Paris Times Two

Sunday, February 15, 2015

We had a great day at church today.  We had a new investigator come.  She was very interested and excited in all that we did.  She had to drive in from Sedan, about 20 minutes away.  We believe that she was guided to our little congregation.  She is a little disillusioned with her own church.  She looked up churches in the phone book and asked about ours because it had "Jesus Christ" in its name.  She was inspired to come and told us she really felt the spirit and she is looking forward to coming again.  For us, as missionaries, this was great news.

This week we have been extremely busy.  We went to Paris twice and to Belgium once.  On Tuesday we went to Paris to a Zone Conference.  This is where all the missionaries from our zone get together for teaching and to be interviewed by the Mission President and his wife.  Our interview went great.  We feel very supported by our Mission President.  He was grateful for our service and is pleased with what we are doing in Charleville-Mézières.  He and his wife are hoping to come and visit our Branch in the future.

Of course, we couldn't go to Paris without visiting a site.  Even though this was only a day trip we did go to see the Eiffel Tower.  It is funny that we have been in France for 3 and a half months and in Paris several times bur this was the first time we have visited the Eiffel Tower.  It was, of course awe inspiring and in a beautiful location right beside the Seine.

It is funny in different places you go to how bathrooms are.  In France it is quite common to have to pay to use a bathroom.  Often there is someone collecting money to use the facility.  Sometimes you are covered from your knees to your shoulders but you can see the head and feet of someone of the opposite sex right beside you using the loo.  Anyway, as it turned out there was a "toilette" right beside the Eiffel Tower.  It was quite different.  First of all it was free.  It looked like an oval shaped new age facility.  It was fully automated.  You pressed a button to get in.  There was a bit of a line and it surprised us how slow it was moving.  As we got closer we realised why.  After each person did their thing the whole toilet shut down and it went through a wash cycle before the next person was able to enter.  It was totally different.

On Thursday we journeyed to Namur, Belgium.  What a beautiful city.  We met another Senior Missionary couple there and we had lunch together in lieu of Valentine's day.  It was very nice.  Afterwards we visited a citadel that was there dating from centuries ago.  It was built on a hillside and we had an amazing view from the top.  We also visited the Chateau de Namur from the outside.  It was a palace surrounded by beautiful gardens.

Friday brought us back to Paris where Ed had to get some paperwork and medical testing done for his French visa.  This, too, was a day trip.  We took the TGV train in the morning and returned in the evening.  Before we went to our appointment we  visited "La Sainte Chapelle" (Holy Chapel).  This is a church built right by Notre Dame by Louis XI.  It was built inside his palace but a separate structure.  So, the chapel was surrounded by the palace.  The royal family could walk from the palace to the chapel by a passageway.  The ground floor was a chapel for the servants and the top floor was a chapel for the royal family.  This was amazing.  The stained glass windows were the finest and most intricate we have seen.  Each one told a different story from the bible.

We had lunch at the church's Paris Visitors' Centre with a group of missionaries who were in Paris for the same reason we were.  We took the metro to our appointment.  The other missionaries went back to the Visitors' Centre to meet their companions.  We headed out on our own.

This is looking from beside the Visitors Center in Paris into the Chapel where we meet for Zone Meetings and lots of other meetings.

The Church in the heart of Paris at Saint Merry

Waiting for the Métro

We wanted to visit the Place des Vosges.  This is a square in Paris which was used as a model for the square that was built in Charleville-Mézières.  It was very similar with swanky shops all throughout.  As it turns out, Victor Hugo lived here back in the day.  We were able to visit his apartment free of charge.  It was cool but not that interesting overall.

Unfortunately, Lynn was sick this week so the rest of the week was mostly recuperative in nature.  We did lots of studying and some things around the house.  

Lynn decided to make some homemade lemon, honey, ginger cough drops.  Tasty little things with a bite to them.

Just so you know, McDonalds is NOT created equal here in France.  The have the most beautiful desserts and really nice decor in all of their restaurants.  Probably because they know French people will not settle for anything less than magnificent when it comes to food.

We hope all of our friends and family are doing well and thank you for your support.  Bye for now.

Au revoir de la France.
Lyndi-lou and Eddie, too.