Two plus one: Gap; one last hoorah; the end cometh - Ossau Valley, Cauterets, Mountains

Our Church Week—This week has been one of closing everything down, packing and making our way East over to Lyon to pick up Nadya. As you can imagine, we couldn’t think of much else! It’s surprising how long packing can take as we were packing things down to the ounces. Coming in winter with all our winter gear—long wool coat, boots, sweater, etc on—and leaving in summer (100F) has its drawbacks. Alas that phase was over and we took to the road.

Next week “Our Church WEEK” will be one day long. We literally have one day left on our Mission, tomorrow, July 22^nd. It’s a day we knew would come the minute we started. But still, it takes you by surprise at how quickly it comes. What a wonderful time we have had getting to know France, and its people.

Friday night, the Mission President and his wife had us over for dinner in Lyon with their 2 younger children who live here with them and 3 other grown children visiting this week. It was lucky for us to be able to meet their 3 visiting children—2 are unmarried returned missionaries and a married daughter and husband with their 2 small children and one on the way were there. They have 3 others who are married but unable to come this week.

The Giraud-Carriers are both natively French but have been living in the US for the past few years with a stop-over living in England and Switzerland. They’ve made quite the sacrifice to leave their employment in the US for this period in their lives. If you ever want an opportunity to be on call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and for 3 years…..Mission President is the position. They work tirelessly and seemingly effortlessly. Quite honestly, we don’t know how they do it; we just wag our heads in awe. Did we mention they are also just really, really nice? Or that Soeur Giraud-Carrier is an excellent and gourmet cook?

Saturday morning we got up early to take the train shuttle to the airport and wait for that long-anticipated moment for Nadya to come through the arrival gate at the Lyon, France airport. It was quite an emotional experience after not seeing her for a year and a half. The sobs and tears just couldn’t be held back…..we still get emotional just thinking back on it.

Then more packing and re-arranging fun began as we consolidate her 2 large bags and 2 smaller bags into the car. We headed back to the Lyon Mission Office to add her 2 large check-in bags to ours that the Mission Office will store for us until 20 Aug. Then quickly off to the sporting goods store to buy her a bathing suit, shorts and a few summer shirts. Next week they are anticipating a 104F heatwave. Of course, we are planned to be in the hottest part of France thenJ

Hop in our new leased Peugeot for this segment and head to Gap to meet up with the Thibault couple for dinner. We came through some beautiful French countryside and were just in heaven. We heard lots of oohs and aahs from Nadya in the back seat. We are in the Alps now. The scenery just took our breath away. Then to top off the day, we had another delicious dinner and great conversation.

In Gap, Nadya played her Joseph Smith Medley piece and we got to meet the members of the Branch here. Branches are the faithful few and are the core of Wards to be. There is a tactile faith that exudes from them as their (as well as ours in Tarbes) testimonies ring strong and their excitement to see each other Sunday to Sunday is full of excitement. We had a wonderful day a Church with them….followed by the traditional “repas” that we were invited to join. We brought some French cheeses and apple tart.

As Sunday closes with a pang of sadness as we close one chapter in our lives, we now turn to the next chapter and set our sights towards our new adventures touring France, Andorra and northern Spain.

We thank you, each and every one of you for traveling with us. And thank you for your support, prayers and comments. In so many ways we’ve had you by our sides as we photograph beautiful France, relived our weeks as we journaled our unforgettable experiences here and our many memories of wonderful and gracious people we have met here. We of course love the real purpose of our Mission—to share the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ for any and all who are interested. And it is to that end we testify of the truthfulness of the Restoration of Prophets and Apostles, of temples where families can be sealed together forever and of the cornerstone of our faith, Jesus Christ.

Next week we’ll send out one last “bonus” blog issue of primarily pictures on areas we think are too incredibly beautiful not to be shared that we have not previously posted. It seems for every 10 pictures we post there are a hundred more that “didn’t make the cut” in terms of time and space and in the case of this last week, poor Internet where pictures haven’t uploaded yet.

The pictures this week are of some very beautiful mountain towns, especially the Ossau Valley, Cauterets, and Lescun. Later in the middle of the pictures we talk about what is apparently called a ''balcony road,'' in this case the famous D918. It is dangerous during inclement weather, off limits at night, but safe during the day in good weather that crawls along the edge of the mountain

Until next week. We will be in Tarbes next week for the final time.

Elder et Soeur Poussard

Col d'Aubisque

Learning how to operated the piano that plays memorized hymns

Learning how to set up meetings using Zoom over their phones

The new Branch President and his wife, Alain and Brigitte Toulouse--who happen to live in Toulouse, France

Elder Lee had a birthday last week

Us and our two Chinese speaking Elders

Gisele

We stopped here to admire and smell the beautiful roses in full bloom and wafting their scent for blocks. The owner saw us admiring them, went back down the lane to her home where she retrieved her clippers and asked us to pick our favorite one.

This is what we will miss about France: it's people. France values "la gentillesse" (everyday kindnesses) as part of its culture It's hard to explain, but it is an adopted value by the people.

Meg with the fragrant clipped rose

The note reminds the delivery man to deliver two baguettes of bread into their mailbox each morning

Royal jelly is a coveted and medicinal herbal jelly (for humans)

made by the worker bees for the queen. It is said to have healing properties.

Smart sheep---it was HOT, HOT, HOT, like a sauna

The balcony road, see below; pics following. No access at night due to drop offs and unlit road

One of the roads we take is called "the most dangerous road in France" due to its location, narrowness and drop offs: https://www.dangerousroads.org/europe/france/3453-col-d-aubisque.html.

It states that the Col d'Aubisque is a high mountain pass at an elevation of 1.709m (5,607ft) above sea level, located in the Pyrenees. The Aubisque is one of the great legendary climbs of the Tour de France. The climb has been featured in the Tour de France many times. It runs as a single track road along the mountainside for some distance with nowhere to pass another vehicle. Here one says a prayer that nobody is coming towards you until the road widens some kilometres further.

The pass is traversed by the spectacular D918 road. It’s one of the French balcony roads. This road is one of the most famous balcony roads in [France]. A balcony road is a hair-raising lane cut into the sides of sheer cliffs. It’s a kind of road not for those who fear heights. There is little room for error on these roads.

The road is bordered on one side by cliffs and on the other side by a drop of hundreds of meters (many hundreds of feet). It connects Laruns, in the valley of the Gave d'Ossau, via Eaux-Bonnes (west) to Argelès-Gazost, in the valley of the Gave de Pau, via the Col du Soulor (east). This road is generally closed from December to June but it can be closed anytime when the access is not cleared of snow. The road crosses the extremely narrow Cirque du Litor, in the upper part of the Ouzom valley. There is a café at the summit which is open year round. It is a popular lunch destination with cyclists.

View of the balcony road; popular Tour de France route and will be used this year

One of the very few "guard" rails

Quite the drop off

See above the tunnel: this gives you a sense of the vertical drop

The balcony road, definitely pay attention as there is no room for error nor room for guard rails

The milder side

Wild Iris above; wild Columbine below

Whole mountainsides covered with copious wildflowers

Marking the frequent use of this road for Tour de France....seat about 15 feet high

Off balcony road now

Town of Laruns

Dam

Spanish border; Spain on other side of Visitor's Center. It also is bone dry on the Spanish side, or so we've been told. We'll find out in a few weeks when we are released from our Missions and travel outside our area. Below, looking into Spain

Very hot and dry, in the 100s

A refreshing ice-cold stream to cool our hot and tired feet

We are way up in the mountains here: note someone keeps these shrubs trimmed

Back on the French side, you can tell because there is COLOR!

This dog takes his sheep guarding seriously--he wasn't barking

but he did run over to make sure we had no ill intent

Very noticeable lush green fields at higher altitudes

Celebrating mountain flowers

Leaving a Book of Mormon in the village's book shelf.

These are throughout France to share books you've read or want to share

From our balcony

Our visit with fellow missionaries ast year. They are now serving in the Paris, Temple

This year we rode our bikes from Argeles-Gazost on the old railroad bed now converted to a bike/walking path. We suddenly realized the path went right to their hotel in Pierrefite-Nestalas. We're hoping for a future opportunity to ride to Lourdes from Argles-Gazost on this same path.