France, And Thats All I Have To Say About That

The sun shone bright after the storm the night before, on my last morning in France. I made my way up the street and walked inside the Amiens cathedral. It too was kind of eerie, being so early in the morning. The sun snuck through the few windows, and illuminated the big pillars, and large nave. I smiled as I passed the prayer candles, and said a prayer to God of thanks for letting me be able to find Christ so many various places in my life. I looked at the head of John the Baptist-one of only 3 in France. (Thats a Dr. Seeley joke) I marveled at the statues, especially the weeping angel. Who is weeping while studying and thinking of mortality.

As I walked outside and headed down to the grocery store to buy lunch for later I couldn't help but sing

"Little town, its a quiet village. Everyday like the one before. Little town, full of little people-waking up to say Bonjur!"

It was exactly like my 5 year old self imagined. It was stunning, it was quiet and beautiful and it was quintessentially French! I was in heaven.

When I head back to France someday, I'm going to Amiens again. It makes France so much better to really see it as France, not Paris. It was gorgeous.

The rest of the day was devoted to the Great War. We went to La Boisselle, Thiepval and a cemetery called-Serre Road 2. We saw the trenches of the Canadian company from Newfoundland that started out with 500 soldiers, and only had 63 people report for role call the next day. We saw the huge memorial of soldiers who lost their lives there. It was so amazing to realize how many people lost their life in this battle. I was in awe of the sacrifice they made.

My favorite part of the day was at the cemetery however. Dr. Tate gave us all Poppies, they were the memorial flowers of the time, to put on a grave we liked. I found one that was "Known Unto God" and stopped to ponder. There were so many that said that, that remained nameless. And I knew that for each one there was a mother, father, girlfriend, children, or siblings that never knew where there loved one's body ended up. They never knew if it was taken care of, if it was buried with love, if it was watched for. They exercised their faith that God did indeed know who's body was buried there, and that he would take care of them.

It made me so grateful not only to those who served, and lost their lives, but to their loved ones. The ones who sacrificed their sons, husbands, fiancees to fight for the freedom of the world. I can't imagine the pain, sacrifice, and sorrow they must have felt. I know that if there is one thing I learned in that cemetery it was gratitude. Gratitude beyond words.

After these experiences we caught the Ferry back to Dover, and from there drove back to London. I had a great chat with Jessica, and as we got to the city we enjoyed Tony-the best coach driver ever- explain what each building was to us. As we got into the city Dr. Seeley got over the intercom and said "Do you know where we are!" We all answered-"Home".

And do you know how wonderful it is to come "home" to London. I absolutely love it.

So-France.

Overall it was great. A little scary at times, but a good experience. I was glad that we were only there for 5 days-it was the perfect amount for me. I'm so grateful that I got to go though, and I found so many new and exciting things out about the world, and myself. It is a beautiful city, full of beautiful art, scenery, and people.

But you know what else is beautiful-London. And I was very happy to be home in London again.