Bastille Day - 14 July

July 14, 2009 was Bastille Day here in France. This is the French Independence Day and celebrated a bit like our Fourth of July in that the people have the day off to see the parades, view the fireworks and do whatever else they want.

Our apartment is just about 3 blocks and across the river from the parade. But, with so many thousands wanting to see the parade you either have to take a ladder to stand on (which many do!!), or go very early to find a place where you can be close enough to see.

Once we learned that we could have almost a “front row seat” in front of the television, we opted for that option. However, we did go and stand by the river to watch the flyover that happens at the beginning of the parade. The first formation of nine planes had colored smoke exhaust with three blue, three white and three red….the colors of the French flag. Then, they must have flown several of every plane that the French air force has in different formations.

In the parade we saw many regular army, navy, etc marching/riding personnel (mostly men and a few women) but those units with long traditions dress in their traditional uniforms. There were lots of sabers and distinctive hats. Some of the more interesting that we recognized were the French Foreign Legion and some that had served in India. There were also invited Indian units this year. There were of course the traditional instruments in the bands, but there were also a few weird looking and sounding things.

The Indian military unit had their transport bus parked close to the church so we were able to get a good look at them. They posed and let people try on their hats.

But the real thrill of the day was the fireworks. Each year they are done close to the Eiffel Tower, but this year probably half of them were shot from the tower. The estimate was that over a million people sat on the grass of the park at the tower to watch the fireworks….and we did that in 2006. However, this year we had a great view as we splurged and bought a boat cruise that ended right at the tower.

It was a delight to see different fireworks going off up and down, right and left from the Eiffel Tower. At one point the lights didn’t explode outwards but just looked like big flames on different levels of the tower. I guess this seemed very realistic to one of our grandsons who is visiting. He asked me the next morning if the tower had burned the night before. Since we can see the tower from our windows, I showed him that the tower was still there and the elevators were still going up and down and it was certainly all right.

After walking home through the crowd, we were almost too sound and light shocked to sleep, but it had been a great day.

Early days back in the City of Lights - glamorous Paris

We are, indeed, back. It really feels good to be here even though we also miss our beloved Red Lodge. We have been enjoying walking from our apartment down to Rue Cler, a very traditional French street with small shops and loads of locals shopping (plus, of course, some tourists as well). We have ridden our bus #63 that stops right in front of the church. We can ride it all the way to one of our favorite grocery stores. We have also been to a couple of Carre Fours, the French version of Wal Mart type stores. Nancy has traveled around to at least one street market - the first of many, we are sure, and has made it to look around at some other big stores as well.

Sunday I helped in a minor way to lead worship. I read scripture and did the benediction. I have sort of gained the rep that I can give a good send off. Well, I enjoy doing that.

Our senior pastor, Scott Herr, and his family are going on vacation later this week, so I will be doing more in worship for the next few weeks, including preaching on July 26th. Yesterday, Nancy recorded some of the finest pipe organ music that you can imagine. It was exciting to hear, and the recording turned out well!

Here are a few pictures.......

--crazy picture taken in an elevator --power washing sidewalks, a regular activity to keep Paris clean --famous, and beautiful, Seine River bridge near our church -- Outdoor eating in Paris --an outdoor market not far from the church.....

Peace!

Don and Nancy

6 July 2009

Off for Paris tomorrow!

June26 09

We have just had some wonderful quality time with our grand children and their parents. This picture was taken about a week ago in our yard with mountains in the background. Three of the grandkids live in Montana; the other two live in Wisconsin.

One of the activities that we shared together was a river adventure on the Stillwater River which is about an hour away from our Red Lodge home.

The water at this time of year is rated 3.5. It was plenty of action for us. We managed to experience a lot of excitement plus getting totally wet - even with our rain gear. It was fun. We were in two rafts.

Our next post will be from France.

D & N

ABOUT US

A brief introduction. We are Don and Nancy Hamilton. We live in Red Lodge, Montana, and though we are both retired, remain active. One of our favorite retirement activities is travel. We believe that Rick Steves is correct when he says that travel is educational, fun, political, and faith fulfilling. We continue to find excitement in sharing in other cultures, political, and religious perspectives. Thus, we will continue to share from our experiences of travel.

I, Don, am a retired United Methodist minister. Officially retired, that is. Since retirement I have served for more than year as a member of the pastoral staff of The American Church in Paris, in 2 six month terms. We are getting ready to return for another 6 months, beginning on July 1, 2009.

Nancy is a retired public school teacher. She spent most of her teaching years working with kindergarten age children. Now, she pursues her genealogy hobby and shares in the many travel experiences, including, of course the opportunity to live in Paris for half a year at a time.

We last returned from Paris in early September 2008. Since then we have traveled to Bhutan and India, to Egypt, and to Mexico. In the U.S., we spent time in March in Alabama, Georgia, and Florida. Each of these journeys offered amazing opportunities to experience and learn a lot that was new to us. Take religion, for example: Bhutan is almost 100 per cent Buddhist. India's majority religion is Hindu, with a significant Muslim minority. Egypt is largely Muslim, though there is a small but committed Christian minority expressed through the Coptic Church of Egypt. Mexico is largely Roman Catholic Christian, with various Protestant churches as well. For example, The United Methodists have a considerable number of churches in Mexico, with a bishop and Annual Conference.

During the past several months we have enjoyed spending time at our Red Lodge home, being involved with our daughters, Cristi & Karen, and their husbands, Jeff & Greg. We have delighted in the opportunities to spend time with our grandchildren, Chris, Maddie, Trevor, Alex, & Synnove. (Chris & Maddie are Karen and Greg's kids; Trevor, Alex, and Synnove are Cristi and Jeff's).

In the past we have tried to send out emails to a group of family and friends. We decided that this year - as we are getting ready to go back to Paris - that we would create this blog. We believe that we will find it somewhat easier to record some up to date information about our experiences plus add pictures to our blog site.