You can tell Tommy wrote this .. I always correct typos .. he does not
like when I change things … Enjoy!
Bon Jour:
We awoke refreshed and ready to go. We had a long drive today and 2 stopsalong the way. Dave and Jane had our breakfast on the table for us before 8. We had already showered so after breakfast we said our good byes, took a couple photos together and we were off. Dangerous Dave came throughagain and the bags were at the car in no time. I carried one down because we ate the food and I didn’t want to appear to be lazy.
It was Pentecost Sunday and our plan was to make the 10:30 Mass at the Shrine of Our Lady of La Dreche. “The queen” got us there early so we explored the grounds and went into the church as the 9:00 AM Mass ended. This was a beautiful place and they were refurbishing the exterior. The Statue of Our Lady and Jesus sat high above the altar and to the right they had a replica of Her where you could place your candles for your intentions. To the left of this copy in a bucket was the Miraculous water from the spring below the altar. Of course we got a bottle (this makes 5 and we missed 1, some ofour things are going to be left behind to get all the water home and we haven’t been to Lourdes yet.)
Mass was beautiful and after the mass we got to venerate the silver replica of Our Lady and Jesus. We went to the gift shop and purchase a memento for our shrine at home. They had a toilet here so I did Utilize it since we had about 2 hours to our next stop. Yes I did take the mountain roads. (Saving a lot of euros on tolls but spending a lot of money on xanax for poor Susan.) Susan actually enjoyed most of the ride as I tried to keep the speed limit. On the way we stopped for a picnic in the center of a small town. We didn’t care…. we were hungry. The sandwhich was marvelous.
We were supposed to meet Sister Jane Dominique at Our Lady of the Rosaryin the Monestary in Prouille, the place of the apparition to St. Dominic received the rosary from Our Blessed Mother,for a tour and we were invited to lunch if we could make it on time, but we didn’t. One of the Sisters let us in to the cathedral that was started in the Early 1900’s and is still a long way from being finished. We got chased out since they were preparing for the 800-year celebration on Mon. of the order but they did invite us back for the mass and lunch which was going to be piella. I was in, until she said they expected over 1000 people! UGH. To many people for us, we like our quiet time in the mountains.
We were disappointed that there wasn’t anything on the grounds in memory of St. Dominic who had been given the Rosary here in 1206 by the Blessed
Mother. I have enclosed a long story but it is worth the time.
Having planned to say our Rosary there we decided to pray it on our way toour next stop of 2 glorious days in our next B&B in Esperza, France. We
met Jo and Roy the owners who were out for a walk and returned just as wearrived. Roy showed us to our room (and yes I did carry a bag up with me) and we proceded to unload all of the car and drag all the bags up toreorganze. There is something to be said for hotels but you can’t replace thefeeling of being in 200 year old home with a wonderful room and friendly owners. (British by the way so English was the language of the day.)
We unpacked and repacked and piled up the dirty laundry which we will haveto address soon. Around 6 we shared the small stub of the left over
sandwhich we had eaten earlier each fighting over the last crumb.
Best to go to sleep early, we were hungry again, probally because we had
nothing to eat and everything was closed. (another Sunday in Europe). Roy invited us down for a glass of wine, (as we went we hoped they would have something to eat, even just a bowl of nuts, cheese would have been good). I wanted to bring a sign we work for food just to give them a hint! We sat and chatted for quite awhile until the wine kicked in (we were on an empty stomach) and it was time to go to our large queen beds, yes we each had our own, We were both going to sleep tonight after we gnawed on a couple pillows. With all the growling I don’t know how we fell asleep.
Au Revoir
Holy Mary,
help those in need,
give strength to the weak,
comfort the sorrowful,
pray for God’s people,
assist the clergy,
intercede for religious.
Mary all who seek your help
experience your unfailing protection.
Amen
Susan and Tom
