alsace lorraine

• Faith Enduring

You find it in the smallest 30-seater church like in Gardenton, east of Emerson, and in "prairie cathedrals" like Cook's Creek. Some churches, like the Holy Resurrection Church in Dauphin, now a museum, have virtually every blank space of wall and ceiling painted with ornamental designs and religious figures, called icons. The Dauphin church was brilliantly painted by Theodore Baran of Saskatoon, whose work enlivens over 70 Ukrainian Catholic churches in mostly Western Canada. One prominent painter was Jacob Maydanak, a humourist-cartoonist by trade. Not only did he paint interiors of Ukrainian churches like in Fisher Branch and Olha, but he recruited budding artists like Leo Mol to help. Mol's stained glass beautifies many Ukrainian churches in Winnipeg and the St. Mary's Ukrainian Cat...

...He was born in 1883 in Alsace-Lorraine, then German territory and now in France....

• Winnipeg Free Press
• November 17, 2009

• War for France's Soul Rife with Cultural Turmoil

As American biographer and cultural historian [Frederick Brown] writes, the Dreyfus Affair that began in 1894 was the direct result of social and political upheavals that began with France's defeat in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71. Anti-Semitism played a major role in the Dreyfus case, but it was also the result of battles between a decidedly secular, scientific, forward-looking state and the militaristic, traditional, Catholic, bourgeois old guard -- the secular versus the religious/social elites. The evidence of wrongdoing in the conviction eventually became public, thanks in part to the great French writer Emile Zola taking up Dreyfus's case in his J'Accuse article. Dreyfus was eventually exonerated and reinstated in the army in 1906.

...France was forced to cede Alsace and Lorraine after the war. It then endured civil ...

• Winnipeg Free Press
• March 11, 2010

• That's Rich!

Today's Bobbie's, in a spacious free-standing building with its own parking lot, is a far cry from its previous wee home on Scott Street. The setting is somewhat Middle European -- softly lit, with some secluded tables set into brick-framed alcoves -- and some of the cooking is Middle European too. Romanian, specifically, reflecting the background of chef-owners Bobbie and John Nelu. More importantly, it remains one of the city's better sources for copious portions of impeccably cooked, savoury food at moderate prices. In fact, when I checked my column of six years ago, I found that the prices hadn't risen by so much as a penny. Granted, you can spend $28 for rack of lamb, or $29 for assorted seafood provençale, but most of the entrees come in at under $20. In fact, Bobbie's wonderful s...

..., after it was taken over by a couple from Alsace, it was named Aladdin's Pizza Chez Sophie, but now... the city's better quiches -- a classic Lorraine of eggs, cheese and bacon ($6.50 including salad)....

• Winnipeg Free Press
• August 24, 2009