MandJ French sojourn

 We’re back in Axminster now, after our six weeks in Chantilly. We enjoyed our time there, and think it was worthwhile; now we’re feeling a bit tired, and have (typically) developed heavy colds (but not Covid, despite fact that a number of people at Chantilly have been afflicted!)   Our last week was busy, in one way or another. I don’t think we’ve mentioned the weekly on-line prayer meeting that some of them organize. It takes place in a morning, and normally attracts a dozen or more people, which is encouraging – and perhaps worth trying in other places. The process of looking to the future continues for St Peter’s. There were two meetings, an evening one for the church council and others, facilitated by the Archdeacon of France. People were encouraged to talk about what their hopes and expectations for the future were, as well as identifying what was good (and what not so good) about the church. The Bishop in Europe came the next day for an open lunch, with questions and ...

 Another delayed blog; we are certainly finding plenty to do here. All Saints Sunday went smoothly; numbers attending church seem to be picking up a bit. We had the pleasure of a visit from a Turkish friend - who had been one of Jo's pupils at St Sidwell's school, Exeter. Her family live in Izmir, and we have seen her several times on our visits there. She is now married, and working in Strasbourg with the Turkish delegation to the Council of Europe. In the week following we had lunch with a number of people; one in their own home, and two in restaurants in Chantilly - good food, but also an opportunity to talk and listen about them and their experience of church. We were also visited by a woman we had prepared for baptism at Versailles five years ago. We did have a quieter day to ourselves, visiting Crepy-en-Valois, which has some lovely narrow streets with old houses, and splendid ramparts, On the way back we went to Gallo-Roman site, with remains of a temple and a theatre - ...