The Hindu Business Line : Global grand duchy

It is a grey afternoon with the forecast of a few showers. Yes, what else would one expect in Europe in winter? We are in Luxembourg, a country of about 450,000 people and more than a fourth of that commuting into the country from the neighbours — France, Germany and Belgium — daily for work.

The weather forecast notwithstanding, we are headed for historic Schengen, a small town that shot into prominence as the place where a handful of European nations decided to have a common visa.

Boundary-less Europe

As the highway traverses across France and Germany and then again into Luxembourg, our host, Lucien Michels, press attaché in Luxembourg's Finance Ministry, explains the geography to us — a group of three Indian journalists. We are headed for Remerschen, for lunch at Le Bistro Gourmand, a trendy restaurant in the Moselle valley.

The agreement for a boundary-less Europe — what is commonly referred to as a Schengen visa — was signed on board the Princess Marie-Astrid docked on the Moselle at Schengen, a place where France, Germany and Luxembourg share borders. The Benelux countries (Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg) and France and Germany were the original signatories to this agreement, which now consists of 15 countries.

At the quay where Princess Marie-Astrid docked on the Moselle, there are pillars to mark the occasion and a tourist office nearby highlights the Schengen agreement.

Multilingual might

Luxembourg history-city:Remnants of a fort

Luxembourg, a Grand Duchy or a constitutional monarchy, is positioning itself as the financial centre of Europe. Its strength is the multilingual ability of a majority of its people.

Letzebuergesch, the language of the Luxembourgers, is spoken widely, as also are French and German, besides English. In that, Luxembourg is truly international. That probably explains why nearly 120,000 people commute into Luxembourg from France, Germany and Belgium daily for work, while living just across the borders in their respective countries.

The Moselle valley is also the wine growing area of Luxembourg.

Being winter the vineyards are bare and it will be a while before the plants sprout leaves and then the grapes that will be crushed into wines.

Luxembourg boasts an active wine industry, but even Luxembourgers admit that their wine industry is overshadowed by France's.

Luxembourg city, where we spent most of the four days we were there, is small and clean with a character of its own. Restaurants and pastry shops dot almost every street.

A stroll around the city centre is worth it, when we soak in the historic buildings — remnants of a fort (Luxembourg has been occupied by different powers at different points of time), the Ducal Palace or the various ministries.

The Indian connection

MADHU RAMACHANDRAN AND ALI ASGHAR SHERWANI

A cricket club in Luxembourg! Sounds unbelievable, right? But quite true, as we found out from Rendezvous, the city magazine of Luxembourg. And, heading the club — the Optimists Cricket Club — is an Indian, Madhu Ramachandran.

People of nearly 160 nationalities live in Luxembourg, we are told, and there are about 250 Indians.

Ramachandran, who is a senior executive with the Swiss Bank UBS, moved to Luxembourg in the early 1990s. "Yes, the club is quite active," Ramachandran tells us as we head for dinner at "Star of Asia," the oldest Indian restaurant in Luxembourg. He takes us through the history of the club, which even has a Web site — http://www.optimists.cc — and whose ground is named after the late Prime Minister of Luxembourg, Pierre Werner, a cricket enthusiast.

Ramachandran, who is chairman of the club, says that the game was introduced into Luxembourg by the expatriate Britishers and now has players from different countries.

According to the club's Web site, there are seven clubs competing for the league title. Ramachandran, an alumnus of the PSG College in Coimbatore, himself played junior cricket for Tamil Nadu.

Another person of Indian origin we meet is Ali Asghar Sherwani, who is Manager - Group Finance and Administration, General Mediterranean Holding Group, whose father was the one who bought the Star of Asia restaurant and whose family ran it until six years ago.

Sherwani's family hails from Hyderabad, although he himself holds a British passport. Over dinner, Sherwani tells us that he hosts a popular programme "Desi Vibes" on Radio ARA, a radio station in Luxembourg, for an hour every Sunday morning. The restaurant is now run by Shyam Motiani.

Most of the Indians in Luxembourg are working in the financial sector or are into hotel management. They have an association, Indian Association Luxembourg, which boasts members across nationalities.