Catching up; Paris Temple grounds, Brive and Bergerac

Our Church week—This week was a smorgasbord of unpacking, catching up and the normal regiment of phone calls, emails, visits and the like. We finished up loose ends from our trip including some family history.

Next week we travel again—We need to go to Carcassonne (3hrs) for a Bishop/Branch President training meeting, so we need to get our ducks in a row to accommodate those days we will be gone. Didn’t we just get back….from Paris? Never a dull moment. It will be definitely be interesting to see how many miles we will have driven come July.

Pierre Poussard—En route to Paris last week we met Pierre Poussard. He is the father of Denis, Ben, Corrine and Nicole. Pierre was a Sealer (performs marriages) in the Bern, Swiss Temple for 40 years! He sealed his 4 children. “What a privilege!” he said. He was set apart (authorized) by Spencer W Kimball (previous prophet). He and his wife would travel 4 times a year and spend 1 week at the Swiss Temple. Because of the great distances here to temples, a volunteer actually takes their vacation days and stays at the temple for an entire week and serves during that time rather than once a week. It works. But what dedication and a sacrifice for them to use their vacation time for temple service….but followed by many blessings for he and his family, Pierre happily reported. We’ve not even been married that long. So the Poussard bar is set high and we hope to follow his example of selfless service.

The Sumners—this was the couple slated to come to the Lyon, France Mission a week prior to us. We met in Salt Lake City, Utah, prior to both our missions as their assignment as Self-Reliance would have them traveling. We did not know if we would cross paths so we met up before either of us was to fly to France. Long story short, Janet had a stroke the evening before their departure. They visited the Lyon Mission once and visited with us a few months ago. Then we hiked some beautiful and scenic mountains in the Pyrenees and had such a wonderful time.

They resubmitted their papers and now they are serving in the Paris Temple!!! ….otherwise known as “paradise” or as close to it as you can get it seems. So with our trip to the Paris Temple last week, we were very excited to meet up with them.

They live within minutes of the Temple; they bought some bikes and are able to ride their bikes from their apartment to the Temple. They have the best of all worlds working at the Temple with all of Versailles Palace and gardens to visit, literally a few short minutes from them. They live on a typical wide French boulevard lined with trees and a long, wide promenade to stroll upon.

They are gracious and invited ourselves and the Woolstenhulme couple, whom they’d just met, to join them for dinner with the Sister Missionaries who were to come over for a steak dinner. The Woolstenhulme couple are in our Stake and we met up with them at the temple; they came down with their youth in Montauban to visit the temple. The night before we all went out for crêpes by our hotel. We can’t get crêpes in our area as it’s a regional food and not in the southwestern portion of France. So we were thrilled to have crêpes both savory and sweet.

Richard—invited us out to his place in beautiful and scenic Argelès-Gazost. This will be our last time to spend time with him as he will move in 2 weeks. He took us up to the top of the mountain his apartment looks onto. Wow was it really up there! From the summit, we could look down over the valley and onto Argelès. We met and talked with several people up top who were all interested in our name tagsJ Then, he took us for the last time to the Chateau which also has a stunning view on that same mountain.

Richard has the key and free access to the property as he knows the owners who let him use it when they are gone….which is 95% of the time. It’s an 18^th century chateau with a chapel adjacent to the chateau. We once knew how many rooms were there—upwards of 30, all large. Richard took the youth on an activity to hike nearby and stay in the chateau. They loved it. No surprise….it’s very French and the view is stunningly beautiful. He bought 2 benches and placed them in strategic spots to enjoy the view when he stops in. But Richard, being Richard (energetic always helping others), also checks on things—possible roof leaks, plumbing problems, heating in the winter and just fixes it. What a piece of property, and as they say in real estate: location, location, location! This is LOCATIONJ….and on 2 counts….it’s in beautiful Argelès and then on a carefully chosen scenic spot on the mountain.

Afterwards, we treated Richard to a full French dinner in Saint-Savin….our other favorite spot on the opposing mountain range and overlooking the Argelès from the western angle. The trick? Go up the first range in the morning with sun behind you and in the evening the Saint-Savin side as the sun is setting behind you to the west. Ah, Argelès. What a panoramic jewel.

Will we ever miss Richard! We’ll definitely keep in touch and try to see him in Paris after our mission. All depends on where he is since he is gallivanting until the Intermarché glitch causing a 2-3 month delay is fixed and he and his son can move forward with the store.

Maria—Valerie and Meg visited Maria to cheer her on until her husband is home. It’s been 2 months since his stroke, hospitalization and re-hab. She is in temporary housing until he is released in 2 weeks. They will be glad to have his recovery all behind them. Valerie will drive us out next week along with Maria to see Gils as we cannot drive others (except the missionaries) in our car that we lease from the Church. Sometimes it’s tricky with the distances we cover not to be able to transport others. Valerie knows this and is constantly offering to take us here and there.

Valerie—is an absolute angel. She texts us, “Who can we visit this week? Who needs help?” Then we coordinate efforts and she brings a bag of goodies—flowers, candy or a cake to take along to the visit. You’ll never see Valerie empty-handed. Valerie often brings flowers to church to fragrance the foyer. A while back she brought hot chocolate, some herbal teas and a water heater and left on the kitchen counter so whomever cleans the chapel can have a drink afterwards. Then she disappears before anyone sees it’s her. Always thinking of others: that’s Valerie!

Anne—called and asked if we’d like to take a walk on the river with her. The weather forecast was off and we got an unexpected extra day of sunshine. Always a welcome moment in these changeable weather patterns against the mountains. The weather was all over the place when we went—sunny and hot, chilly and cold, windy and cold, breezy and hot…..every few minutes a change. Such are the mountain influences. The water was running surprisingly high. We walked and talked and talked some more.

Sunday Anne invites us to her flat for lunch. We dine French style then study Come Follow Me, the church’s new curriculum format for these next few years (New Testament this year). The emphasis is home-based, church-supported study. Instead of saying to our family members, “What did you learn at Church today?” the new emphasis is “What did you learn at home this week that you can share at Church?” Then our Sunday School lessons are much richer, we come more prepared to participate and the discussions include more personal applications of learning in the home and shared at Church. A small change with far-reaching ramifications and like the saying goes, little hinges swing big doors.

Our town/region of the week—Towns of Brive and Bergerac on the return trip from Lyon to Monte-de-Marsan apartment inspection.

A la prochaine!

Paris temple grounds

Paris Temple from the side; there are height restrictions in Paris/Versailles so this temple reflects the low heights, including not placing the angle Moroni. The temple also reflects the architectural style of the already-existing buildings in the area

Temple front door, above in French: Holiness to the Lord

Temple gardens in the back, still filling in as it's only 2 years old

''The tree of life'' tree as some say, between the buildings. This temple has on-property housing and a cafeteria with 4-5 kitchens so you can prepare food for a family or large youth groups.

The youth from our Stake having lunch in the cafeteria

Models of ancient temples

Temples date from the Old Testament Tabernacle to modern-day temples restored

Model of inside above and below

Temple Visitor Center missionaries

Sister Packer, a Senior Missionary who serves with her husband in Paris.
They are piloting a new Visitor Discovery Center

The very large bus for the temple trip

Dinner at the Parly 2 Mall Crêperie

Dessert crêpe

Marc, Meg, The Sumner couple

Sumners, Woolstenhulms, Sister Missionaries, us...compliments of the Sumner couple.

Versailles Missionaries

The father of the Poussard church members in France, Pierre André Poussard.
He has completed a lot of genealogy on his side; the common link is probably in the 1600s.
In France, 1600s are like yesterday. Once a Poussard, always a Poussard.
Everyone in Paris and sees our Poussard name tag associates us with Pierre and the full clan.

Poussard family crest

Sisters Clark and Kolomalu from Mont-de-Marsan. We inspect and repair their apartment.
Sister Kolomalu finishes her mission tomorrow (Monday)

The kitchen sink before re-grouting.

The kitchen sink after re-grouting.
These apartments are 10-20 years old in need of occasional refreshing

Reinstalling slats in their sofa-Couch.
All the slats had fallen out....they couldn't figure out why the sofa was so "saggy".

The finished product and happy sisters

Book of Mormons Sisters have on hand in several different languages.
Currently available in 90 languages; other language translations have select passages
while the full translation is in the making

A gardener friend we met on the street.
He invited us in to see his pretty flowers and blooming trees.
He invited to sit and visit with an afternoon snack.
Unfortunately we were miles from home and several hours of driving ahead.

Our gardener friend said be sure and stop at the 11th-century Bastide
(a Middle Ages Provencal fortressed-home) Being from the Middle Ages,
Bastides doubled as home/fortress/farming community