Paris

After lunch on Thursday, we left for Paris. I think it was maybe a 3 hour drive? I don't exactly remember. We drove through the Champagne region of France and stopped at a convenience store for snacks and fuel. I found a great kids sticker French language book for the kids there I picked up as a souvenir for them. Also, there was a section of the store that sold Champagne.

I know we checked into our hotel rooms, and then headed to downtown Paris. Traffic was horrendous and it took us a while to get there. By the time we drove past the Arc de Triomphe, and the Eiffel Tower it was dark, but that was okay. It was so cool to see those monuments lit up!

Blurry because I was trying to take the pic while we were driving in the round about.

The next day we set out to do some sightseeing. We drove past a huge stadium devoted to football--or as Americans would call it, soccer. Just as popular as these stadiums are in America for baseball and football, soccer is that popular in Europe.

Our first stop was the Eiffel Tower. I had told myself from the very beginning of this trip that if we didn't make it to Paris, that would be okay. But, if we did make it and all I got to see was the Eiffel Tower, I would be thrilled. We found an awesome parking spot and didn't have to walk far to the Tower. There are two levels of the tower guests can go to and you can get there through each Tower pillar/leg by elevators. Or, you can walk up and down stairs to get to the first level. We chose the elevators. There was a very long line (think Disney World lines) because there was only one pillar open. I think we were in line for about 20 minutes, and as we were nearing the East Pillar, it opened up! We were some of the first people to get our tickets from that pillar!

Taken looking down the pillar from the elevator.

People walking the stairs down from the first level.

The architecture really is quite amazing.

The next pics are just some of the views taken from both levels of the Tower.

I was pretty impressed that my camera could zoom in so nicely for this pic of the Arc de Triomphe.

The Seine River

The second level was caged in.

We were constantly reminded all over Europe to beware of pickpockets.

The building across the street from the Tower was a military academy that Napoleon attended.

As we walked back to the vans, there was a very unfortunate thing waiting for us. One of the back windows of one of the vans had been smashed and some very valuable things belonging to some of our team members were stolen. After finding a police officer, we were told to go to the police station which ended up being difficult to find. It took a couple of hours to get everything squared away with the robbery. But, even after all of that, our hosts were gracious enough to still want to take us to see Notre Dame. So, that's where we headed. This church was incredible. I can just picture Quasi Moto living there. Signs were all around saying no picture taking, but it seemed like nobody was paying attention and there were flashes going off everywhere, so I took some myself. We did not take the tour that would have taken us to the top of the church. So, Roger and I quickly toured the church and then went down the street shopping for some souvenirs. 

Joan of Arc

After this, we headed to the Champs Elysees for dinner. Some of the group wanted to hoof it down to the Arc de Triomphe and go inside it and climb to the top. I think they were given 30 minutes to accomplish this feat, and let me tell you they had to rush and it showed when they returned--out of breath and sweaty. Roger and I had opted out of that and instead got some ice cream with some other team members. The next series of pics show the Arc as we drove towards it. 

Our day in Paris ended in a perfect way--dinner outside. I shared in my last post that I had been wanting this to happen our entire trip. I even posted the pics from that dinner in my last post but I'll go ahead and post them again in case you didn't see them. Do you ever find that after you have been on a special trip or to a special event, there are just certain pics that you keep looking back at because when you do a flood of memories and smiles come pouring into your heart? Well, these next pics do that for me. They just remind me of special people, the rewarding work we did on this trip, the sights we got to see, and they make me still feel how gorgeous and perfect the weather was, and how amazing it was to be in Paris!

The experienced missions trip team members told me I will never forget my first missions trip--it will always have a special place in my heart, and I bet they are correct because this is how it was when I was a public school teacher. My first class I had which was my student teaching class still holds very fond memories for me--even more so than my first class in which I was the teacher, not a student teacher. This trip was amazing and I feel so blessed that I could go. I would like to go on other missions trips in the future and I hope I can. I also hope that someday when my kids are teenagers that
Roger and I will be able to bring them on trips like this with us. It was amazing!

Work Work Work

After spending a day traveling to the towns where our work site and hotel site were, the next few days were hard work. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday morning we would arrive at the job site at 8 am and leave at 5 pm, except leaving after lunch for Paris on Thursday. I'm not going to go into a lot of detail about what the pictures are showing, but our team worked on tearing down wallpaper, tearing down walls, painting, putting up textured wallpaper, electrical wiring, mudding and patching, and building a stage.

I was on the team that worked in the hall and stairwell taking down wallpaper.

The walls up the stairs to the second floor were quite high. In order to reach the wallpaper, the guys had to make a homemade scaffold. At the top of the stairs on the 2nd floor landing was put a step stool. Then a very high ladder was put on about the fourth step from the bottom. Across these two ladders were put some boards so the men could stand on them in order to be able to spray the wallpaper with water and scrape it off. The following pics do a better job of showing you what I am trying to explain. I stood by the bottom of the tall ladder and kept an eye on those boards to make sure they didn't start to shift and slip through the rungs.

 

On another day, some of the guys put up a textured wallpaper onto these same walls. Once this paper was put up, it would be painted. I guess this is pretty common in Europe.

 Two and a half of my days were nothing but painting the basement. There were 4 large rooms that had to be primed on the walls and ceilings and then painted. These walls were all holey, porous cement--not smooth drywall. But, before painting could begin, some electrical wiring and mudding and patching had to be done.

A few walls upstairs were torn down and some new ones built to expand the sanctuary on the main floor. This is where Roger spent most of his time. There are no wooden stud frames built for walls. They glue large, heavy gypsum blocks onto each other just like you would bricks.

You can see in this pic where a wall was knocked down and all of the space behind it was a separate room. That space would be turned into a stage which you will see in upcoming pics. This lengthened the sanctuary.

Hauling out all of the rubble.

 Another wall knocked down. A new one was built a few feet back adding width to the sanctuary.

 

 

 

Another wall knocked down that would be rebuilt a few feet back to widen the sanctuary. You can see how it came up to this pillar and in the next pic, it has been knocked down showing the space between the pillar and a bathroom wall.

Any rubble/trash we had would be piled up in this area on the sidewalk in front of the church. I wish I'd gotten a pic of the mountain of rubble that grew here.

New walls.

Building and wiring the stage.

A before, middle, and after shot of the sanctuary.

On our half day of Thursday, since the dungeon painting was done, we Cinderellas set about cleaning up wherever we could.

Here is our awesome team.