Many weeks look more or less the same, but then, every once in a while… there is a week that stands out from the rest – whether in terms of activity, memorability or what have you.

This was one of those weeks…

… and it all started last weekend, on Father’s Day.

Father’s Day

The morning started as it always does on Sunday… Church and I was on more or less complete vacation as everyone had conspired to see that everything was taken care of.

Liz spoke on the life of Abraham as an example of Fatherhood… what does it mean to be a good father… what qualities define exemplary and Godly fatherhood. She did an excellent job.

We had dinner in the company of some guests from the Melun church and ironcally… I wasn’t on complete vacation after all. They noticed, upon leaving for dinner, that they had a flat tire… so I rolled up my sleeves, got the hand-jack out of the trunk & we changed a tire.

(Never have I changed a tire while being so finely dressed! My tan & pink came out completely unscathed… a Father’s Day Miracle!)

We all had lunch back at the house, then Timo & I hopped in the car for a little father-son getaway to La Rochelle. We slept on a sailboat and had a wonderful time, just the two of us.

Off to Paris…

On Wednesday, Dominic, Melanie & I hopped in the car and headed to the capital.

They were on their way to the Reunion Island (near Madagascar, in the Indian Ocean.) for the wedding of a “brother-from-another-mother” childhood friend of Melanie’s.

With this trip, Dominic out-did his previous longest flight record… this one was about 11 hours.

They’d been having a hard time finding a solution for getting there, so I decided to take the day, drive them & then go back next week to pick them up… saving them a lot of hassle.

Making life simpler was also a bit of a birthday present of sorts for Dominic who completed another trip around the sun on Monday. Happy Birthday to an outstanding young man!

Afternoon at the Opera

We parted ways at the Les Halles metro station where they could get public transportation to the airport (much easier to park & cross the city by metro than to fight mid-day traffic around the city). It had been a long time since I’d had some time in the city and I knew what I wanted to do.

I headed straight to the Garnier Opera (my all time favourite Paris monument), paid my 15€ entrance fee and made a bee-line to the library… where I would spend the next 2.5 hours (until closing in fact).

I read my Bible, tatted, people-watched, thought and listened in on tour guides who came through periodically with groups. (This time, I learned that the library is part of the Bibliotheque Nationale de France, they house over 500,000 books on site, and you can consult them -on site… no borrowing- with a library card… who knew!?)

… a heavenly afternoon!

Birthday Girl

Today is a very special Day. After celebrating Dominic’s birthday on Monday, today is Soph’s special day. It’s been a good week for her. She is currently doing a 1-week job replacement at the regional health authority (her first “out in the world job”) and on July 1st, will begin an 8-month position at a federal government employment agency. She’s quite excited!

Very, very proud of this gal!