged Duchy came together to thank the Holy Mother for ending the Black Death. Today pilgrims from the greater region (that used to be Luxembourg) descend on our lovely city to worship at the cathedral and eat churros at the fair held in the adjacent Place Guillaume II.  I guess being a tiny catholic nation among secular and protestant nations can sometimes be a draw in itself.

During the Octave the ailing and elderly come to pray for Peace and Healing.

Sometimes Mystical things do occur...

at the final resting place of the Grand Duchess Charlotte

It's no Gromererekichelcher, but tasty nonetheless :)

The other fair taking place this week is the much larger Luxembourg Spring Fair, or Foire de Printemps. I have no facts to base this next piece of conjecture, but I imagine the Foire is a spin-off of the original fair that was set up to feed and entertain the religious travelers. The springtime fair is more or less glorified trade show where Luxembourgers go to find contractors and get ideas for this summer's project for the house and garden. Of course it wouldn't be special if it didn't have a little Luxembourg Gusto to keep you interested. Along side the standard fare (pun intended) there is a Salle de Gourmande where all sorts of food is presented, and there are countless wine vendors sprinkled throughout. On our visit we sampled well over 20 wines from all over Europe. It was certainly a cheap buzz…the entry fee is a whopping €5, and I know at least one wine we 'tasted' sells for well over €100 per bottle! Needless to say Jeni and I walked away with a mixed case, so maybe it wasn't such a bargain after all.

Our case (+ 3) does't contain anything as fancy as a €100 bottle of Bordeaux, but we did have a great time and actually learned quite a lot about the different wines of Europe. I'm sure we'll be back out again this weekend because any excuse to track down Grompererkichelcher is a good one!!! These lovely little potato pancakes apparently have there own Facebook page…as they say in French, Likez-nous sur le Facebook SVP!