France: Okay, so Denmark is very difficult to get out of. It takes a whole day..even to get to somewhere like Hamburg..not plausible. So in a moment of furious travel planning before my trip began, my cousin and I bought some crazy last minute cheap ryanair flight tickets that didn't altogether make sense, but did get us out of denmark and into france. I would like not to go into embarrassing detail. It should suffice to say, for those of us who are myers-briggs inclined, that both my cousin and I are intuitive-feelers..and I am a P. But I will tell you that I saw the fourth epic sunrise of my life. The first was just before the grapevine before I had a great time at Magic Mountain while in Jr. High. The second was the sun rising over the Red Sea on my way to Djibouti in 2006. The third was a gift from God on my sad last day at Catalina last summer. My fourth, back to my travels, was watching the sun rise over the Alps. It was just amazing seeing all the peaks quietly open up with specks of pink. beautiful. but, as I've said before, I gave up writing poems for Lent, and this was only the 7th of March. I probably wouldn't have written though, a photograph would better express the significance of the sight for me.
But we made it in France...and through more ordeal...Lyon: our destination. Now this was well-funky. Bethany had like 6 friends in Lyon from a French camp she worked at, and although I could tell that they were very fun, and great friends for spending their Easter vacation with her, showing her and her cousin Jacques all around etc. etc....the thing was they all spoke French, and very quickly. I could speak, many important things even did I have to communicate (like pass the sugar, where are the toilets?, what did the cops want?..yes that's part of a true story) but I had no clue what was going on the rest of the week. I also got a little sick and was bed-ridden one day. However, I did have a good chat, in French even, with a nice middle-aged man who was kind enough to realize that French wasn't my first language and spoke slowly.
So...I got better and we went to Ville Franche, the most beautiful place I've either ever been or remember to have been. The way I describe it is it looks like pictures of Tuscany I've seen in travel brochures...kinda. It even reminded me of California a bit. Here's what it was all about: broad, lilting hills, budding trees, yellow castles, middle ages churches, and sweeping dormant vinyards, cast in perfect golden sunshine and crisp spring air. We stayed with a missionary friend of Bethany's, and what revived my spirits even more was the fact that she spoke French the way I like: understandable. I wonder if it was weird for Bethany that I suddenly knew what was going on again. Hehe. Jack's back. This missionary was crazy! She took us immediately to a high ropes course off in the hills. So I got acquainted to much of the countryside upside down...or jumping from log to floating log in the shaking trees. We also did a lot of French things though...like eating cheese and hiking (that's when my camera bit it and didn't recover) and riding TGV's. We met a delightful West Virginian family on the way to Paris. The mom was in many ways like my mom. Like she gave us travel information and emergency phone numbers to call if you're a student traveling alone. And then we were in Paris.
Paris was my favorite city of my trip, but I never say it because it's a bit of a cliche. The highlight was seeing my sister, Catherine! for Easter. We went to evening mass at the notre dame cathedral and went out to dinner. It was so nice to see immediate family on Easter, and we had a good time together. I also enjoyed staying in montmartre (..."but ah paris!) and the last day where we just slept and ate the whole afternoon in the park under the Eiffel Tower, walking around a bit, but only to find bigger patches of sunny grass on the other side. I also had a delightful croque monsieur that evening, when the eiffel tower was all tripping with it's lights. It was a good way to leave continental europe in my mind.