This summer, 2016, I am traveling in Europe visiting some old friends and seeing many European historic sites. My itinerary takes me thru France, Switzerland, Holland and England. My trip got underway on June 28th when I arrived at the home of Chris & Vivienne Lawton near Puylaurens about 35 miles east of Toulouse in south central France.
Chris & Vivienne are trustees for the mission where I live in Bourofaye, Senegal.
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| My host family: Chris & Vivienne Lawton. Chris & Vivienne are a British couple I learned to know through the mission in Bourofaye. They are taking their retirement in the sunnier climes of south France in the countryside about 40 miles east of Toulouse. The Lawton’s live in an 18th century farmhouse which they have beautifully restored and updated. They have wonderful gifts of hospitality and generosity and thus have a steady stream of guests. They especially cater to missionaries needing a retreat from their field labors. |
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| Lawton’s home, ‘Peytavy’ sits high on a hill overlooking farms and forests, a place of solitude, peace and bucolic beauty. |
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| Fish & rice be gone! Chris & Vivienne are gourmet cooks and delight in French pastries, cheese & fruit. Yum, yum, yum! |
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Farmers market in Puylaurens, a nearby country town where Chris & Vivienne do most of their shopping.
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| Chris took me on a couple excursions in the region. This one is at Hautpoul a medieval village (still inhabited since the 5th century). These are the ruins of the fortress where the villagers took refuge when under attack. |
Hautpoul is near Mazaret, the center of the Cathari movement during the 10th-12th centuries. The Cathars were a people seeking radical spiritual renewal from extremely corrupt Roman Catholicism. Even though the Cathars were off-base on some Christian doctrines they nonetheless were seeking a Christlike lifestyle and devotion to the mission of God’s Kingdom. They were ruthlessly slaughtered and their property confiscated by Crusaders sent out by the pope; a ghastly preview of what awaited our spiritual forbearers, the Anabaptists, five centuries later.
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| A stone carving of the risen Christ standing on a skull, a street sign in the town of Foix. This carving has marked the community as ‘Christian’ for a millennium. |
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| Even though I have visited France many times, I had never been in the Pyrenees, the mountain range that forms the border between France and Spain to the south. It is a rugged area with 10,000 ft. peaks. Chris and I took a drive through this splendor on Friday, July 1st. |
On Saturday, June 2, I said farewell to Chris & Vivienne and boarded the train for the Alsace region of France way up in the northeast corner next to Germany & Switzerland. The 9 hours on the train was mostly on France’s renown TGV (high speed train). We reached speeds of 200 mph but the average was less than that, otherwise it would have been ahead of schedule and in Europe everything runs strictly by the clock.
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