Christmas tree-shaped meringue… that’s what’s in my hand in today’s feature pic. When you have a local baker (president of the regional bakers’ association) who always comes up with original ideas to add to an occasion, you like to support them… (and treat yourself in the process).

Merry Christmas friend!

Last weekend we were in the thick of getting ready for Christmas at church so I didn’t really offer up a normal post. In larger church settings, there are lots of hands to lighten the load. Our situation here is a bit different and given the makeup of the congregation and where many of them live… most things fall to us, making weekends like last weekend a little extra busy.

That being said… let me really quickly go back two weeks, before telling you about the past week…

We’re in the midst of final preparations for tomorrow’s Christmas service at church so I won’t go into too much detail about the past week which, primarily for the kids, has continued to be heavily impacted by strikes in the transportation sector.

They go to school 30km from where we live and depend on the train. Due to strikes, their transport time has just about doubled daily making for very long days. Needless to say they’re very glad to be on vacation.

I’ll share more in detail in the coming days, but for now, we’d appreciate your prayers for tomorrow’s service as we are expecting a number of first time guests.

To tide you over… here are a few pics from this week… Christmas is definitely in the air!

Talk to you soon….
God bless you & Merry almost Christmas!

Today’s title will sound familiar if you’ve ever seen or heard of the 1966 western “The Good, the Bad & the Ugly” … or as it was in Italian “Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo”.

Why do I bring up the Italian title?

Because, in case it wasn’t clear what I was holding in my hand, in today’s feature pic… it’s my Italian passport; only 5.5 years in the making! …

Last weekend, I had to pop out to a little community about a 1/2 hour from here to pick up Dominic who had been celebrating a friend’s birthday. That drive took me to the heart of a teeny-tiny little French village, about as typical as they come, along the Vienne River…. (the same river that runs through Châtellerault). Today’s feature picture is from that village. Welcome to Bonneuil Matours!