Toulouse and the English-Speaking Church

I've had several e-mails from friends who ask us about church. Specifically, do we go? Have we found anything in English, etc. So here is an answer to that.

When our friends Todd and Becky were here, we had only been here in France a couple of weeks ourselves. I mentioned to Becky that we had only found French-speaking (obviously) churches, which were not very meaningful to the kids. Becky found a reference to an English-speaking church in a brochure and that led us to the church we've been going to in Toulouse. They call themselves simply the English Church of Midi-Pyrénées & Aude. It seems to be mainly Anglican in flavour but hey, it's Christian and they speak English! The people who attend are very nice; many of them work for Airbus in Toulouse and they are the ones who encouraged us to do the Airbus tour which was completely worthwhile.

We are also very fortunate to be able to tune into our home church, The Met (short for Metropolitan Bible Church of Ottawa) via the Internet. Every week, we boot up this laptop and click on sermons to be able to follow along with Pastor Rick, currently doing a study on wisdom from the Book of Proverbs. Great stuff!

I know Mitchell and Jackson miss their church. Jackson has said many times, "Blessed Sacrament is a church for grown-ups (perhaps when he goes with his class from school they are told to sit still, be quiet, etc., I'm not sure) but the Met is a church for kids". After touring so many great, historic cathedrals here in France, such as the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, all Mitchell has to say about them is "why is it so dark in here? why is it so cold? don't they have any lights? I like the Met better".

Before we left, I loaded something called The Bible Experience onto our laptop so we have that also. This is an audio version of the Bible, fully dramatized by well-known stars such as Samuel L. Jackson and Denzel Washington. So every morning, we start the day by listening to a couple of chapters while the kids have an OJ and we have our coffee. It's nice because we don't have to rush off anywhere and we can see what they have (or have not) understood from it.

So that's our spiritual update folks! On another note, I am very excited because tomorrow some good friends of mine are coming from Ottawa. They have rented a place about 20 minutes from here and I will meet them at the train station tomorrow afternoon (three are coming from Paris and two are en route from Marseilles). We are all in a Book Club together - Arms Akimbo! Why do we call ourselves that, you ask? Next post . . . right now it's time for some dormir.

Beautiful Bordeaux & Airbus Adventures

From Mitchell: On September 20, we went to Bordeaux for a holiday. We stayed in a nice apartment on the top floor for a few days. We saw many cool sights there but my favourite place was the Mirror of Water. It was a shallow pool of water that would spray mist everywhere. It was fun to run through because you could not see where you were going. We also went on a walking tour and learned a lot about Bordeaux. Lastly, we walked along Rue St. Catherine, Europe’s longest pedestrian street.

When our holiday in Bordeaux was finished, we drove home and stopped at the Airbus Factory in Toulouse. Airbus is a commercial airplane company that makes planes like the A380, the Beluga, and The Concorde. We only got to see the A380 being built, though. We also got to see some of the tests the planes have to go through before they are safe to fly. One scary test is to determine the stalling speed of the aircraft. The pilot points the nose of the plane up, until it stalls, and then the pilot has to point the nose down and bring it out of the stall. At the end of the tour, we got to go inside a model of the double-decker A380. It was a very good tour and I had a lot of fun.

Here is the apartment we rented (top floor) right on the Quai of the River Garonne:

It was cool and windy while we were there (especially along the waterfront):

The most popular attraction in Bordeaux - the Mirror of Water or

Mirior d'Eau:

We're waiting for the mist cycle to kick in (about every 15 minutes):

This is the first time Mom has worn long sleeves on our trip - she said she should have worn Darlene's Jacket:

Dad loved the 18th century restored architecture (Place de Bourse):

Another cool reflection in the water mirror:

Jackson's favourite things in Bordeaux - riding on the super-quiet Tram (in background) and running in the mist:

Here I am running into the mist:

Bell Tower (Grand Cloche):

Rue de St. Catherine (longest pedestrian street in Europe):

Dad and a glass of the famous Bordeaux wine:

A statue of the famous writer Montaigne - he is from Bordeaux. My Mom was excited to see this because she said some of his essays inspired this trip:

A famous statue showing France as a lady of liberty:

Looking down on the statue, getting wet in the spray:

Cathedral St. Andre:

An outdoor cafe:

More 18th century architecture - it is not medieval like St. Papoul because Bordeaux was so rich from producing wine that they tore all the old buildings down and re-built them:


This is funny - Jackson watching TV at a large FNAC store - he has not watched TV since the middle of July and he just could not get up and walk away:

We were not allowed to take photos on our Airbus tour, except for this one outside: