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I made it, safe and sound.

I may have some photos from Eddie to post regarding our last night in Paris. If so, more later.

This trip has been quite an amazing journey. Like the French language, I think I just need to let the experience sink in. The journey fulfilled my desires in so many ways, and also provided some unexpected challenges, which, I'm happy to say, I was pretty much able to manage.

My time in Montpellier wasn't exactly as I had anticipated. Before I went I was looking forward to meeting Jacqueline and thinking that, perhaps, I may be making a new chum. Well, we all know how THAT turned out. But sometimes challenging people come into our lives for a reason. I was also not expecting French lessons to be so challenging, or to be quite so overtaken by culture shock! The shock of culture shock (in France???) was completely unexpected. But I really loved my teacher, Christian, and I'm sure the lessons have given me a good basis for further studies, and I really liked the city of Montpellier a lot, and my experience overall there was so good. I was also very happy that, despite the challenges, I was able to learn so much. It's a good feeling, knowing that the mind is still capable of absorbing and learning, no matter what the age! So, back here at home, writing this, I feel very satisfied with my Montpellier experience overall.

And then there was Aix. It was in Aix that I reached a crisis point, and the disappointment of Aix was so….. disappointing. But I think I arrived there in such an exhausted state that it just couldn't be otherwise.  (And, even though the bed was so comfortable, I think there was just something about that house that was unsettling and had something to do with sleepless nights.) But seeing the Carriers of Bibemus is what I'll really remember of Aix, and that was really wonderful; and I have my lovely new red blouse from Aix as well, AND it was in Aix that I was finally able, after weeks, to calm my beating heart and to ease the anxieties and exhaustion of navigating day after day after day in a foreign language and culture, having to be alert at every second and aware every moment. Even though I didn't sleep much, it was in Aix that I was somehow able to make a necessary transition for which I am thankful, because I would have hated to have arrived in Paris in the state in which I arrived in Aix. So, there is that!

And Paris? Well, I adored just about every second in Paris, including days and days of walking miles and miles and miles. But I think that anyone seeing my posts of Paris could conclude that for themselves. And, of course, there was Edouard! I felt such a bond with him. One day as we were travelling along I said that there were not many young men who would be willing to spend so much time with their grandmothers, and he said, "but Dee, you are so much fun!" We talked non-stop every minute we were together, and when we parted he hugged me two or three times. Being with him just did my heart so much good.

On Friday evening Eddie agreed to go with me to Notre Dame for the Vespers service. A young woman sang the psalms in a beautiful soprano voice, accompanied by the organ. The entire experience was full of simplicity and yet grandeur. It was deeply and profoundly moving.

Afterwards, we went to dine at a Japanese restaurant, and even though I had told him that I wanted an early night for my last night, he had arranged with a young friend to pick me up and drive me all around Paris. His friend, Adele (whom, he said, I had met at his 18th birthday party), is a driver for a company that provides private tours of Paris. She, an adorable French girl, dressed in a black and white striped long-sleeved t-shirt and jaunty chauffeur's cap, arrived in an old, hot pink, open-topped Citroen. And here we were, in the brisk cold night, zipping around many arrondissements of Paris and laughing and talking, me bundled up in blankets and my head wrapped up in a scarf like an old babushka, trying to keep warm, with tourists taking OUR photograph, as Eddie used Adele's camera to take some shots of us seeing Paris. Needless to say, I didn't get my early night, but, rather, had about four hours of sleep before beginning what was to be a 19-hour day of travel.  But with all that being said, it was a marvellous end to my journey.

So, within the last 72 hours or so, I have been to the top of the Eiffel Tower, participated in the glory of Vespers at Notre Dame, and was driven around, laughing and chatting, and blowing in the cold wind, in a little pink Citroen in the company of two vibrant and intelligent young people.

This morning, it was glorious to be in my home church — I could feel a new spirit of love moving within me and I made within myself an intention, a resolve to release old hurts and pain, and a commitment to living more without these things in my life. I am intending to look upon my life anew as full of opportunity, and seeking new ways in which to be of service and to realise more of my own potential. And now, having left Paris a little more than 24 hours ago, I'm here on my sofa, looking out at the bright glory of a deep blue October sky and the golden trees that surround my home.

Life is so good. Life is so incredibly amazing. And I am so happy to be alive. Thanks be to God.