Bournagain

Today was a great reminder of how much you miss when you don’t take the time to appreciate the beauty of your surroundings.

On the one hand, France has an absolutely fantastic road and rail network. The high speed trains get you to your destination quicker than flying if you count the time messing around in airports; the autoroute system covers the whole country and although the tolls are expensive the roads are fantastic – everything is designed for speed.

But I normally dread the boredom of the drive to and from Paris – 4 and a half hours of monotony, and in addition to the high cost of petrol you feel like you’re shelling out megabucks for the tolls.

Today, however, was a completely different experience. I picked up some friends from the airport in Paris, and as we weren’t in a hurry, we decided to take the slower national roads instead of the autoroute. It added two hours to the trip, but it was so worth it. Ten years I have lived here but often miss the beauty of this country because I’m in too much of a hurry. For my friends it is their very first visit to France, and their exuberant appreciation of the sights was infectious. I so enjoyed drinking in the beauty of the rolling countryside, snow-dusted fields, long straight stretches of tree-lined roads, picturesque villages, massive country mansions in various stages of repair or disrepair, and the contrast in architecture as you pass from one region to another. Admittedly the gorgeous weather helped, but a rainy day would not have done much to spoil the effect.

Is it really worth saving two hours but missing the sights we saw today? – scenes that make you delight in the abundant variety of God’s creation on one hand, and that remind you of that conviction that there is hope for humanity after all.

Today we have been back in France for 2 weeks. About time I got back to the blog. But before getting into anything more consequential, I just have to share this photo with you. We spent two days in Hong Kong on our way back to France, and, wanting to give the children as authentic an experience as possible, we ate one of the meals in a local noodle bar. Very little English was spoken. The facial expressions speak volumes about how our children deal with culture shock.

Needless to say, the other patrons found us very entertaining.

Sunday afternoons are always looked forward to in our family, as Sunday mornings are usually pretty intense. Heather has been doing a survey of the Middle Ages with the children, and since there is no shortage of castles around here we went to visit one this afternoon for a bit of a family outing. On a bleak winter’s day with not too many tourists around it would be a pretty spooky place. Built in the 12th century, it’s most famous occupant was Gilles de Rais, alias “Bluebeard”, friend of Joan of Arc, who had a successful career as Marshal of France, defending the land from those nasty English. Sadly his life ended in wierdness, with forays into the occult, alchemy and crime.

It was pretty hard to spot the ghosts this afternoon though. This month they have turned the place into a large Christmas market, with overpriced trinkets, candy floss, roast chestnuts and mulled wine – the usual Christmas market stuff. There were SO many people. Christmas is so bizarre isn’t it? I think it’s struck me more this year than ever before. What a huge amount of time, money and effort goes into preparing to celebrate, when nobody really knows what we’re celebrating. Not that there’s anything wrong with having a party from time to time, but it’s getting so over the top. In spite of all the hype it is one of the loneliest times of the year for a lot of people, the most stressful times, and the month where people are most likely to get into financial difficulty – all for the sake of something that is supposed to make us happy.

The need to celebrate is basic to humanity, and it is such a crushing realisation for many people that there really isn’t that much to celebrate. There is a reason though, that is so much deeper and wider and more interesting than just Christmas – it’s the mystery of Emmanuel, God with us – and not just on December 25th but 365 days a year. God WITH us – not some distant philosophy or outmoded morality, but the real thing!

Let’s celebrate this every day, December 25th included!