Over the mountains and through the woods; Annecy

Our Church Week—There is just as much hustle and bustle during the Christmas Holiday season in Tarbes as in any other part of the world. We’ve been practicing every free minute for our Christmas Program which is next week. Most members will be out of 'town Christmas week….and we have baby on the way for one family.

On Sundays after Church there has been choir practice culminating today with that last practice to review those ever-so-traditional Christmas songs. So many of our beloved hymns come from our European roots: either English, German or French roots. Some of the French originated hymns in our French hymnal include: Hark the Herald Angels Sing; He is Born and Noel, Noel.

We have also finished the Autonomy Classes for this year. Normally in more populated areas, the classes are held weekly; but due to distances, our Branch has been meeting every 4^th Sunday after Church. Our teacher was very dedicated and drove from Toulouse, 2 hours one way to spend Sunday with us, eat with us then teach the class and of course the drive home. She was a very prepared and inspiring teacher. This round of classes was on becoming Self-Reliant in all aspects of our living—work, spiritual, social, emotional and intellectual.

On Thursday, we had our District Meeting in Pau about 45 minutes away. This particular meeting, we worked on breaking down all the information given at the full Missionary meeting last week with the Area Presidency. There was so much inspirational material given; now we need to implement it, putting it into practice. We came up with a plan. Afterward the 2-hour District Meeting and since we were in the general direction of 2 apartments we still needed to inspect, we took advantage of that day so we wouldn’t have to re-trace our steps on another day or week. We went to the Pau Elder’s apartment and inspected that apartment. It’s fairly close to the Church there so that was fairly easy to get to.

The other apartment was an hour and half beyond Pau. We took that set of Sister Missionaries with us but very early on ran into the “yellow vests”. They were totally blocking the road at the round-about so we ended up turning around and rerouting on back roads. That added a bit to the distance; but with GPS, it’s very do-able and we were able to get through the other barricades. Our day was long beginning at 9am and home just before 8pm.

On Saturday, we had a full-day service activity for a member that lives an hour away from Tarbes. They bought a fixer-up of all fixer-uppers. The house was built in the 1700s (which is “new build” in France compared to the Middle Ages homes which abound). Their fixer-upper is 2 stories probably about 4,000+ square feet and has a VERY nice and expansive view of the Pyrenees. The walls are solid as are homes here in general. Homes are, and have been, built to last centuries, not decades. But this home was unoccupied for the last 40 years and that has brought many more problems with it. It needs to be rewired and modernized inside. They likely have 2 acres and then some and would like to bring in some sheep, plant an orchard of a variety of trees and have space for the children to play and explore. WHEN IT IS FINISHED, it will be an enviable piece of property they were able to buy for a song.

Yellow Vests—Saturday was a pre-planned full-on strike day and it was uncertain what roads would be passable. We ran into 2 blocked roads and had to skirt around them. Again, thanks to GPS, we were able to get through on secondary roads. Both sides are ramping up this time. Especially the Police force which, in our opinions, have been overly tolerant of open destruction of property, looting and allowed the crowds to create a mutiny mentality. Even though President Macron has repealed the additional gas tax, the demonstrations still continue. Certainly, in Paris, we would use the word RIOTING, not “demonstrating” as they still continue to call it. The “yellow vests” have planned more aggressive measures over a more wide-spread area as the movement it still growing. The Police have been taking a more active role in Paris and in the outer-lying round-abouts where the protestors gather. This is the first time we have had Police presence at the round-abouts. In our area, it is still peaceful but the numbers have more than tripled. In Paris, the Police brought in water cannons, heavy armored vehicles to break down the barricades and have taken a much more active role in dispersing the crowds by using more tear gas, shields and batons, and have actually “plowed” through the assembled “yellow vests” to push them away from the barricades and splitting them off down the center to help disperse the numbers.

Lac-d’Annecy—We went through Annecy and the surrounding area on our way to our Missionary meeting in Geneva in October. We decided to take our Preparation Day (P-Day) near our meeting in Annecy. Meg has back issues and has trouble sitting in the car for too many days or too many hours in a day so Annecy it was. Marc spent three weeks in Annecy in college so it has been Marc's favorite town ever since. Marc and now I have returned to Annecy many times over the last 40 years. After all these visits Annecy feels a bit like home away from home.  The 1992 Winter Olympics were held in Albertville about 50 minutes higher into the mountains.

We then stopped in Annecy, the larger town on Lac d’Annecy and several of the smaller towns around Lake (Lac) Annecy at the end of November on the way to Lyon, so we will cover those pictures in the next two weeks. We will do the write-up in this section as we know we’ll be busy…and we imagine you will tooJ The unexpected surprise when we passed through Annecy in November was a Christmas village that was like a storybook come to life, so we’ll save that for last in two weeks. We’re so busy figuring out where we need to be next and when that we hadn’t put two and two together. And we’re watching the news to see if anything changes with the “yellow vests” and traveling, that we weren’t thinking almost winter in the mountains. Fall was still holding on, but fading. Dustings of snow were evident higher up. The Lake and region are pristine and the mountain air is crisp. As for Christmas decorations, traditional wooden vendor stalls are made from the region of Haute-Savoie which is in a mountainous region. Haute means high, as in altitude; Savoie is the department.

Annecy is a favored French vacation area and has a lot of Swiss living in the area. Many live in Annecy, France but work in Switzerland.  As a result, many traditions are both French and Swiss German.  Annecy is already the best of many worlds with a large spring-fed lake, mountains and location, location, location!  So now we had French and German traditions filling the air. In November, cold temperatures sliding off the lightly dusted mountains and the wind whipping off the lake made the temperatures plummet further than neighboring areas.  It was TRULY a winter scene for a day in Annecy.  But the cold, icy snap in the night air made the Raclette (traditional and regional cheese-round dish) and hot chocolate taste all the better.  The extra unplanned bonus was that we got to enjoy the area before the Christmas crowds really started.  Annecy is a year-round tourist area and now we can say we’ve been there every season.  This week covers October (on the way to Switzerland) and next week November (….mostly on the way to Lyon, about an hour+ west) fotos.

Enjoy the pictures!

Marc's favorite place in France, Lake Annecy

Service Project over Sylvan's new 'old' house

Lunch time

Oscar the three-month old best-behaved Border Collie who loves chickens,

but the feeling is not mutual

I am in charge here

Equally yoked missionaries...the yoke came with the house

The fire wood room

Sylvan's view from the window, Pyrenees Mountains a bit clouded over on horizon

Sylvan is a nurse and gave us all flu shots.
In France, you buy the shot at the Pharmacy then
take it to a Dr or nurse to administer it

Every time we go out we encounter the Gilet juane
(yellow vests) 'resistance fighters.'
This sign is warning you that on this exit off the Auto route,
you will encounter pedestrian yellow vests--be careful

Gilet Jaune blocking the road in a very small town

Got to "keep warm" aka attract attention

Got to have fun too--note Christmas tree and imagine festive music playing loudly
Part of Tarbes presence....the rest are off the left, about 75 in total