Blogs from Alsace, France, Europe

Hello everyone! I have made it safe and sound. Flight was not bad at all. Combination of Advil PM, one German beer, and a newly purchased neck pillow knocked me out for a solid 6 hours. We landed in Frankfurt around 1PM and then took a 3 hour charter bus to Strasbourg on which I managed to get another hour of sleep in. Upon arriving at our hotel, we got settled and then took a tour of the city. Strasbourg is exactly what I would imagine France to be like. Cobblestone roads, cafes, bread carts, French townhomes. It's absolutely gorgeous. The locals may or may not be too fond of the 22 rambunctious Americans roaming their streets, but we try to be as respectful as possible. So after all the formalities were taken care of, 19/22 ... read more

It has been another ordinary and pleasant week but I fear that if I go into all the details I will bore you dear readers, so I will do my best to include only the 'interesting' stuff. After holidays and bank holidays (they seem to have a lot in France) I have finally managed to have a full 'working week'; that is to say both my Monday and Friday classes. And life with children is rarely dull, as I have been reminded this week; challenging and amusing, yes but NEVER dull. It is Monday afternoon and I am on sieste duty with the little ones as usual: I have four 4-5 year old boys to manage - Florian, Joas, Elian and Josias. We start by making a trip to the toilet (I tend to leave them ... read more

Hi, We are halfway through our trip and spending a week in Obernai, Alsace, a delightful German-style French town on the Route des Vins between Strasbourg and Colmar. We have had a wonderful tour of Germany and I will report on it too now that we have paused to take a break and once I get my photos downloaded and sorted.! Our daughter Louise who lives in London will join us here for a few days which will be lovely. Weather:mild spring, Food fabulous: cheeses, cheeses, cheeses and terrines, asparagus, vins régionaux, gateaux, berries, .... Weight gain is almost balanced by the walking we have been doing! Yesterday we did a 2 hour hike between 2 ruined chateaux-forts and we do enjoy wandering the villages just to see the historic or the picturesque views. We are ... read more

On Saturday I was delighted to have the opportunity to take part in The March for Jesus in Strasbourg - the perfect place to pray for the nations of Europe! And there was certainly a very European theme - at the end of the march we were even given the honour of having a meeting in the European Council - this Europe theme really spoke to me of the plans God has for me concerning Europe (not just France!) We (I went with a surprisingly small group of people from church - I was surprised that more people hadn't wanted to take part - for me the idea of marching through the European capital, praying and worshiping God was just SO exciting!!) began the march next to the European Council and not far from the European ... read more

My day of freedom finally came on Friday when as scheduled, I went over to Colmar to see Daniele, the English teacher from school. Her holidays had been worse spent than mine and she was clearly full of bitterness, hurt and sadness, making conversation with her sometimes difficult and I found myself constantly praying for protection around myself against the negativity emanating from her. I began to think that perhaps it had been a mistake to do something with her, getting the impression that she wasn't really in the mood to enjoy herself. But God puts certain people in our path for a reason, right? We headed off from Colmar to a small picteresque town called Riquewihr. On the way we stopped at a war memorial for the Allied Forces which acts as a great look-out ... read more

The day after the birth I joined the family on an exclusive trip to the hospital to visit mother and baby. Cedric bought Laetitia an amazing boquet of flowers which I was rather envious of and wondered to myself if my future husband will be quite so affectionate and romantic as that. Anais, as the excited and proud big sister, made sure that she got first hold of the baby when we arrived. I sat down next to her to admire the tiny form in her arms. I wasn't expecting Anais to suddenly turn to me and offer the baby into my nervous 19-year-old arms, which have no experience of baby holding (Anais on the other hand seems quite a pro). I took the tiny baby hesitantly and once safely cradled in my arms, I stared ... read more

I had told myself that the Easter holidays would be used for getting out, exploring and actually doing something rather than staying in the rural, dull and secluded world of Rimlishof. It's funny how quickly we forget the Proverbs which says "We can make plans in our mind but it's the Lord who decides what we shall do." God had clearly decided that I would be staying in the rural, dull and secluded world of Rimlishof and on top of that, I would undertake fille-au pair duties. What fun..... As Laetitia was still pregnant when I got back from Switzerland, we waited still for the arrival of the new baby. And we waited.....and waited.....in the meantime Laetitia was back and forwards to the hospital and the midwife. On Friday, I spent a stressful hour or two ... read more

In stark contrast to the previous week, this week has been busy and fun, the highlight being my afternoon out with Lydie, my French teacher. After doing the round of cleaning at school, we headed off to the picturesque Alsacian town of Kysersberg. As we descended the road into the town, I was delighted to notice what looked like a medieval look-out tower with a stork perched in its nest on top - a real stork! This time I would definitely take a photo! It was certainly a very pretty town, typical of Alsace with its brightly coloured buildings, shuttered windows and quaint little streets. We wondered or rather huffed and puffed our way up to a medieval castle which gave a great view over the rest of the town. We then explored the rest of ... read more