Just wanted to give a quick heads up as to our safe arrival in France.

We have been without internet access for the past few days as we don’t have it at home and will continue to be without it for a little while yet. The past two posts that you’ve seen are ones that I prepared in advance and scheduled ahead of time in anticipation of the break of connectivity.  I was able to get access for a brief while yesterday which allowed me to prepare this  post.

Travel

Things couldn’t have gone more smoothly in all aspects of our travel. All of our bags arrived safely as did the bags that we’d shipped via cargo. There were no delays and no extra costs at French customs for the five cases that we’d shipped in separately from our checked bags.

We spent the first night in a hotel in Melun to rest a bit before the long drive to Châtellerault. It would’ve been difficult after a long virtually sleepless night on the trans-Atlantic flight.

It also gave Bro. & Sis. Brochu time to finish preparing our house.

While we will be using their house for the majority of our stay here, we had to have temporary accommodations during the two months where our time overlaps, before their departure. They had the house all ready for us: food in the fridge, some furniture in place, bedrooms set up and even a plant in the corner! All that was left for us was to unpack the luggage which they’d also brought down and had put in the house.

Spending our Time

We’ve already attended their mid-week service on Wednesday, had prayer meeting on Friday and – by the time you read this – our first Sunday service as well (we are 5 hours ahead of those in the Atlantic Time Zone – the easternmost time zone in North America).

 We’ve spent some time getting things unpacked, getting used to the new neighbourhood and getting over jetlag! (Timo has had the most difficult time with this, but is pretty much there now.)

We also had to make a run to a music store downtown to get Dominic’s guitar fixed, get our welcome-kit and garbage bags from City Hall (yes, city hall provides the regular garbage bags here – based on the number of people in the home – as well as the recycling bags… they give you a 1-year supply at a time… cool!)  

I also had a chance to take an early morning stroll through downtown yesterday and most of the pictures you see are from that tour. The only exception is the very first picture which shows sunset over the church that is literally in our backyard… how European is THAT?!

Besides that here are a few shots of Châtellerault… our town. Once we get increased internet availability I’ll share more.
Thank you for your prayers… we covet them.