Read in 2025 - 6: Im Rausch der Zeit

Earlier this month (in this post), I described my champagne-themed gift to my Mum last Christmas, and how we watched the film based on a book about the Widow Clicquot (Veuve Clicquot).

By that time, I had already begun to read the book that I had given to my Mum and borrowed from her as soon as she had finished it.

Here is my review of it.

Im Rausch der Zeit

(original title: "The Widow Clicquot - The Story of a Champagne Empire and the Woman Who Ruled it")

by Tilar J. Mazzeo

Clicking here will take you to the author's own website, where one of the first things you'll see is a trailer of the film we saw, about the widow's years as a young wife, mother, widow and business woman.

Unlike the film, the book covers her entire life from early childhood to her death and a little beyond. Frequently it is stated that not much has survived in terms of letters, diaries etc. from or about Barbe-Nicole Clicquot Ponsardin, whereas her business archives have been kept meticulously, and sometimes these offer a rare glimpse into the kind of person she was.

The wikipedia entry about this formidable lady is here.

In the book, she comes across as a woman who, after being widowed at 27, throws all her heart and energy into her own wine business, eventually becoming one of the richest women of her time. As a public figure, she was well known to her contemporaries, but as a private person, only her family and a select few close friends knew her.

It was by no means totally unusual for a woman to run a business at that time, but those were mostly small family businesses, often in hospitality or related to crafts that were considered "feminine" such as dressmaking. Mme Clicquot sought international markets and expansion; she had managers and workers, and deliberately excluded family members from the operating of her business.

She was by no means a feminist; all she wanted for her own daughter was a good marriage, and when the young woman found an impoverished count to marry, it was a dream come true - the money came from her, the aristocratic title from him.

Even long after she officially retired, leaving the day-to-day running of her highly successful company in the hands of her trusted manager, she still took a keen interest in everything, and up to the last day of her long life she looked into the company's books.

Under many aspects, hers was an extraordinary life. The times were forever changing, making things difficult for the economy more than once, with new regulations coming into place seemingly at the whim of whoever was in charge at any given moment (sounds familiar). The early death of her husband certainly was a determining factor in Mme Clicquot's life. Male friends and business partners seem to have been closer to her than female friends, apart from a cousin whose private correspondence is one of the few sources of personal information about the Widow.

I liked the book well enough and appreciate that a lot of research and effort went into it. Also, the author is very knowledgeable about wine in general and champagne in particular. These facts are well presented, and I certainly learned a lot.

The writing style as such wasn't so that I am now going to buy and read all of the author's books. I must admit that sometimes I found it to be a little repetitive and not very elegant in terms of language. But how much of this is down to the translation (I bought the German version locally), I can't say.

A Wish Come True

As I said in my previous post, last Saturday (12 April) we went for a walk that I had wanted to do ever since I found its description in a booklet a few years ago. For various reasons - lack of time, inclement weather, us spending the weekend at my place - we'd not managed this particular walk at the right time, i.e. when the orchards along the way would be in bloom.

But last weekend, we found that we had no pressing obligations or appointments lined up for the Saturday, and the weather was going to be great. No time like the present, as the saying goes, and therefore we got up early-ish (for us, on a weekend at least) and were at the starting point for the suggested tour by 11:00 am.

To give you a bit of background: About half an hour's drive from O.K.'s village is the town of Oberkirch. Its surroundings are famous for there being many orchards, and nearly every farm or older family home in the area has its own distillery. Many sell their products (schnaps, liqueur and other things made from the fruit of their orchards) directly on premise, often from some kind of self-serving kiosk or other.

While O.K and I rarely have schnaps, we love walking among orchards, vineyards and woodland, and so this trail sounded perfect for us.

"Brennersteig" means "Distiller's Hike". The tour included several informative boards about the area and the work of the distilleries, and of course several of the farms could be visited along the way.

The dominant fruit cultivated in this particular area is cherry - maybe you have heard of Blackforest gâteau and other traditional Blackforest products, which often center around cherries. But of course there are many other trees in the orchards, too; all sorts of plums (some varieties I had never heard of), pears, apples, and much more.

We were not only lucky with the weather - sunny and warm at 23C/73F -, but also in catching the best and almost last of the brief period when most of the orchards are in bloom. A week later, and there would have been few blossoms left; a week earlier, and many would not have opened yet.

For lunch, we found a bench and long, narrow table positioned above a valley; it made for great views while we were eating what we'd brought in our rucksacks. A red kite kept gliding across the valley, beautiful to watch especially when the sun lit up the orange-red colour in its tail feathers.

The view we had from the bench where we stopped for lunch

One of the things I love when out for longer walks :-)

The trail included a viewing tower where we'd been before, the Geigerskopfturm. You can see pictures of the tower and its immediate surroundings in my post from May 2022; just click here if you are interested.

These two pictures were taken by O.K. from the tower. Click to enlarge, especially the panoramic one:

For most of the 14 km, we encountered very few people, and even fewer bikes. There was a rather noisy group of young men around the tower, which is why I took no pictures there. Fortunately, they left soon after we arrived, and peace was restored once more.

The first tender green in the woods is particularly beautiful.

One of several farms with their own distillery along the way

Exactly 4 hours after we'd set off we were back at the car. According to O.K.'s smart watch, we had walked for 3 hours and 20 minutes. I had enjoyed every step and every minute, and this walk really was a Wish Come True for me.

A Well Walked Week

With almost uninterrupted sunshine, last week saw me on several good walks, one of which had been a wish of mine for a few years (and that one will have its own post).

On Monday (7 April), the sun warmed the day from freezing point at 0C/32F to 10C/50F in the afternoon. I was working from home, spent my lunch break having a neck & shoulders massage and walked to Benningen after work.

With the spring evening sun, birdsong and blossoms everywhere, even the most unassuming walk becomes thoroughly enjoyable.

I worked at the office on Tuesday (8 April) and was so exhausted after a long and busy day that I did not even contemplate a walk, in spite of it still being sunny and milder than the day before at 15C/59F.

Wednesday (9 April) was my second office day last week. My department had its annual outing, meaning we left work shortly after 3:00 pm. We wisely opted for an earlier train than what would have been necessary according to the timetable, and made it just in time for meeting our tour guide at 4:00 pm in central Stuttgart.

Our department outings are always chosen democratically from a list of options, such as going bowling, booking an escape room, or a particular guided tour, and they always end with a meal at a restaurant.

This time, we had booked a walking tour in Stuttgart, but it was not just any old tour, it was a "Stäffeles-Tour" ("little stairs tour"). Stuttgart's geography is that of a deep bowl with the inner city at its bottom, and living quarters and gardens rising up its sometimes rather steep slopes. The quarters on the slopes and on the rim of the bowl can be reached on foot by hundreds of stone stairs built into the slopes, sometimes narrow and scraping people's back gardens, sometimes grand.

Our tour guide managed to keep us entertained - and able to climb almost 1,000 steps - for nearly 3 hours, taking us through the city's history from medieval times at the bottom to the more recent past and present at the top.

The weather was ideal, not too hot but mild, the sunshine offering good views of the city.

Stuttgart's landmark, the Fernsehturm (TV tower) was built in the 1950s.

Villa Reitzenstein is the seat of the federal state of Baden-Württemberg's president.

one of the grander stairs

A square with a statue in honour of Queen Olga was popular with folks of all ages enjoying the afternoon sunshine (and ice creams).

Almost in the middle of the picture is the large construction site for Stuttgart's controversial new train station, going by the name of Stuttgart21.

Afterwards, we enjoyed a good meal at a restaurant before taking our respective trains home. A really fascinating tour and altogether good outing with my colleagues.

Working from home on Thursday (10 April) enabled me to see a friend after work, leaving a birthday gift for her almost 9-year-old daughter. She couldn't accompany me on my after-work-walk, as had originally been the idea, so I went on my own, walking for a solid 2 hours to Pattonville and back.

Diamond-patterned morning sky, just before 7:00 am from my kitchen window

Friday (11 April) was beautiful and up to 21C/70F warm, but between work, household things and then leaving for Offenburg, there was no time for a walk. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the second part of the train ride in the evening light, looking at the spring green and orchards in bloom along the way.

On Saturday (12 April), O.K. and I were up a bit earlier than usual, in view of a walk/hike I had been wishing to do ever since I had read about it in one of our many booklets with suggestions for tours in the area. It was as beautiful as I had imagined, but you'll have to wait for my next post to see the photos.

Back home, we freshened up a bit and changed, and then spent the rest of the afternoon and early evening at O.K.'s sister and her husband's place, opening the BBQ season in their garden. It was very nice and had a definite feel of early summer about it at 23C/73F.

During the night to Sunday (13 April), a little rain fell; not enough to make up for the worrying lack of water but at least making for fresher and less dusty air.

We slept in longer than we had done in a while, and apart from an afternoon walk around the village to stretch our legs and admire the spring blossoms, we didn't really do much - which was perfectly fine.

For a glorious half hour or so, we even sat on O.K.'s balcony for the first time this year, enjoying the last rays of the sun before it was too low behind houses to reach us. 

After our tea/dinner, I left O.K. to his music practice while I went out again, this time to carry a letter to its recipient in the village. It was dark, but still mild, and the scents from the gardens in bloom were my companions in the quiet village streets.

Another Sunny Week

Apart from Monday, last week was sunny throughout, and some days were quite warm at around 20C/68F. I am still going through an extremely busy period at work but still managed a few good walks.

On Monday (31 March), my trip back from Offenburg was half an hour longer than usual because the fast long-distance trains weren't running at all, no reason given. Local trains are much slower and stop at every hedgerow, it seems, but I still made it to my first online meeting of the day in good time.

At 6:00 pm, I was at my Mum's for our own personal "theme night", the theme being champagne. For Christmas, I had given my Mum a book about the Widow Clicquot, the woman who revolutionised the champagne industry almost single-handedly. You can ready about her on Wikipedia. The second part of the present was to watch the film made about her, partly based on the book. When it was in cinemas last summer/autumn, we couldn't make it, so my Mum purchased the film from Amazon prime which enabled us to watch it whenever we wanted to.

Before the film, we had a delicious home-made quiche (in keeping with the French theme), and opened a bottle of champagne (although not a Veuve Clicquot one).

We enjoyed the film although it took some artistic liberties. 

I went to work at the office on Tuesday (1st of April) and was pleased to see that my request to have two posters hung on the wall opposite my desk had been dealt with by our house technicians. Those posters and the wooden hanging (it works with magnets) were a birthday gift from O.K., and they really change my office for the better.

It was still winter-coat weather at 3C/37F, but the sun came out during the day.

The evening was spent at the pub quiz. My team was at its largest ever - there were 9 of us in total! - and had the same maximum number of points as two other teams. The tie question relegated us to 3rd place, but we still had great fun. In the future, I don't think we'll play again with such a large team, as it is so noisy in the pub on quiz nights that you couldn't hear what was said at the far end of the table, and that made it quite exhausting.

Wednesday (2 April) untypically saw me working from home. I interrupted work for an hour to run an errand for my Mum. My last call finished shortly after 6:00 pm, but I went out immediately afterwards for a beautiful walk of 11 km in the evening sun - the best way to clear my head after work.

For the first time this year, I went to work in Marbach at the Literature Archive on Thursday (3 April). It was wonderfully sunny and mild enough in the afternoon (19C/66F) to be out without a coat, and I walked home all the way from there. It took me about 2 hours and 20 minutes to cover the 13 km or so. All in all I had 15 km under my belt that day, and enjoyed every step.

Sorry - the pictures are in reverse order; I tried twice but each time I added them (with two different methods), they came like that:

Even the most nondescript street can look beautiful this time of year!

crossing the river

The river Neckar. Can you spot the ruins of the castle on the hill?

 Vineyards on the steep slope on the other side of the river

The "rocket", often seen from afar, now up close

Main entrance to the office building of a power plant by the river, built in the 1930s

Another look at the typical 1930s buildings of the power plant (still in use)

National Museum in Marbach, dedicated to poet and playwright Friedrich Schiller, who was born in the small town

View from the museum's terrace across the river to Benningen

Looking in the direction of Ludwigsburg, with the "rocket" clearly visible

Sunrise from my kitchen window that morning

Friday (4 April) was even a tad warmer at 20C/68F, but I didn't go out other than stocking up on groceries for the weekend. As usual, after work I cleaned, changed the bed sheets etc., and then had a bit of a rest until O.K. arrived at 8:30 pm.

We met with my sister for breakfast at our favourite café in town on Saturday (5 April). From there, we strolled across the busy market square, and while it wasn't planned, I couldn't resist having a look at the monthly 2nd hand book stall behind the church (the same one where I got a stack of 8 paperbacks last spring). This time, I was "lucky" in that I only found one paperback that I really wanted, and got it at the price of 1 € - not making my handbag too heavy to carry on.

Next, we walked to the palace grounds and enjoyed the beautiful spring flowers there:

Pear blossoms

Forget-me-nots - a favourite of mine

Japanese cherry tree

"fake hazel" (that's it's official German name, Scheinhasel)

It was around 4:00 by the time we were back home for a rest before leaving again to be at my Mum's for 6:00 pm, where the four of us (including my sister) met for a sundowner and a delicious meal on Mum's balcony, which faces west. 

The sunset wasn't quite as spectacular as I had imagined, and a chilly wind made us retreat inside after a while, but it was still a very nice evening. Those pasties my Mum had made looked like Cornish pasties but were entirely vegetarian, nicely spiced and very delicious.

Sleeping in on Sunday (6 April) wasn't possible the way I had wished for. The children in the attic flat (3 and 7 years old) wake up early, and are very active, running up and down the short length of their flat several times. It sounds like a small herd of ponies above my head. And of course, almost as soon as we accept that it's no use trying to get back to sleep, all is quiet upstairs... but such is life when you don't live in a house all to yourself.

It was another sunny day, but had cooled off considerably over night as had been forecast. 3C/37F was the morning temperature, and it never got warmer that day than maybe 10C/50F, a blustery wind making it often feel chillier than that.

That didn't stop us from going for a good long walk in the afternoon, of course: To the lake first, then to the castle on the hill, and finally stopping for a shandy at a beer garden before going home.

Looking back towards the castle on the hill on our way to the beer garden

Our Sunday evening meal consisted of green asparagus fried in a pan, creamy polenta and two kinds of ham. O.K. left just before 8:00 pm and was home safe & sound 1 1/2 hours later.