Family Night with Bishop Grattepanche

The Center and its Many Uses

P Day in Saint Remy, France

Saint-Remy is the birth place of Nostradamus and where Vincent Van Gough was house is an asylum for his mental illness.  Van gough painted three Starry Night paintings.  Starry night over the Rhone near Avignon, Starry Night over a cafe in Arles and his most famous, Starry Night with Cypress.  I have now Been in all three places.  I am satisfied.

Glanum, France

On our way up to Saint-Remy, we stopped by the Glanum Archeological site south of Saint-Remy.  It was a city built around 1st century BC by the Romans.  This is all that is left of the front gate to the city.  There were ruins all over, but in poor repair.  This was pretty amazing considering it is over 2000 years old.  You can see it from the road.  This was the country side that Van Gough used for many of his paintings.  His most famous painting, Starry Night was painted just out side of Saint-Remy while being house at an asylum there.  The area is populated with cypress trees and olive orchards.  As you drive down into the valley here you can see the mountains in the background and cypress trees all over the place. 

In the top of this tower is a stature of an unknown emperor.  

This was the entrance gate to Glanum

Entrance Arch to the city.

Jared and Jeannine in front of an olive orchard with cypress trees in the background.

Nice Stake Activity, Saint Marguerite

Today we traveled to Cannes for a Nice Stake Activity.  We sailed to the Island of Saint Marguerite just off the coast of Cannes, France.  It wasn't that hard, we just let the boat do all the work.  We had Four of the Young Adults from our ward attend.  The island was a prison fortress established around 1570.  It is where the Legend, Man in the Iron Mask was imprisoned from 1669 to his death .  The legend is true, its just no one really knows who the mans identity truly was.   The island can be walked from one end to the other in a half hour.  The water is green to blue in color, the vegetation goes from pine trees and eucalyptus to ferns and tropical vegetation.  The views are spectacular and the island itself is beautiful.  We had lunch there and then did the walk around the entire island.  It was about 92 degrees, but mostly shade unless you went down to the waters edge.  Cannes is a clean and beautiful ville.  Southern France definitely has a different feel to it.  The way people dress on the riviera is a lot different from the way they dress up north.  Sort of like Malibu on steroids.   It was nice to be able to share this with Jared.  I wish I could share it with all of my kids.  As always I love the JA of Marseille.  They are so kind and thoughtful to mom and me. 

Coming into Saint Marguerite

Small group of the young adults of Nice Stake

Cannes From Saint Marguerite

Cannes From Saint Marguerite

Jared, Orianne, Fany and Emma

Fany, Jeannine, Jared, Orianne, Emma and Rich

Cannes from Saint Marguerite

Fort wall

I learn that about 50% of the people on these boats are naked.

Saint Marguerite on the far side of the island.

Cannes centre ville

P Day in Aigues-Mortes

It was mom's birthday today so we went out for lunch.  Jared and I took her to a ville called Aigues-Mortes.  It means, "Dead Waters".  It was a gamble to see if was going to be a nice place with a name like "Dead Waters".  Aigues-Mortes is hard to find and not on the need to see list for tourism, but it was very nice and I would go there again.  The city dates back to 160 BC.  The city walls were completed by 1289 AD.  This area is known for its horses and bulls.  They raise horses and Bulls for the bull fights in Arles and Nimes.  Three weeks ago they had the running of the bulls in Nimes.  All the Elders were moved out of Nimes for the event for the obvious reason.  Elders + running of the bulls.  I could just see it now, "President, my companion got gored by a bull, ....................... But it was our P-Day President................. Yes he was wearing his tag".  Had a great lunch and a nice relaxing day. 

Mom chilling in the chair.

This something you don't see in the U.S.  A warning sign for Bulls.

This is a protected reserve for Flamingos and Wild Bulls.  These bulls don't go to the Bull Fights.