Fireworks

Wednesday evening there were fireworks in Limoux.  The French "independance" day was Thursday but Carcassonne has their famous firework show in that day so most of the cities in the area have theirs on Wednesday.  We arrived early and spent 30 minutes looking for some friends that we were supposed to meet up with. We ended up being on the wrong side of the river and had to cross back over.  The fireworks were nice, they started out with the Canoe association, canoeing down the river with laterns on their canoes.  They then shot off the fireworks from the bridge. Afterwards they had an orchestra and ballroom type dancing in the square, but it started raining heavily.  We stayed for a little while visiting under the covered areas and then headed home. We decided late thursday to attend the fireworks in Carcassonne.  I did not really want to go, but we needed to make the trip to Carcassonne anyways and so we finally decided to stay for the fireworks.  We actually found a good parking spot close to a friends house.  We walked a little ways before finding a nice hill to view the fireworks from.  The show was awesome again this year.  Caleb made a friend who almost talked during the entire show.  After the grand finally we walked back to the car and started making our way slowly out of town.  It was one in the morning by the time we made it home.  The kids were exhausted after being up late two nights in a row, but it all went well.  Now time to focus on preparations for the Tour de France.  God bless, JASON

Fireworks at Carcassonne

The early part of this week we took a trip to Carcassonne to do some shopping and then we ate a picnic lunch at the lake near Carcassonne. I also prepared the lesson for the bible study next week. I am glad that I am a week ahead. Wednesday some friends from the language school came and visited with us. They are staying in Toulouse and we decided to go see the fireworks in Carcassonne together. The Bastille Day fireworks in Carcassonne is an amazing event. It is also a celebration of the burning of the walled city in 1898. It lasts only about twenty five minutes but fireworks are shot from all parts of the castle and it is amazing to see. It ends with 1200 fireworks going off in 6 seconds. We planned to arrive early, the show starts at 10:30 pm, but the town of 30,000 swells to 700,000 with visitors from all over the world. So we arrived at 8:00 and set up a picnic blanket on the street. We ate and played games with the kids and watched people arrive. We were able to meet an american family from Toulouse that was seated near us. There was one interesting moment when someone who had been waiting in a good spot for 5 hours had someone else come stand in front of them. It started to get energized when one man pushed another, but 6 police officers arrived so everything calmed back down. The wait was not too bad. The street lights went off, the show started and it was amazing. The castle was lit up red and the fireworks were the best I have ever seen. Off course I have attached pictures, but it does not do it justice. Afterwards we walked the mile back to the car and waited until midnight before we drove off. It only took and hour to get out of town, which was not too bad. We are now looking forward to the bible study tonight. God bless, JASON

The search is on (again).

Sunday – Services went well at church. They had a good number there are several people who drive in from villages further out during the summer. People remembered us and had been praying for us. Monday - We had planned to go to the beach. We had put it off all last week and the kids had been begging to go. The weather end up being perfect for it. It was cloudy and cooler, it had rained a little in the morning so the beaches were not crowded at all. I thought being before the French holiday that it would be packed but that was not the case. The kids had such a good time. They are a lot of fun just to watch. Andrew would just get so excited he would start running down the beach. After we got back home and cleaned up, Angie and Lilia went grocery shopping and to check out the clothing sales one more time. They hit a lot of traffic and so were slow going. They did not make it back in time for supper so the boys and I had hotdogs (yeah!). Tomorrow we are trying to decide if we need to go to the fireworks in Carcassonne or not. It is the French independence day, the fireworks in Carcassonne are popular and famous, but about 10,000 people drive in for them and from what they were saying at church Sunday, it could take up to three hours to find you way out.

Thursday - We decided not to go to the fireworks. We enjoyed the Bastille day activities in our little village, they had some kid games and activities. Wednesday and Thursday was spent by me traveling to Limoux and visiting real estate agencies (immobiliers). We have two prospects in mind for a house, I saw the first today. It was a good size, nice location about 2 miles from Limoux, real nice interior, everything practically new, but no yard. I will see the other one Tuesday. We might take the kids to the beach again tomorrow. With me being gone during the day they get kind of restless at home. We did go for a walk Tuesday and saw a large cross on top of a hill near our house. It was dedicated to J. F. Bousquet who died "for the faith" in the 1700's. He was from the town of Ginestas where we are staying. Can anyone find out anything else about him? Enjoy the pictures from the past few days. God bless, JASON

Fireworks

This weekend was the celebration of music in France. There have been concerts and activities all weekend. Saturday night there was a firework show. We wanted to take the kids but it does not get dark until about 11 at night. We decided why not and stipulated that they must have a nap Saturday and Sunday to make up for it. We ended up having a wonderful time. We got there about 10:30 and bought the kids some fancy flashlights to play with while we waited. There must have been several thousand people there in the park, and no telling how many others viewing from their apartments and other parts of the city. We were not sure how Andrew would react to the fireworks because Caleb never liked the noise of them and spent his first few shows burying his face in Mommy or Daddy's shoulder, but after the first ones went off, Andrew said, "Wow!" It was amazing. The theme was "one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind". It was celebrating the anniversary of landing on the moon. It was well choreagraphed (spelling?) with the music that played on the loud speakers.  We ended up walking down and watching some of the concert after the fireworks were over. Overall the night was a wonderful success. Which led to a three hour nap for everyone Sunday afternoon. That was an excellent fathers day gift.
Sunday morning we enjoyed hearing from some representatives of the French chapter of the Gideons. There was some great testimonies and I will be sure to look them up in our region in the south. The house hunt still continues, we sent our paperwork today to another prospect. We pray that all will go well. School went well today. Two more tests behind us and one more to go. God bless, JASON

On the Road Again!

We picked up our rental car this morning. We are driving a Ford Galaxy. It is nice, standard transmission, diesel, 6 speed, 43 mpg, seats 7. I'll post a picture when we get back. We have already stretched ourselves, I have driven in Paris, France. It wasn't too bad. While we were on deputation, I didn't bother keeping up with how many total miles we drove. We went 5000 in one month. So this trip will not be to bad. I have not bought gas for over 6 months. It will be interesting to fill up at the pump. The display in the car said that it could go 750 km on one tank, so we should be able to make it all the way down there on one tank. We are visiting Limoux which is a small town of about 10000 people. It is about 25 miles south of Carcossonne where there was a accidental millitary shooting recently. That is just east of Toulouse and West of Marseille. It is about an hour from the Spanish border, where we will probably go to fill up with Gas. It is about 45 minutes from the beach, which is the main attraction to us. I will blog and post a lot of pictures when we return. The remaining language school students celebrated the fourth of July with a BBQ today. It was a lot of fun. Be in prayer for us while we are traveling and on vacation. Be in prayer for my grandfather Clyde Clark who suffered from a series of heart attacks and is in the hospital, he is very weak. Also be in prayer for Angie, her blood pressure was high still, so the Doctor told her to lay off the salt. That will be tough for her, especially when I am eating popcorn next to her, which I will. God bless and we will be back with you shortly. JASON