Tuesday 9 July

Tuesday 9 July
Today we had to leave Les Houches, Chamonix, Mt Blanc. The views were so beautful! We so much enjoyed watching the little cable car travelling up and down the mountain! We had trained our eyes to pick it up easily and with our cameras we could make pictures of the cable car and even of the structure on top of the mountain. The previous day I had picked our hotel from the top of mt Blanc and got it on a photo, our cameras double up as very good binoculars!
Anyway, sadly, it was time to leave and we cleaned the kitchen - saved ourselves 35 euro- and packed our bags and set off for Geneva - about an hour's drive away. The city was very busy with traffic and quite stressful for the driver! - without any previous knowledge of traffic conditions, roads, and driver temperaments!
However we found the Parc des Bastions, where the Reformation Wall has statutes and memorabilia of the Reformation. We read the plaques - made some pictures and very happily met some tourist guides wandering around who suggested a parking tower - underground, and gave us a map - hurray!! - and we parked our car and made our way to the Reformation museum. There we did a tour of the museum - very interesting and good information about the start of he Reformation, but rather disappointing towards the history of more recent years. We listened to some beautiful music in a little music room -Ps 92, Ps 9 Ps 68 a beautiful fugue of bach, and then listened and watched a video presentation of the Reformation. Towards the end they said "have you not seen any evidence of the reformation today? Surely you have heard of the great theologian Karl Barth and (some totally unfamiliar other names) .... " We were rather disappointed. The museum also ended with a display of many ecumenical churches throughout the world from many different countries but what they showed was not what we recognised as Reformed.
Although they told about John Calvin there were essential element of the Reformation missing.
They had some beautiful old Bibles and some beautiful pictures on display but we were not allowed to make photos.
Nevertheless it was very special to walk around where John Calvin had walked, see the church where he preached and we later also could give thanks for being able to see where God had worked for the preservation of his church. The many Christians had fled later on and spread the gospel to many other countries.
We left the museum and a friendly gentleman walked with us to a supermarket where we bought some bread for lunch, then we took our car out of the busy city - our trusty nav system led us safely to Beaune where we booked in, then went to find a laundry to do some washing. That done we found a supermarket and did some shopping, some talking in french!! and looked for some where to eat.
Now begins a very interesting episode!!
We walked into a restaurant - kind of like a help yourself, but we weren't sure how they operated. So I guess we kind of blundered around a bit, looking here and there, and enquired about pizzas, sizes, prices, how many 1 pizza would feed etc.
Well we soon had 3 people running around for us, so we paid for 2 large pizzas and sat down at a table not sure what we'd get. Next a smiling young lady brought us 5 plates with forks and knives. then she reappeared and brought us each a glass of wine. We were totoally flabbergasted, but she didn't speak good English - just smiled and nodded. So we said Merci beaucoup! and smiled back.
Then .... the pizza maker brought us an enormous pizza, and told us ... wait for it... the next one will be gross! meaning even bigger. So we said Merci and tucked in! It was very very good! mushrooms and all! Then he came again and the pizza WAS bigger! Wow! We thanked him profusely, made a photo of him holding the pizza and tucked in to show how much we appreciated it. We managed to eat it all ...just .. then thanked them and asked about paying for the wine but they said No No it was a cadeau! Well that was sooo nice. We went back to ur apartment veery thankful and with full tummys Together we finished off with bible reading and prayer and went to our beds!!
Mum signing out :)