Bucket List #32: Europe

     There are some things on a bucket list that are easily completed. Other things you just have to wait for. One of those waiting things on my list read "Go to Europe". The end of July and the beginning of August were spent in England and France meeting Will's family. Bucket List #32. Check. 

     Because Will is here for school, he only gets to see his family once or twice a year. I was so excited to be included in this special visit thanks to the amazing generosity of Will's whole family in letting me stay with them and eat their food and experience a little bit of their lives. 

     The first and last few days was spent in England in the town of High Wycombe with Will's mom. She is a sweet lady who cooks delicious food, drinks a lot of tea, and plays a mean game of Scrabble! The middle week was spent in France in the village of La Bazoge with Will's dad, sister, and grandpa. It was fun to get to know each of them and be able to put a face and personality with the names I already knew. They were all so hospitable and generous!

     England and France are interesting because things are very similar to home but there was always that slight difference that reminded me that I was not at home! Different word choices, driving rules, and process at meals kept me asking plenty of questions. France was the first country I've been in where I didn't speak the language. Now I know how it feels to be helpless in front of a dinner menu :) Thanks to the help of Will, Mr. Pearce, and Grandpa John's excellent French, I survived. 

     I tried a lot of new foods in Europe. Marmite, duck, quail, escargo (snails), scallops, green tomato chutney, pate (duck liver spread), crab salad, anchovies, and other various dips, cheeses, and appetizers. All of it was better than I expected :)


     Here are some pictures of the trip. Enjoy!

Will's mom's house. And Will.

  

!Barney!

Walking by the river in England. Those two white pyramids on the right are swans gone bottom up. All swans in England are protected property of the Queen.

Trick riding motorcyclists doing a pyramid at the Thames agricultural show. 

Horse and hunting dogs at the show.

Baled straw in England

Leaving England for France on the ferry

A look down the street outside Grandpa John's house in La Bazoge, France.

Gallete: a lunch crepe in France.

Mont Saint Michel - a tiny island with a huge monastery.

Mont Saint Michel

The tide comes in and covers the grass. A special breed of sheep eat the salty grass when the tide is out.

In the monastery looking around.

The hugeness made me feel like a tiny child.

People are like stained-glass windows.  They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in their true beauty is revealed only if there is light from within.  ~Elisabeth Kübler-Ross

Will and I outside Mont Saint Michel

Back in England before the journey home, something very very English - a game of cricket!

Psalm 121:4-8

4 Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.

5 The LORD is thy keeper: the LORD is thy shade upon thy right hand.

6 The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night.

7 The LORD shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul.

8 The LORD shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore.