"Le Jour-J"

This week we had the opportunity to travel with Elder and Sister Mahaffey up to the north of France.  The Mahaffey's are in the Lyon mission office, and along with a myriad of other things, they are responsible for the fleet of mission cars.  One of the cars needed to be exchanged at the Paris mission office near Versailles. While in the north, we went to visit the Normandy beaches where Elder Mahaffey's father landed on D-day in 1944.

The signage at the visitors center of the American cemetery overlooking Omaha beach translates the expression "D-day" as "le jour-J".  A hostess at the center explained that "le jour J" is not only specifically the name for the allied invasion of June 6, 1944, but is also a general expression for any special day or event.  A wedding, a graduation, or a football final might be called a "jour-J".

It is quite a moving experience to visit the beachs and other sites where so many young men and women sacrificed so much.  And they did it for people that they didn't even know.  We couldn't help but see a little bit of a parallel between them and our young missionaries today.  The missionaries are making a very different kind of sacrifice to be sure.  But it is a significant sacrifice; and like those soldiers of 1944, they are young, and their motive is a love for those that they don't even know.  We are kind of proud of our little band of missionaries who make every day a "jour-J".

Elder Mahaffey taking a moment on Utah beach where his father landed in June, 1944.

One of the Higgins boats that landed the soldiers on the beaches.

A Nazi gun bunker at Pointe du Hoc, a strategic point between Utah and Omaha beaches.

Early in the morning of 6 June 1944, American paratroopers jumped to cut off German access to the beaches from the west.  One soldier was caught on the church spire at Sainte Mère-Eglise.

On the same morning, three British Horsa gliders landed within 50 yards of the Bénouville bridge.  Capturing that bridge cut off the Nazi reinforcements from getting to the beaches from the east.  The bridge was renamed "Pegasus Bridge" after the insignia worn by the British glider unit. 

Pegasus bridge.  The first casualty of D-day happened here.

The American cemetery at Omaha Beach.  

Over 9,000 burials.

Many people, especially those here in Normandy, remember.

In front of the Caen War Memorial.  Speaks for itself.

Amazing Architecture

We have never really been city dwellers for most of our lives.  We miss our walks along the river back home.  But there is an upside to living in an apartment in the middle of a big ville like Lyon.   Our strolls here are on the grand boulevards or through the narow cobblestone streets of a city with 2000 years of history, and these are a different kind of visual feast.

The variety and quality of architecture here is stunning.  On a single walk you can see everything from ancient Roman to post-modernism with everything in between.  And there are adaptations of styles that are unique to this area.  Old Lyon has an almost hidden network of over 200 passageways called traboules that allowed the 16th century silk merchants to easily transport goods through the city.  These are flanked by everything from a gothic cathedral to an art deco apartment building. 

The only danger is that when you are on a walk, you can get so distracted by the beautiful architecture that you aren't always totally aware of where you are stepping.  And that can be a real problem considering all the dogs there are in Lyon!

St. Jean gothic cathedral in old Lyon with 19th century Fourvière Cathedral

overlooking the city.

A staircase in one of the many Traboules

Another spiral staircase.

Neoclassic, gothic and modern all in a row.

I wonder how this doorway would look on 38 Hidden Valley Road?

(Our address back home.)

A detail from one of the many bridges that cross the Rhône and Saône rivers.

Palais de la Bourse in Lyon

The romanesque church of St. Martin Ainay

The neoclassic opera house with 20th century additions.

Designing something this complex and making it work so beautifully is

really a difficult thing to do.

The architect left his name and date on this one: F. Giniez, 1857

Almost everywhere you look, you find a Lion in Lyon.

SNOW!

Many of our friends back home in Rexburg are telling us horror stories about the winter we are missing.  One sent a photo of the comparative temperatures of Rexburg and Anarctica, with Rexburg "winning" the competition at -32°.  Another post showed the difference of 136° between the warmest and the coldest temperatures in the contiguous United States, the coldest being -43° in West Yellowstone, just up the road from Rexburg.  

The photos of the snow this year are also quite impressive.  Our niece sent a photo of a 16 foot high snowman they had built.  Other friends have said that there hasn't been this much snow since the winter on 1983 when several buildings in Rexburg collapsed under the tremendous weight.

Well, we just want everyone back home to know that we are experiencing some of the same here in Lyon.  We woke up this morning to the white stuff and we have to admit that it was a little exciting.  I even went out and built my own little "bonhomme de neige".  It isn't quite 16 feet tall, but it is impressive enough to post a couple of photos so that folks back home will know that we are experiencing some of the same things that you are.

A Lyonnaise "bonhomme de neige"

OK, so the scale isn't that impressive, but it is made out of real snow!

A New Year's Resolution Record

It seems that with the passing of time, our new year's resolutions center around one of two things, eating less and/or exercising more.  Since arriving in France, our exercise regime has actually been pretty good.  Even though we have a car, we choose to walk as much as possible.  A check of the phone app shows us averaging a respectable 5 miles per day.  So with the gastronomic bounties of France surrounding us, we chose the other obvious option for this year's resolution.

The new year arrived on a Sunday.  It also arrived with an after-church dinner invitation to the home of a beautiful family in our ward.  The meal they prepared was from their native country of Congo.  Many of the menu items were similar to the things we grew to love during our 12 years in Hawaii - baked plantanes, manioca, fish, rice, chicken - but the spices were very different, unique, and absolutely wonderful.  There was also a serving of a thick semolina paste that could be pinched off, flattened between the fingers, and used to scoop up the meats and sauces.  In other words, as the head of the family explained, it let you "use the fork that Heavenly Father gave you"!

As it turned out, we set a new personal record for the shortest successful new year's resolution.  But now we can really enjoy France for the next 364 days!

A wonderful couple from our Écully Ward.

The table is set.

Some of their children that let us be "adopted grandparents" for the day.

Someone borrowed Sœur Geddes' missionary badge.

Joyeux Anniversaire!

Elder Geddes is the best, sweetest companion!  He made every effort to make my first birthday in my life away from home and family one of the best ever.  Pain au chocolat and hot- chocolate- Yop for breakfast; Lyon Rosette salami, boursin cheese and baguette for lunch; salmon with capers, veggies, pommes au raclette, French bread and Champomy (non-alcoholic Champagne), with mint, strawberry sorbet for dinner; beautiful gifts from him, the kids and great friends,and Star Wars!  The only thing that could have made it better would have been grand kids, but  we got to skype with all our kids and received so many birthday wishes from sweet friends too, so that made the day complete.

Merci infiniment, chéri et tout le monde!

Reading Churches

Most of the "work" we have been doing during this Christmas season has been around the generous dining tables of our wonderful French friends.  We are learning what Charles de Gaulle meant when he questioned  "How can you govern a country that has 246 varieties of cheese?" Judging from what we have seen just in the past week, de Gaull's number was a bit low!

Between meals, we have had a little time to indulge ourselves in a few visual feasts as well.  We love to visit everything from the small parish churches to the grandiose cathedrals and basilicas here in France that are even more numerous than the variety of cheeses.  Many of these edifices were built centuries before the development of the printing press for congregations who were largely illiterate to the printed word, but who were keenly literate to the language of the visual symbol.  Interestingly, our culture today has some of the inverse problem as far as the church symbolism is concerned.  We sometimes forget that icons are not just those cute little things that originated in the computer age.  These churches are not just filled with beautiful decoration even though many of them are an aesthetic feast for the eyes.  They are in fact bibles, the only scriptures that centuries of earlier Christians could ever read.  So during this temporary slow down, we have visited and tried to read a few more churches.

An altar in the Church of St. Pierre in Mâcon.  The king and high priest of Salem, Melchizedek, offers bread and wine to Abraham.  This is one of the many old testament "types" that predict the new testament, this one foreshadowing the last supper and sacrament.

Alpha and Omega, the trinity and the Greek cross all contained in a circle.

Stained glass from the Vienne cathedral:  Fides (Faith) holding the cross, Caritas (Charity) holding the chalice, and Spes (Hope) holding the anchor.  What better symbols could there be for these three virtues?

Saint Christopher (saint of safe passage) and Saint Louis (Louis IX, king of France).  Lots of tradition and history can also be read alongside the biblical references.

A painting of Saint Cecelia (early Christian martyr and patron of musicians) in the Lyon cathedral.  The martyr's palm and musicians lyre at her feet identify her.  This is who Paul Simon sang was "breaking my heart...shaking my confidence daily".

The home of the French romanticist poet Lamartine in Saint Point, near Mâcon.  With the beauty of this area you can easily see why Lamartine was so inspired by the "cathedral" of nature.

Some "snowflakes" in the mission office made by some of the young missionaries.  I guess not all the symbols here are from early Christianity!

Il est Né le divin Enfant

A traditional Christmas hymn in France is "Il est né le divin Enfant" (He is born, the divine Child).  And today is Christmas.  So the little manger in our new santon crèche is no longer empty.  And even though we are far away from home and family, there is nothing empty about our lives either. 

We have so many reasons to celebrate today.  The first is that we know that "Il est né"!  Today is not just a holiday and the crèche that we have is so much more than just a nice tradition.  We also celebrate our family today.  We were able to talk with our four great kids, their four marvelous companions and all 14 wonderful little grandkids.  We often joke that the best Christmas lights are their car headlights when they come home. . . and then their tail lights when they go back to their own homes.  But this Christmas and next, we will really miss those headlights.  We also celebrate new friends and traditions here in France.  Both Christmas eve last night and Christmas day today came with dinner invitations.  The first evening, dinner started at about 7pm and didn't finish until well past midnight.  It takes time to get through an evening of multiple courses including fois gras, escargots, duck, salads, cheeses, fruit and desserts.  And today was only lunch, so it lasted a mere four hours, not including the time it took for two of us to shuck about 12 dozen oysters! 

So we have much to celebrate.  We are also grateful that our next dinner invitation isn't until a week from now on New Year's Eve because we are not going to be hungry again until then! 

Il est Né!

A Christmas dinner marathon...

...complete with escargots.

Shucking oysters.

Good friends and sparkling grape juice!