Avignon

14th April. Avignon on the Rhone river was an overnight stop for us on our way to Nice.  Another ancient city.  We saw some first century Roman ruins.

Sue beside some first Century AD Roman ruins, across from Palais des Papes.

In more recent history, the1300s saw the papacy move to Avignon. That's still 700 years ago - I'm still blown away by the depth of history here.  This became the seat of Western Christianity for the 14th Century and a palace/fortress was built here, described as one of the largest and most important medieval Gothic buildings in Europe.  Got to love all these claims though - every town and city has "something" that is the biggest, or most important, or... in Europe.

Sue and Sophie in front of Palais des Papes

Here we found the best coffee so far in France.  My strategy has been to order cafe espresso, because most French cafes don't texture milk the way we do in NZ for a latte or flat white.  I haven't worked out whether they don't like it that way, or just can't be bothered because most people have espresso (without milk).  Here I used my few words of French to thank and complement our barista for the coffee.  I was rewarded with a smile, but also a reply in French which I couldn't understand.  That's the trouble.  Sophie is a great help here.  Here French seems excellent and she if often complemented on her accent (or lack of it).  She says the French vowel sounds are almost identical to Maori, so NZrs should have a head start.  Sue and I are trying to discipline ourselves not to rely on her to speak for us, although I only have two years of high school French.

Avignon retains much of its original city wall, now functioning as a border for the old city.  Also a bridge (Pont d'Avignon) which will be known to some of you from the song.  A good friend of ours lived here for a year or so.  I include a photo of part of the university for her.

Pont d'Avignon (Pont Saint Benezet) built 1177-1185 across the Rhone river.  Photo from the city wall.

Universite d'Avignon

Le Puy en Velay - A day of pilgrimage

13th April.  A wise friend commented that we might well find it is in the unexpected times and places that we have special moments (including times when we feel especially close to God).  Staying at Le Puy en Velay was one of those times.  It began as a convenient stop on the way from Ambroise to Nice, but then the discoveries began

First, Sue found one of the local specialties is lentils.  Some of you may have enjoyed the lentil, beetroot and feta salad Sue makes.  At home the Le Puy Lentils are not easy to find, but here!

Next we discovered this is a place of pilgrimage.  It is one of the starting points for El Camino Santiago pilgrimage (profiled in the movie "The Way").  Several friends of ours have walked this taking 6 weeks or so, and one couple we know is on the way at present. Pilgrimage takes a journey and makes it a time of reflection and spiritual growth.  We visited some of the sites that makes Le Puy an appropriate place to start this journey.

This cast iron statue of Notre-Dame de France is atop the core of an extinct volcano.  The statue is quite modern, inaugurated in 1860, however, pilgrims have traveled here for many centuries before that, climbing the many steps as we did.  The first church established here in 430 AD recognised a tradition of the Virgin appearing here and a flat volcanic stone "the fever stone" has miraculous healing associated with it.  Some of this seems superstitious to my Protestant mind, but I can't deny this place was special.  Sue, Sophie and I prayed together in a chapel below this statue, called the Baptistry of St John which is part of the 11th Century buildings, but parts of it may date from as early as the 5th Century.  It was a moving God moment, thinking of the Christians who had prayed and indeed been baptised there for 16 centuries.  When we prayed the Lord's Prayer, reading from Matthew 6, I was quite tearful, sensing my connection to those early disciples who first learned those words.  Interestingly, the chapel had the apostles creed (in French) displayed on a wall banner).

Inside the Statue

On route to the statue (in background)

Cafe before the climb - You can see the statue above the street in the background.

The "Fever Stone" in the cathedral below the statue.

Walking to Aiguile, the Rock and Chapel of St Michael

The Rock and Chapel of St Michael - quite a climb.

Martin.

Chateau of the Loire Valley

The Loire Valley was close enough to Paris for the wealthy French nobility to build castle palaces or chateau for their holidays and to impress people.  There are hundreds! Only having a day and a half in the Loire, we chose to stay overnight at Amboise a lovely town in a central position of the  Loire, and we decided to visit three quite different Chateau.

Sue and Sophie in the evening sunlight by the Loire River in the beautiful town of Amboise. (Thunderstorm just passed)

We began with Chambord - the largest and outwardly most impressive of the Chateau.

Chambord is a beautifully designed, impressive edifice which King Francis I began building in 1519 to show everyone how powerful he was.  Unfortunately, it seemed to become something of an expensive, impressive white elephant.  No one really wanted it as it was expensive to run, cold in winter and infested with mosquitoes in summer.  The hunting in the surrounding grounds was good, but over the centuries no one was very successful at draining the marsh.  This outwardly impressive building was uncomfortable on the inside and the King only ever visited a few times.

At the centre of the chateau is a spiral staircase - actually two staircases, one on top of the other.  One can climb to the next floor seeing people across from you also on the staircase but never meeting them. It is a classic case of people wanting to be seen, but not known; being concerned about appearances and what people think of them, rather than the substance of who they are.  I might be reading too much into all this, but the main function of the chateau seemed to be to impress people, rather than be a place where people could enjoy living.

The central spiral staircase

Looking down the centre staircase

Sue & Sophie on the other stair

The second Chateau we visited was Cheverny.

Chateau Cheverny snapped on our way for a cup of coffee at their restaurant/cafe in the converted l'orangery 

Wedding gown - Cheverny

This was a smaller, much more homely palace.  Interestingly, the chateau has been lived in continuously (in contrast to Chambord) and has been owned by the same family almost continuously since it was built around 1622. The owners still live in the wing on the left of the picture.  It was still a luxurious palace, but I found it somehow less pretentious than Chambord.  We all commented that except for some of the 17th century bedrooms, we could all live there.  The Belgian comic book creator Herge used Cheverny as a model for his fictional "Chateau de Moulinsart" in the Adventures of Tintin books.

Cheverny seemed to escape the power plays and infighting that seem to be so much a part of the history of other chateau.




Our third chateau visit was Chenonceau.

Sue and Martin at Chenonceau

Chenonceau like Cheverny was a desireable place to live, but unlike Cheverny was caught up in the politics and power plays of France at the highest level.  We saw the room from which Catherine de Medici governed France after the death of her husband King Henry II. We gained a rapid French history lesson. I left with my mind swirling with stories of conspiracies, rivalries, adultery and assassination.  Beautifully preserved, including its gardens, this was the most magnificent chateau visit.  The 16th century chateau was built over the River Cher.  Astounding!

Lasting impressions?  Beautiful buildings, tapestries, paintings, furniture, ... But also questions about the legacy we leave according to the kind of life we live.  Greed and power games don't seem to have led to a happy home!  Most of us don't, or can't, build in Francois I words "a big, beautiful and magnificent edifice" like Chambord to make people think we are powerful, but how much do we worry what people think of us?  Chambord seemed to be all about outward impressions. How much time, money and personal energy do we give to "impression management".  I remember when Samuel was choosing the future king of Israel, the Lord said to him: "Do not consider his appearance or his height... The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart." (1 Sam 16:7)  I also reflected that only God can change our inner selves - giving us a "new heart".

Blessings as you tend to your hearts.
Martin.

The Horror of War - What are Humans Capable of?

Yesterday (April 10th) after attending Sophie's evangelical church in Bergerac, Sue, Sophie and I travelled to the Loire valley.  On the way we visited Oradour sur Glane which was the scene of a massacre on 10 June 1944.  The allies had landed at Normandy on 6th June (D-Day), and the Nazi command must have realised that their days were numbered.  On 10th June, 200 Waffen SS went into Oradour and massacred 642 people, including 193 women and children.  There seems to have been no clear reason for the slaughter.  One possibility is that they got the wrong village, intending to go into another Oradour.  After shooting people, they burned them and the town, except for the hotel with the best wine which they stayed at to drink into the night.

After the war, French President Charles de Gaulle ordered that the town be left just as it is and it to be maintained as a permanent memorial and museum.  It was a sobering walk.  As a pastor I felt especially sad when I walked into the church where women and children tried to shelter from the massacre.  It didn't save them.  The priest was killed first, then the women and children.

Burnt out car and destroyed buildings

Sue walking down a street in Oradour

There were years of war crimes after the end of hostilities, but I was left wrestling with what could make SS behave that way.  It highlighted the depths of evil in the human heart.  We are all capable of evil.  I think we frequently underestimate how serious sin is and how deeply we are all affected. Romans 3 explores the seriousness and all pervasive nature of sin: "There is no one righteous not even one...Their feet are swift to shed blood; ruin and misery mark their ways, and the way of peace they do not know."

It also inspires me to continue to work at making the good news of Jesus Christ known.  Only Christ can change human hearts as the Holy Spirit works in us.  May you know his transforming work each day, so that we may do good things out of the goodness God has placed in us. Luke 6:45.

Martin.

La Dordogne

Rape seed oil growing in La Dordogne

Our oldest daughter Sophie has been helping teach English in a French school in Bergerac for 8 months. It was wonderful to visit her on her home patch in France. She is joining us as tour guide and translator for a week in the south of France.

Awesome medieval village of Sarlat

Like in London, I have been struck by the history of the region.  We have seen structures that date back well into the middle ages, some of them back to Roman times.

The valley of La Vezere dates back even further with prehistoric archaeological sites yielding fossils of Cro-Magnon and Neanderthal Man.  I know those who believe in a young earth will have arguments to refute the ages of these sites, but they claim to be inhabited for 400,000 years.  We visited some of these sites, including a reconstruction of some of the most sophisticated cave paintings in the world copied onto a new cave constructed so the drawings can be viewed by the public while the original drawings are preserved in a controlled atmosphere. It was freaky to think of the ancient artists living in that same site thousands of years ago. They developed tools, art, and even a burial ritual for their dead.

The famous drawings of Lascaux attributed to Cro-Magnon man

We also visited some caves which had been inhabited more recently from the 8th to the end of the 16th Century. These caves had houses built on the cliff face making a troglodyte (cave dweller's) city.

La Roque Saint Christopher - Troglodyte Fortress and City

 They were a secure defence point for the area. We are aware of current tensions and threats, but this has reminded me that violence and war have been a part of human history for a long time. Here it was Viking raiding parties, later Normans and others.

It became the last stand for the Huguenotes who were French Protestants.  Persecuted and even massacred by the Catholics, they fled for their lives and this became a fortress for many hundreds.

Sue among some of their cranes

This and a village we visited on our way to the Loire Valley have made me grateful for the peace and relative tolerance we enjoy in New Zealand.

More on that village and the Loire Valley next time.

Blessings,

Martin.

Time and Space - Greenwich

Yesterday, while still on holiday in London, we took a city river cruise down the Thames to Greenwich.  This is 0 longitude, the prime meridian.  At the observatory we learned of the importance of finding an accurate way to keep time at sea, so that sailors could accurately determine their position and avoid shipwreck.

Greenwich Time

I was impressed by the passion of those early scientists and astronomers who dedicated their lives to the quest. One man, John Harrison took four attempts over decades before he developed a clock that was accurate at sea. In the 1700s sea traffic ruled. Safe navigation was vital if lives were to be saved and the world explored. Greenwich has a museum which celebrates the work that went into developing accurate timepieces.

This made me think about the things that we can achieve if we are passionate and committed to the long haul, even when things don't work out at first.  Harrison learnt from his failures and tried again.  Putting a man on the moon took similar commitment and focus.

This has encouraged me in one of my quests for 2016 which is to explore the role of passion in aiding our motivation and perseverance/endurance.  From my Christian perspective the saving of lives is ultimately achieved as people know where they are in Christ for eternity, not just knowing where they are in time and in longitude. How passionate are we about this work and what resources are we prepared to commit?

The Prime Meridian - 0 deg longitude

This also had me reflecting on finding our place in the world. Knowing that I have Christ to trust in is my Harrison chronometer. That wherever I am I know that I am a child of God, secure for eternity.

Martin and Sue.

Dubai - Ancient and Modern

On our way to London Sue and I were grateful to have a couple of days stopover in Dubai. This modern, bustling city is a monument to middle east oil money, yet it also has a depth of history in trading of herbs and spices, gold and pearls. Above all it sits in the context of Islam, albeit a wealthy, liberal Islam which is trying to build bridges with the West.

Our camel ride

Women in Burkha, the call to prayer from many mosques and frequent reminders about dressing modestly made Islam obvious.
We enjoyed swimming in the Gulf  (interesting Muslim women had their own separate beach where they could swim without men). We also did a touristy desert safari in four wheel drive vehicles over massive sand dunes, watched an exhibition of falconry, had a short camel ride and experienced a bedouin type meal.
This time highlighted the harsh desert environment and the importance of water and cool shelter. Falcons can only live here in the cooler six months. Today water is provided by desalination plants.
I wonder if the sheer challenges to survive in this environment have led to a drive to have the biggest and the best of everything.  We saw the Burj Khalifa  the tallest building in the world.
Guess what the rectangular shaped building below is going to be?

It will be the world's largest photo frame. Samsung are installing lasers that will create an enormous digital photo. The oil wealth has transformed this region but it has also led to obscene excess. Ice cream at the restaurant at the top of the tower hotel below that costs $1,500 a serving. 22 carat gold dresses. Lamborghini and Ferrari at every turn.

Burj Al Arab - not the hotel we stayed in.

Gold necklaces in Old 

I guess the challenge we all face is "How will we use the wealth God has given us?"

The old city of Dubai was famous as the place pearl divers and pearl merchants sold their wares as well as spice traders and gold merchants. We saw this Iranian safron in the old quarter.