A Week in a Castle!

Here are a few more pictures of our week in the Cevennes, near La Salle. We stayed in a Chateau on a hill, and the trees and flowers were really getting ready for spring! These are pictures of the grounds of the castle. Later on I'll post some photos of the surrounding area, including a story from the Musee du Desert, a museum we visited which commemorates the Huguenots of the early 1700s. The Huguenots were the French Protestants who were persecuted heavily for their faith and lived mainly in the hills of the Cevennes, where they could hide from the French troops. It was a really moving and inspirational museum - I'll tell you more about it soon!

The chapel on the chateau grounds.

There were many beautiful doors!

This was the view from our bedroom! The pot you see in the foreground is from the nearby village of Anduze. These pots are very famous and expensive, and can even be found decorating the palace in Versailles!

There were beautiful flowers everywhere!

House Guests

I've been out of touch for about a week as the entire team, along with our visiting guests Dr. and Mrs. Young, traveled to a International Church Conference at a castle in the Cevennes. It was such a beautiful region, the Cote d'Azur almost pales in comparison! (At least, for those like me who prefer mountains and rivers to the blue of the Med.) We had a great week of teaching and meeting together with church leaders from all over Europe, and I realized my childhood dream of sleeping in an actual castle for a week!

Now that we are back, we have a couple more house-guests to add to the party, as the volcano in Iceland has prevented Dr. Young and his wife from flying home for a few more days. Never a dull moment here!

I will write soon and post more pictures of our lovely week in the Cevennes!

A Great Birthday

I had a really fun birthday last week! I tried to take a few pictures to remember the day.

Donna and Amy woke up early and fixed fresh cinnamon rolls for all of us! Donna assures me that she loves waking up early, though to me it seems like the ultimate sacrifice!

After our French lesson, a few ladies from church took me to lunch in a nearby village in the mountains called Tourrette-sur-Loup. The weather was a little overcast, but the village was still very charming.


We ate at a place called Chez Grand-mere, a favorite of everyone who has been there! It only has about 10 tables in the whole place, but the food is amazing, and I'm sure they could fill a room many times larger!


The family who owns the restaurant is French, but they spent many years in North Africa, and I enjoyed the best couscous I've ever tasted!


After dinner I had some Moroccan Mint Tea, which may have been the best part of the meal! The owners also came out to sing for me, which I'm told is very rare here. I definitely felt special!


After our big lunch, Amy, Donna, and I took a stroll through the old city of Saint Paul. There is a cemetery in the city where the artist Chagall is buried.


The view of the city and the surrounding countryside from the cemetery is magnificent!


Here you can see the Medieval wall that still surrounds the old city of Saint Paul.


We decided to try and hike from Saint Paul across the valley to the Arnold's house, where we are staying until we find a place of our own. We had quite an adventure! At different times we were in danger of snakes, large dogs, briers and thorny vines, raging rivers (okay, it was just a small creek we had to cross)... but it felt really good to take a hike in the woods, and when we emerged on the other side of the valley, we were rewarded with this view of Saint Paul:


As we walked up to the road, we were thrilled to discover we had come up less than a city block from the Arnold's house! We couldn't believe our good fortune!


The girls, the Arnolds, and the church all made my birthday a really special and memorable one. We ended the evening with a rousing game of Phase 10 (which Donna did not let me win). There's always next year.

Quick Update

I have a French bank account! I think we've finally broken through! Now we have what we need to get a cell phone plan. Then we'll get bills with our names on them, and we'll have proof that we reside here. With that, we can do all kinds of things!

Looking forward to seeing how God gets it all done...