First leg of our journey—Tarbes to Toulouse to Perpignan and then to Lyon

Happy Saint Patrick’s Day!

This past week and next week take us to a senior missionary conference in Lyon and visits to 5 apartments spread out across southern France. Our grand journey will take us at least 1750 kilometers, or about 1100 miles. Because we will take out P-Days in route we will take some indirect routes on back roads to see the countryside.

Jean Michel—We took advantage of going through Toulouse on the first leg of our journey to stop and see Jean Michel who is still in the hospital. More like a city. What a complex! Toulouse Hospital takes care of major surgeries or specialized surgeries in the region vs small town hospitals. Smaller hospitals feed into this major hospital which is right next to the University for those studying Medicine.

But the important information is that Jean Michel looked amazing. It’s hard to say exactly what we thought we would expect. His heart surgery was corrective and preventative; with no real benefit meant to help him feel better. But that is not what WE saw. His color is so much better and he just looks peppier. So if it was an unintended benefit, so much the better for him. Our observations were not too far off since the next morning he was moved to the city of Pau for his month-long rehabilitation. We hope to swing by on our big counter clock wise loop home as we will go through Pau. If the apartment inspection and repairs don’t take too long; it couldn’t have worked out better.

Elders pinch hit for us—We got a call Tuesday morning saying the delivery man was as the church to deliver our parcel. Delivery? Hmmm, no one told us we had a delivery scheduled. But that is not proving unusual as the same thing happened with our piano, “I’m here,” he said on the other end of the phone and with no advanced coordination including a week or day. This time it was for more tables for our branch dinners (repas)….that were ordered some 3 months ago. We saw that the branche has been growing and we were starting to run out of room for everyone so we asked the stake (sort of like a diocese, or the next level up in our church). They had to be reordered since they never “showed” up. We just get the call and are expected to be there. So we called the Elders and asked if they could run over to the Church to receive them. End of the story is that now we have enough tables for our repas so we are thrilled both for the tables and that we can now fill them.

The second part of the story is that the Elders said they had to wait for their “electrical repairman” to come before they could meet the delivery man. So they couldn’t leave right away to receive the tables. “Oh?” we said since we inspect their apartment. “What needs repairing?” “We don’t know; he’s just coming to inspect.” Long story short, turns out he was at our apartment our apartment….to inspect….but we didn’t know what for eitherJ So we’ll need to reschedule that when we get back…even though we have no idea what it’s really about. At least we’ll be in town for it.

Apartment inspections—We completed 2 apartment inspections in Perpignan after our visit in Toulouse. One had some electrical concerns that need quickly addressing and the other a leaking sink that is destined to incur serious damage if not corrected. Both need to go through their landlords which can have various levels of success. Apparently the one with the water damage is not responding so this will get challenging. The apartment is newly remodeled so we are quite surprised they are not interested in protecting their investment. Festering problems in all aspects of our lives can wreak havoc when not tended to when they are small and on the easier side of the spectrum. We’ll need to stay on top of both situations so they come to quicker resolution.

Senior Missionary Conference— The next leg of our journey took us to Lyon for a senior missionary conference. What a well-spring of social and spiritual nourishment. There were 12 couples and we got very nicely spoiled. Like the previous conference, Soeur Giraud-Carrier made all the meals, French-style. French-style meaning the combo package—gourmet food, many courses and over a leisurely hour for breakfast and lunches, and the traditional 2 ½ hours for dinner. Of course lots of conversation and visiting. They are gracious hosts and have lots of energy.

Along with spiritual nourishment and direction, we got our marching orders for the next 6 months. We received yet another car sticker that will allow us to drive in cities on high pollution days in France. Without that sticker, there are heavy fines. The office stays on top of all our legalities, French driver’s license paperwork and these types of particulars. It is amazing to watch all the moving parts flow so smoothly—from apartments to cars to support roles to sharing of ideas. These are all volunteers positions, entirely funded by the couples themselves; the level of precision and commitment is inspiring and makes us want to strive to give our all.

One of the couples played a beautiful musical number with cello and piano. They managed to find a cello to rent while they are here and formed up a cello/violin and piano trio in their area where they are serving. They have performed at a Catholic Cathedral during Christmas and hope to find an Inter-faith Community to add to their performances. The sky is the limit and each couple has their strengths and talents to share to make each area and missionary experiences very unique.

Our activity for this conference was a visit to the Art Museum. It was originally planned as a boat trip on the river but the weather was “iffy” so the Art Museum was a much safer option this go around. This is actually our last conference as they are every 6 months. It’s hard to believe this will all come to an end. When we are really tired (like after this trip, we’re sure) we realize this is not a pace we can keep forever. But we also hate to give any of it up and know we are going to miss just about every aspect of our time here.

We’ve been to France many times and over many decades. We just fall in love with it over and over. This time has really done us in and we are love-struck for sure. We have our handful of things we could do without; but everything we love about it always wins us over.

The “towns” of the week are many en route to Lyon and of course the Lyon Beaux Art Museum. We will also be showing pictures along our journey this week and over the next few weeks.

A la prochaine.

Breakfast at the bi-annual Seniors Conference. Soeur Giraud-Carrier is a gourmet cook;

she made all the meals over the 2 days for 24 people

Gathered outside the Beaux-Arts Museum; a bit of construction going on in the plaza

Here is the entire group, minus one couple that had to leave early

This is their 4th mission

The judgement of Solomon

This piece of marble glistened, almost looking wet (above)

Hercules slaying the stymphalian birds

Some Monet's and a Sisley

La La Dame de charité by Jean-Baptiste Greuze, shows a wealthy lady encouraging her young daughter to give alms to a dying soldier

At the hospital in Toulouse with Jean Michel's daughter, Anais

Passing Carcassonne, a must see if you are France-bound

Fields of young grapes being protected their first year

Perpignan is VERY windy. It was so gusty the day we passed by something

blew across the road, hitting our side view mirror panel and ripped it off the car.

So that is our next task when we get home. Fortunately it didn't hit the window....

We count all our blessings, thanking God for our protection as we drive.

Gillet Jaunes in Perpignan; Tarbes has stopped burning and taken down all barricades

several months ago, so we were surprised to still see the black "angry" smoke

(We might add the burning is going on while the young environmentalists are also protesting

this week in Paris and other major cities.)

Night shot out our hotel window

Day shot

Fields and fields of peach trees, we think. They are hard to photograph as the fields are

along the highway and they are surrounded by these tall cedar trees which warm and

protect the buds from the wind gusts. But they were very pretty

This is about 10 feet wide and is in the round about.
Coming into towns the entry round-abouts tell what the town is famous for.

Toll booths....about 25 of them....a bit bigger than Tarbes:)

The highways are heavily lined with beautiful blooming pink and white trees.

Bathroom cleanliness rating at road side rest stop

This weather-eroded rock feature comes

out of nowhere and is very different from all the surrounding hillsides

Beautiful tender green hay fields

Mistletoe, very revealing in winter. A parasite, so not good for the trees

Leaving the summer weather of Perpignan in the high 70s and getting close to the Alps

enroute to Lyon

Getting ready for more weather as we ascend

All of Europe now uses the "STOP" sign since the EU. Snow-covered mountain in background haze.

And it started snowing

This very large mountain lake is very low at this time of year.

The dam is open for the hydro-electric power plant down mountain. The dam will close when spring run off begins and will fill to the treeline. That is a LOT of water!