“Welcome to France, ‘Merica!”

I wish there were 48 hours in every day – not because I want or need to get more stuff “done” per se, but rather I wish I had 24 hours of experience, followed by 24 hours of time to tell everyone about what I just did. Then I think my problem of writing severely delayed blogs would be cured. Alas, God decided 24 hours would be enough, and I assume He probably knew what He was doing.

On Monday, October 5th we flew from Belfast, Northern Ireland to Paris, France, and I literally could not believe I was actually going to be flying into Paris that afternoon – a place I had dreamed of going since I was a little girl. However, we weren’t going to be staying in Paris right away; instead we hopped right on a coach that took us out of the city, via a short stop at the Rouen Cathedral (a Roman Catholic gothic cathedral; the subject of a series of paintings done by Monet). After our brief wanderings through the Cathedral we all scattered to find dinner and hopped back on the bus on our way to Bayeux. Finding dinner was my first French adventure, which I survived with success ordering a pizza jambon panini from a street stand. Arriving in Bayeux that night I felt satisfied that I had successfully navigated through a potentially anxious-prone evening, which could have made me really nervous due to that fact that I don’t speak French. However, I think I had so psyched myself into thinking that my experience could be very stressful and emotionally exhausting that I was ready for anything good or bad.

First Impressions of France:

1. (Upon landing the plane in Paris) “Huh? I thought this would be the city, but it looks like Wisconsin, or Germany, or England…Hm. No difference.”
2. (On walking through the Paris airport) “Cool! There are moving sidewalks that go up and down like escalators, but without stairs!”
3. (Internal pep-talk) “Think Zach Dahl. He’s nice and he speaks French and has lived here before, I think. Maybe everyone will be nice like Zach.” (Haha.)
4. (On riding on the bus from the airport to Bayeax) “Bummer, it’s cloudy…very cloudy.”
5. “It feels weird to be back on the right side of the road.”
6. (When looking out the window at a portion of Paris)“This reminds me of Prague.” (I think this was because of the cloudy day, the river running through the city, and the context of having been in the England and Irish countryside beforehand, just like coming from the German countryside to Prague.)
7. (On making a stop at a French gas station – my first interaction with a French person) “Yes! What a good experience…I said ‘Bonjour’, ‘Merci’, etc. and the lady cashier smiled at me. Success!”

The following day (Tuesday, October 6th) we kicked off the day with an incredible French breakfast at our hotel. I ate probably the most amazing croissant I’ve ever eaten with strawberry jam and a piece of cheese, a yogurt, cornflakes (which is like the staple European cereal that we find everywhere we stay), and the best part…a café au lait! – made with the press of a button from this incredible automatic coffee machine that I want for Christmas (just kidding)! Haha. But that coffee just totally made my day. I’ve noticed that I’ve gotten used to eating really big breakfasts since I’ve been here (probably stemming from how many English/Irish breakfasts I’ve been served combined with not knowing when lunch is coming and what it will be); I feel like I’m always eternally hungry in the morning. This cheery part of the morning was a bit soured though when we found out that two girls on our trip had gotten things stolen from their room the night before (one had her passport stolen and her entire wallet, and the other just a credit card and cash, I think.) It served as a shocking welcome to France. Most of us brought a large amount of stuff on the bus with us that morning for our day trip so we didn’t leave it behind and I double checked that my suitcase was locked. Thankfully we haven’t had any issues like this since then.

DR sent the rest of our group on the bus with our tour guide while he stayed back with the girls to sort out this French mess, and they were able to catch up with us not too much later in the day. Today (Tuesday, October 6th) we spent an entire day touring the Normandy beaches with a tour guide taking us from beach to beach. I thought it was a really interesting and powerful day as we learned about their war tactics and what had occurred at each beach, though often times I couldn’t understand what our French tour guide was saying. Regardless, it made me think of my grandpa who was supposed to be a pilot in WWII had he not contracted TB, which made the day more personal for me. My favorite moment was walking through the American cemetery (and museum) at Normandy. At one point bells were playing “America the Beauitful” which was a very powerful moment as I looked over all the crosses in the ground.

When we all returned to our hotel in Bayeux that evening we got dressed up and went out to dinner together as a last celebratory evening together as a group before our free travel and before DR and Judie would be leaving us – for when we return back to London after free travel we’ll be meeting a new professor from Bethel, Mark Bruce, and his wife Julianne and their four year old daughter Rhiannon who will be with us for the second half of the trip. It was absolutely wonderful to have a nice dinner together, see everyone dressed up, semi-celebrate Allison’s birthday which happened to be on that day, and then individually share our appreciation for DR and Judie. Let’s just say there was much love flowing between all of us that evening and many fun memories recalled from the first half of the trip.