We took the kids abroad for the second time in their lives this Christmas.
My wife saw a ‘mini-cruise’ advertised in the local paper, at just £99 per person, and we booked up. So that was their present, instead of loads of toys that would break on teh first day.
We boarded the cruise ship (well let’s be honest, it was a cross-channel ferry) on Christmas eve, sailed to France overnight. On Christmas morning it continued up the river Seine to Rouen there was a shuttle bus into the town centre, but everything was closed. The next day after sleeping in our cabins we had a coach trip to Paris which took us to all the major sites before releasing us near Opera. We took the kids on the metro to Sacre Couer, fed them crepes, and dodged the hoards trying to sell us trinkets and friendship breacelets before returning to the ship to sail home overnight.
The on-board entertainment was very good, with live bands, communal carol singing on Christmas day, and so on. My 7 year old boy became known as the one person who would always dance vigorously whatever the song.
The highlight for me was when the kids powers of persuasion overcame my cynicism and Santa-phobia, and we went to the room just in time for them to call out my children’s names, and each one of them was given a good quality age and gender appropriate toy. My Santa-phobia remains strong (He is a vague and misleading South European Christian myth mixed with a North European pagan winter god and coke advert who teaches a doctrine of salvation by works while rewarding the rich more than the poor and also frightening small children along the way, but my main objection is that he displaces Christ as the object of society's affection), but I felt that the tour operators had gone out of their way to give us a good time, and felt really pampered.
Showing posts with label Paris. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Paris. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 2
Thursday, February 15
Moving On / Paris [Chapter 1]
Well I’m having a dreadfully dull day at work so I might as well spend time on the blog – though I had more or less given up on it since it was taking to much time and too much emotional energy engaging in debate on other blogs.
Mrs has finally stopped bleeding, nearly 4 weeks after the main miscarriage and 6 weeks after it started.
It has been a major blow to her physically, emotionally, and spiritually, but I think things are finally beginning to pick up. It’s perhaps hard for any new readers out there to appreciate how the miscarriage devastated the whole of her life. The pregnancy was THE PLAN to resolve an ongoing mid life crisis, and an on-going sense of rejection in various walks of life. More importantly, we felt it was the path God had sent us on, and so when it failed we had a lot of questions about whether we had heard correctly from God, whether God does in fact give detailed guidance for day to day life, how much prayer works and how much life is predestined (in love of course) regardless of how we pray. For example, my daughter’s class at her Church of England school had been praying specifically that the pregnancy would be protected against miscarriage. So that means that about 30 children who might have developed a faith and belief in the power of prayer will no longer have that belief. Can God then blame them if they lack faith later in life?
Another factor was that for Mrs this baby was going to be her passport to renewed activity in the children’s work at church, from which she has felt excluded in the past. And yet the people that she would have to work with in that work are the people who have wound us up most in the aftermath of the miscarriage – everyone else in the church ahs expressed sympathy and sent cards, but these particular people – one being our cell group leader tasked with our pastoral care, has not sent a card and has cold-shouldered my wife when she could have been a real comfort. I can’t tell the whole, story here, but we feel really betrayed by the people who should have been there for us when it counted, and these are the people Mrs was hoping to work with in her grand solution to life, and yet can’t now stand being in the same room with them. So there are still huge frustrations and issues to deal with, and the big question of her life remains unresolved.
But it is not all doom and gloom. We also received a nice card from some other people that we have found difficult in the past, and so this may be an opening for better relationships there.
Also, while Mrs was still pregnant, I booked a three day break for us in Paris as a Birthday present. This was to be a case of ‘if we don’t do it now we never will’ sine the baby would put an end to travel for a long time. In the end the holiday became more of a therapeutic break, part of comforting her after the miscarriage. Easy Jet got us there and back in relative comfort, though we had to sit separately on the way there and coming back it was clear that the French skill at organising railways does not extend to organising the boarding of planes.
We stayed in a two-star hotel. Originally this was supposed to be “Hotel Modern” at Rue Forest near the Moulin Rouge, but when we arrived for our pre-booked room they said it was being refurbished and that they had moved us to another hotel just out the back, with better rooms and a quieter area. Well it was quieter, because it was a long walk from anything useful. (Hotel du Roi Rene in Batignolles), and the ‘better rooms’ were dingy and small. The shower was hot but barely dribbled, and the electric socket was loose. I would not recommend either hotel to my worst enemy.
Mrs has finally stopped bleeding, nearly 4 weeks after the main miscarriage and 6 weeks after it started.
It has been a major blow to her physically, emotionally, and spiritually, but I think things are finally beginning to pick up. It’s perhaps hard for any new readers out there to appreciate how the miscarriage devastated the whole of her life. The pregnancy was THE PLAN to resolve an ongoing mid life crisis, and an on-going sense of rejection in various walks of life. More importantly, we felt it was the path God had sent us on, and so when it failed we had a lot of questions about whether we had heard correctly from God, whether God does in fact give detailed guidance for day to day life, how much prayer works and how much life is predestined (in love of course) regardless of how we pray. For example, my daughter’s class at her Church of England school had been praying specifically that the pregnancy would be protected against miscarriage. So that means that about 30 children who might have developed a faith and belief in the power of prayer will no longer have that belief. Can God then blame them if they lack faith later in life?
Another factor was that for Mrs this baby was going to be her passport to renewed activity in the children’s work at church, from which she has felt excluded in the past. And yet the people that she would have to work with in that work are the people who have wound us up most in the aftermath of the miscarriage – everyone else in the church ahs expressed sympathy and sent cards, but these particular people – one being our cell group leader tasked with our pastoral care, has not sent a card and has cold-shouldered my wife when she could have been a real comfort. I can’t tell the whole, story here, but we feel really betrayed by the people who should have been there for us when it counted, and these are the people Mrs was hoping to work with in her grand solution to life, and yet can’t now stand being in the same room with them. So there are still huge frustrations and issues to deal with, and the big question of her life remains unresolved.
But it is not all doom and gloom. We also received a nice card from some other people that we have found difficult in the past, and so this may be an opening for better relationships there.
Also, while Mrs was still pregnant, I booked a three day break for us in Paris as a Birthday present. This was to be a case of ‘if we don’t do it now we never will’ sine the baby would put an end to travel for a long time. In the end the holiday became more of a therapeutic break, part of comforting her after the miscarriage. Easy Jet got us there and back in relative comfort, though we had to sit separately on the way there and coming back it was clear that the French skill at organising railways does not extend to organising the boarding of planes.
We stayed in a two-star hotel. Originally this was supposed to be “Hotel Modern” at Rue Forest near the Moulin Rouge, but when we arrived for our pre-booked room they said it was being refurbished and that they had moved us to another hotel just out the back, with better rooms and a quieter area. Well it was quieter, because it was a long walk from anything useful. (Hotel du Roi Rene in Batignolles), and the ‘better rooms’ were dingy and small. The shower was hot but barely dribbled, and the electric socket was loose. I would not recommend either hotel to my worst enemy.
Moving On / Paris [Chapter 2]
Despite all this we had a fantastic time. Our main objective was to sit in cafes absorbing the atmosphere, rather than rushing round sightseeing. So we had lunch in the Café Panis opposite Notre Dame (very good), 
we had cappuccinos in cafes looking onto the Arc de Triomphe 
and Sacre Couer, 
and the Place du Tertre in Montmartre where the artists do their stuff, and had coffee from a kiosk looking at the Eiffel tower. 
We cruised on the seine, shopped on the Champs Elysees, and walked around St Germain, Montmartre and various other areas each of which had its own atmosphere and culture while still being typically French. This included a walk past the famous Moulin Rouge, and on down the street which we knew was the red light district but were still taken aback by how explicit some of the posters where, with only the smallest stickers censoring the ladies’ naughty bits. For those of you who have read my blog in the past and issues of pornography in our marriage, you will understand that this was difficult for both of us. From my part all of my past addictions were straining to be released again, in total conflict with my opposing urge to demonstrate to my wife that I am now OK in this area. From her part, she could tell that it was having a strong effect on me, which she found upsetting. We also went into Sacre Couer, which was very peaceful but full of posters preaching Catholic theology that I couldn’t agree with. And we also went into Notre Dame while a mass was taking place. I really enjoyed this. There was a real sense of awe and majesty. When the priest said “behold the lamb of God which takes away the sin of the world” it was really a powerful statement, with the church members forming a large congregation in the centre and thousands of tourists clustered around the edges. Of course I have to take issue with the fact he was probably referring to the wafer in his hand, but even from my own strongly Protestant perspective I was strongly conscious that the priest was preaching the gospel to people who might otherwise never hear it, and although I would argue he preached it imperfectly with many Roman Catholic distortions of the truth the word of God is powerful enough to overcome those imperfections and call people to himself in that context. I really felt that God was present.
So, before the Holiday, Mrs announced that she would try to make a concerted effort to return to God on her return. And I believe that this will have been part of that return.
I should have mentioned that we left our children at home in England, with our 16 year old son in charge assisted by the 15 year old. Number 3 was our main concern, being of a very different personality to the others and hence at the centre of most rows. So we announced that while he wasn’t old enough to share responsibility with numbers 1 and 2, he was old enough to do his own thing, and so we gave him a supply of pies to heat up and money for the chip shop. So with him feeling proudly independent, we managed to separate out the main source of trouble without causing offence to anyone. The youngest two spent one night with friends. We returned to a tidy and peaceful household, so either it all went very well or they have hidden the evidence!
Mrs is now feeling much better. On Wednesday she went for a scan and was finally given the all-clear. They also announced that she had a ripe follicle ready, should she wish to start trying again. And so she came home in a very good mood, and without giving too much away she is making me very happy too.
we had cappuccinos in cafes looking onto the Arc de Triomphe and Sacre Couer, and the Place du Tertre in Montmartre where the artists do their stuff, and had coffee from a kiosk looking at the Eiffel tower. We cruised on the seine, shopped on the Champs Elysees, and walked around St Germain, Montmartre and various other areas each of which had its own atmosphere and culture while still being typically French. This included a walk past the famous Moulin Rouge, and on down the street which we knew was the red light district but were still taken aback by how explicit some of the posters where, with only the smallest stickers censoring the ladies’ naughty bits. For those of you who have read my blog in the past and issues of pornography in our marriage, you will understand that this was difficult for both of us. From my part all of my past addictions were straining to be released again, in total conflict with my opposing urge to demonstrate to my wife that I am now OK in this area. From her part, she could tell that it was having a strong effect on me, which she found upsetting. We also went into Sacre Couer, which was very peaceful but full of posters preaching Catholic theology that I couldn’t agree with. And we also went into Notre Dame while a mass was taking place. I really enjoyed this. There was a real sense of awe and majesty. When the priest said “behold the lamb of God which takes away the sin of the world” it was really a powerful statement, with the church members forming a large congregation in the centre and thousands of tourists clustered around the edges. Of course I have to take issue with the fact he was probably referring to the wafer in his hand, but even from my own strongly Protestant perspective I was strongly conscious that the priest was preaching the gospel to people who might otherwise never hear it, and although I would argue he preached it imperfectly with many Roman Catholic distortions of the truth the word of God is powerful enough to overcome those imperfections and call people to himself in that context. I really felt that God was present.So, before the Holiday, Mrs announced that she would try to make a concerted effort to return to God on her return. And I believe that this will have been part of that return.
I should have mentioned that we left our children at home in England, with our 16 year old son in charge assisted by the 15 year old. Number 3 was our main concern, being of a very different personality to the others and hence at the centre of most rows. So we announced that while he wasn’t old enough to share responsibility with numbers 1 and 2, he was old enough to do his own thing, and so we gave him a supply of pies to heat up and money for the chip shop. So with him feeling proudly independent, we managed to separate out the main source of trouble without causing offence to anyone. The youngest two spent one night with friends. We returned to a tidy and peaceful household, so either it all went very well or they have hidden the evidence!
Mrs is now feeling much better. On Wednesday she went for a scan and was finally given the all-clear. They also announced that she had a ripe follicle ready, should she wish to start trying again. And so she came home in a very good mood, and without giving too much away she is making me very happy too.
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