Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Quick Update

Greetings from Marseille

Allison and I just checked into our hotel after spending the morning wandering around Marseille. It is a gorgeous city and the seafood is ridiculous. We were really hoping to get to tour the Chateau d’ If (the prison from the Count of Monet Cristo) however the local fishermen are striking today and have blocked all of the ferries to the island. We will have to wait and see what kind of mood they are in tomorrow.

We spent the majority of our day yesterday with a missionary couple who have been serving the Lord in France for 20 years. They planted 3 different churches in Paris and are now working in south France. Our time with them was extremely encouraging and refreshing. We hope that this will be the first of many interactions that we have with this couple. We were also able to enjoy our first meal that didn’t consist entirely of carbs. (man cannot live on crepes and baguettes alone) The rest of the day we spent resting. It was good to get caught up on sleep as the night before we didn’t get much. Conveniently the Fete de la Musique took place directly below our hotel room until the wee hours of the morning and we had to be up at 5 to catch our train to Lyon.

After a brief rest this afternoon we plan to spend the rest of the evening and the majority of tomorrow exploring Marseille. We will catch the super-fast train tomorrow evening back to Paris and head to the airport Thursday morning.

We will post some pictures of Marseille this evening or tomorrow morning for you viewing pleasure.

Sunday, June 21, 2009

Sunday Pictures

HILLSONG PARIS...and it was AWESOME!

Our metro station

A typical Paris Café... all of the tables face outward so you can enjoy the day and watch people passing by.

Our view from our seats in the café

A bridge along the Seine River

Le Mosquée de Paris


Us in front of the Arc de Triomphe

Le tour Eiffel... no pictures do justice to the size and beauty of the arc or the Eiffel tower!! They are both breath taking- to quote a man who saw the arc and said this to his family "this is a WOW moment, I need a sec"


L'école militaire

Saturday, June 20, 2009

Pictures from Thursday, Friday & Saturday

Today, in addition to visiting The Louvre and Notre Dame, we figured out we have Wi-Fi in our hotel room......it has been a good day. As promised here are some pictures from our trip thus far.

This is a statue that was right in the middle of our terminal in Toronto.


The view from our hotel... and yes we are staying at Hotel Odessa, kind of ironic.


Notre Dame- We never got to go inside, the line had hundreds of people in it!!!


Hotel Dieu means 'Hotel God', I am sure it has some importance here... I just really liked the blue door.

Typical French Street

The Louvre -archways leading to entrance

A vanity from Henri V house

Becasue the Louvre was once a palace, all of the ceilings look similar to this

In the promenade area of the Louvre

Walking along the Seine River...if you look real close you can see the Eiffel Tower in the distance!
All that said, we have had a blast thus far!

Friday, June 19, 2009

Bonjour!!!

We made it!!! After a LONG two days of traveling we are here! Yesterday we spent some time in the city of Toronto. We have heard that Toronto is very diverse, and it really is. When we were riding the Subway, we realized there was no minority in the car, but rather is was a smattering of many different ethnicities.
Today,once arriving and navigating our way through Paris, we got to go to our adorable hotel, and also walk to the Luxembourg Gardens. It has been a great trip thus far, we are already tired :) and we are both amazed at the pace of Paris. More to come.... hopefully. Internet has been difficult to find but we will post when we can!

Love you all!

Allison and Justin

Sunday, June 14, 2009

THE PRODIGAL BLOGGER

We hope that you, like the father of the prodigal son, will lovingly embrace our return to the blog world in spite of our long absence. We also hope that you will not judge the timing and motives of our return……… 3 days before we leave to go to France and, unashamedly, to ask for your prayers as we travel. Here is the itinerary for our trip as of this afternoon:

• Arrive in France Friday June 19th
• Friday through Sunday will be spent in Paris
• Monday we will travel to south France to meet with a missionary couple
• Tuesday and Wednesday will be spent in Marseille
• Arrive in DFW Thursday June 25

We intend to visit mosques and churches in different parts of the country as well as different neighborhoods within the larger cities. There will also be time to enjoy museums, restaurants, wine, cheese etc. I guess you could say that it is part exploratory, part visionary and part vacation. We are really excited about going. We simply ask that you would pray for safety and clarity. Our intention is to blog while on our trip so that we can share some of it with you…we will see how this goes. Regardless we covet your prayers as we seek out what it means for us to be obedient to what we believe we have been called to.


Thanks so much.
THE KITCHENS’