As always, thanks Mary Oliver for such a beautiful poem this morning: Every day I see or hear something that more or less kills me with delight, that leaves me like a needle in the haystack of light. It was what I was born for – to look, to listen, to lose myself inside this soft world – to instruct myself over and over in joy, and acclamation. Nor am I talking about the exceptional, the fearful, the dreadful, the... Read more

Holy Troublemakers: Jeremiah Jeremiah 1:4-10 We’ve been spending the last few weeks of this summer taking a closer look at some holy troublemakers, Hebrew prophets who lived and worked during a time in Israel’s history when the people of Israel were at serious risk of forgetting about the God who had called and led them out of slavery in Egypt. They’d settled in their Promised Land and gotten a little too used to comfort and prestige; they’d forgotten their holy... Read more

HANNAH: We woke up super early to take the metro to the Louvre when we got their there was a huge line but not as long as it was in the afternoon. We got in line right next to a chocolate store and decided we would buy some for our hosts who lent us their apartment afterwards. Finally we got into the Louvre and we got in a kiosk line. We were in line for about 10 seconds got our... Read more

HANNAH: We woke up bright and early to get on the metro and go to Sainte-Chapelle.  It was so pretty; the stained glass windows had pictures from the Bible.  So we sat there for a while and then we walked around for a while we walked to the Pompidou Center and I got these really pretty genie pants.  We had an indoor picnic at the Langlois’ and then went home for a nap which I didn’t take.  We took the... Read more

An entry covering Monday 8/9 and Tuesday 8/10 SAMMY: Yesterday, we went on the train. Two of them. The first train was very nice-amazing even. The next train was packed, bumpy, and loud. We found ourselves standing on the whole trip. It was fun, though. After arriving in Paris we found our apartment. After dumping our stuff, we went to the Sacre Coeur. We thought everyone was lost, but we were proved wrong when everyone came together. After that we saw an... Read more

We’ve been doing a lot of biking around the countryside here.  This is an area of France that was damaged quite severely during WWII as the Loire River runs right through the region and there are many strategic bridges that the Americans tried to destroy and, inadvertently destroyed lots of other beautiful, old buildings.  Nevertheless, it has been fun to imagine that time in history and explore the woods and villages near Sainte Claire on our bikes. We’ve also done... Read more

HAYDEN: Ok two days ago we basically just hung around the house until Jeremie and I went on a really, really long bike ride, which means about 13miles or 22km, which I did on a speed bike. I had never ridden a speed bike before so I had a rough time the whole ride plus it was all up hill basically; when we ended up getting home we  almost collapsed, drenched in sweat.  After all that we were put to... Read more

On our second day here we experienced what might very well be my favorite thing on this trip–definitely my favorite so far: the Benedictine monastery at Sainte Benoit.  We got there just as noon mass was beginning, so we sat in this beautiful, 1000 year old church and listened to them sing and change in Latin.  It was almost like what I imagine heaven will be. Alas, tried to upload video but no luck.  Just imagine a lot of monks... Read more

HAYDEN: Ok so yesterday we flew over to France to visit our friends the Langlois, the plane ride was pretty long but it was pretty awesome that we didn’t have to change flights but my real issue with the plane/ flights in general is that I can NEVER sleep on planes so that was not fun at all. The service was pretty good but the flight attendants confused me the whole time because they would start speaking French to me... Read more

It was an easy flight to Paris, and I will be proud for a very long time that we brought two carry ons with us.  That’s it.  Four people, 10 days in France, 2 carry ons.  I might even put that on my resume. Anyway, our friend Alexis picked us up and we drove for three hours south of Paris into the Loire valley, where Alexis’ family owns a chateaux called St. Claire, in the district called Sologne–near Orleans and... Read more