Paris, Friday September 12th

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We rose late and, after breakfast, spoke to our children to say ‘goodbye’, since we knew that we would be out of email contact for a few weeks. Ah, it is good to hear their voices.

I had a fascinating time looking at old photos with Renée, seeing the formal ones in traditional costumes of long ago, right down to those of the youngest granddaughter who is about 2½.

I plugged away at the blog until lunch time, knowing it was about to be neglected and wondering if I would ever catch up after a gap of possibly more than five weeks.

We woke up after our siesta, taken today because we would travel to the airport in the evening and snooze there over night to be ready for our early morning flight tomorrow. Keith was keen to publish some blog pages and we wanted to check our emails too, so Jean drove us to an internet café. When we came out, a rainbow arched over the end of the street. We visited the parish church, St Jean-Baptiste de Sceaux, where there were beautiful carvings for the Stations of the Cross and vivid stained glass windows showing various saints and their miracles.

We crossed the road for a drink and I noted the magnificent building with ‘Justice of the Peace’ carved above the doorway. I thought of my friend Liz, recently created a Justice of the Peace in Australia, and thought how happy she would have been if her rubber stamp had come with accommodation like this.

By the time we had packed up and had dinner it was time to go, saying ‘goodbye’ to Renée at home and with Jean driving us to a station further on to be sure to catch a train direct to the airport without having to change trains on the way. We left him, waving on the station, and hope to see both him and Renée again when we return from Africa. We were very touched by the way that they are so concerned about others, and how they had been so thoughtful of our needs while we stayed with them.We whizzed on through the night on the train, arriving at Charles de Gaulle Airport just before midnight. We found some seats in the area near where we would depart and I settled down to type and Keith had a bit of a snooze on the floor. Others were in a similar position, with very early flights, so from time to time I chatted to some people nearby. I didn’t feel sleepy but my typing efficiency certainly dropped after two am.