Carcassonne

Sunday we divided the group between two different churches: l'église méthodiste and Les Assemblées de Dieu. The first had a smaller service using French and English. The second one had a larger congregation and was all in French. They provide the building we are using for the VBS. I was thrilled to see my students singing praises in French. It helped that the words were on the screen.
Sunday night we visited the Medieval city of Carcassonne. Everyone enjoyed exploring the walled city and then a delicious meal with the pastors and their wives from both churches.

Concert in Narbonne Nursing Home

We visited another Nursing Home and the group sang Gospel music again. Here is Alexi with her flute. The residents loved the sound of it! Afterwards we greeted the elderly. They loved to see the young people and talk with them in French. Kelsey ( in the pink) is our youngest singer and a good performer. Samantha received a kiss from one of the ladies. What a blessing this chorale group is!

Au revoir le château

Saturday we took a hike to the cave where some of the Protestants used to worship. It as a good 30 minute climb up the mountains. Once inside, the temperature dropped to 50* and we sat on the stones to sing. We sang some of the songs from our concert music and other worship music. David Reilly tried the acoustics out with the Halleleujah chorus. Many of us wondered if , under persecution, we would climb this far to attend a worship service.
Most of the students considered staying at the château one of the coolest experiences so far. In addition to many bedrooms, towers and rooms to explore, M. de Casenove had built a modern swimming pool. That felt great!

Au revoir M. de Casenove

On our last day at the château, Saturday, we gave Monsieur de Casenove our gifts and thanked him for letting us use his castle. Here he is at 86 yrs. old. He never married but his family manages the château and has reunions there. He is related to most of the village of La Salle.

La Cuisine

In the basement of the old castle is an ancient kitchen. There is a stove with one burner that works and an oven that works part of the time. Here, Nancy Painter creates wonderful meals for our team of 27 people. Janie and I helped and were amazed at how she arranged and presented the food - à la française.

Le Musée du Désert

We learned more about the Protestant Reformation at this museum. A pastor in those days had a life expectancy of 11 months. He knew he would be caught, tortured and killed for his faith. The women were sent to a tower prison for life. This challenged our beliefs - how much are we willing to suffer for Christ?
Kyle Reille, Joseph Hawthorne, Christine Orsini and Christine Crowson were inspired by the visit.

The Reillys in Anduze

Here we are in the village of Anduze for lunch. This interesting well is in the center of the village and in front of our restaurant. We are so glad to have Janie and David Reilly with us. Janie has been helping with meals at the castle and David is a driver. The stick-shift vans have a mind of their own sometimes! Janie will also teach the 3-5 yr. olds in VBS