A day out in Paris.

So. . .what do we do when we are in Rouen?  
                                Well, this time we went to Paris!! 

Yes Kathy, I did take this picture! :-)

We are about the same distance from Paris here as what we were in Reims.  So it's not far at all.  Just before we came back to France we received a phone call from  one of our supporting pastors asking if we could meet up with him, his wife and daughter in Paris.  They were on their way back from a trip to Israel and had an overnight in Paris on Monday before heading back to the States.

We decided to leave Emily at home.  Which in the end was a very good decision.  It just happened that yesterday was the hottest day of the year so far this year!!  It was hot!!!  Around 35° c in the shade.  So you can imagine what it was like in the sun.  It was HOT!!

We were to meet pastor Brown and his family at their hotel.  Their plane was to get in around noon.  We didn't leave Rouen until 10:30 thinking that would give them time to get their luggage and the shuttle and get to the airport.

We stopped along the highway, bought a salad and ate it in the shadow of an overpass.  It was already too hot at noon to be anywhere where there wasn't shade.

 We arrived at the hotel but they weren't there yet.  The hotel wasn't air conditioned but fortunately was all made of marble (even though it wasn't an expensive hotel).  So it was still cool.  We found some comfortable chairs and waited.  About an hour and a half later they arrived.  Come to find out, their plane got in closer to one o'clock.  They got their room and then we were off on the Paris adventure.

It was HOT!!  Have I mentioned that?  

We took the shuttle bus to the airport to get the train to Paris.  Now, that sounds funny, doesn't it? No air conditioning in the trains in Paris.   We took two different trains and then the metro (subway) and ended up at the Eiffel Tower.

Pastor and Mrs Brown have been at First Baptist, Laingsburg, MI since 1994.  Their daughter, Rachel, just graduated from Northland University.  Where, her senior year she was roommates with Alyssa Fox. (The Foxes are the missionaries who started the church here in Rouen.)  Rachel had to do a Global service to finish out her college credit and so her parents took her to Israel.  This was the first time for the ladies to be in Paris.  

Les Invalides--where Napoleon is buried.

Do we look hot?

Pastor Brown has a lot of knee problems.  So we stayed pretty much above the Eiffel Tower.  We were also very limited in time as Mike and I wanted to be back in Rouen before dark.

From the Eiffel Tower we went to the Arch of Triumph.  The two ladies went down the passage to go under the Arch.  But the rest of us stayed on the Champs Elysées side. While we were there a military band started playing under the arch and about 50 men and women marched up the Champs and under the arch.  It was pretty impressive.  I looked on internet today today to see if I could find out what it was all about.  But I didn't get any answers.

We took the trains back to the airport.  The second train was like an oven.  No!!   It WAS an oven!    I had gotten over heated at the Eiffel Tower and that train about did me in.  Then we got on the shuttle to the hotel.  And it was air conditioned.  Wonderful!!!!  I was able to cool down.  I felt a lot better after that.

We said our good byes at the hotel and we were on our way home by 8:30.  We had a beautiful sunset most of the way home.  

 We arrived around 10:30 and a very long HOT day.  Emily had a good day and made out fine.  But I do think that she missed us.  


We'll do it again, I'm sure.  Just not when it is so HOT!!!