Cinderella

The week after Brussels and Amsterdam was extremely uneventful, but yet very busy. I had classes, Bible study and the like to keep me occupied. But the next weekend was super fun! We were headed to the Cevennes region of France for a church retreat. The retreat started Friday evening, but unfortunately we had our Gordon class right up to the time we were supposed to leave. Needless to say, Grace and I were late…but thankfully the men driving us were patient and waited for us. In our van was me, Grace and Sarah as well as Désirée (who is German) and Laura (who is British).

 The ride was long but it reminded me of the retreats I went on at WECC. On the way we saw a very bad car accident. We all instantly started praying for the victims. The end of the ride was up some EXTREMELY curvy and steep roads. I got a bit car sick which is unusual for me. We arrived at our destination at about 9 pm. Where were we staying you ask? Well this retreat isn’t like in the states were you stay at cabins in the woods. This is France we are talking about here! We were staying in a….CASTLE! That’s right folks, an actual 17^th century castle! I felt like I was sleeping in a museum.

 When we first got there we found out our room assignments. I was assigned to a room with Sarah, Essie and Naomi. I also got a lesson on how to use the toilet properly. For your viewing pleasure, a lesson given by the lovely Sarah. 

After putting our things in our room and learning how to use the bathroom, it was time for dinner. Some of the men were kind enough to make us all a pasta bar with different types of pastas and sauces. My favorite sauce was definitely the seafood sauce. During dinner we got a rundown of what we would be doing for the weekend. I should say that this retreat was not just a youth retreat. There were families, couples, and singles, everyone so it was a really great way to get to know people in the church. ! I helped clean up after dinner. Working in the kitchen made me feel like Cinderella.

When we finished cleaning they set out snacks. That had bought “s’more supplies” and I put this in quotes because there are no graham crackers or anything like them in France. Have you ever tried to explain a graham cracker? C’est tres dificil. So we attempted to use these apple cracker things. The chocolate was dark with either orange or almonds and of course we had marshmallows. Now you may think marshmallows are marshmallows and you can’t go wrong but you can…the marshmallows were covered in sugar so when we attempted to roast them, they just caramelized. There was a little girl named Ella who was hanging with us who had never had a s’more before. She really liked her first s’more but that is only because she doesn’t know any better.

After we finished eating our fill of the snacks it was getting pretty late but the stars had been stunning when we arrived so we headed to the roof to look at them. Unfortunately by then clouds had moved in so we decided to call it a night. But not before all the other Uni (university) girls moved their beds into our room. (Apparently there had been a bug incident.) Castle sleepover!!! Just like in the Princess Diaries, except we are princesses of the King of kings!

The next morning I got up early to go to the prayer meeting before breakfast. I wanted to get my day off to the right start. I then headed to breakfast. Since the other girls weren’t up yet I had breakfast with one of the families on the trip who is from Holland. So their children are still learning English. Their youngest son only speaks Dutch. So I learned that the Dutch word for Nutella is “pasta.” The little boy was so cute pointing to things and asking me what they were. Eventually the other girls crawled out of bed. (Speaking of beds, these beds are so old that they sagged in the middle)

 We were leaving shortly after to go to the Musée du Desert. This museum displays the history of persecution of Christians in France. We were able to climb into a hiding place inside of a cupboard, dug into the floor. Honestly it was like climbing into a grave. They also had pulpits that were disguised as grain barrels but came apart to create pulpits. There were Bibles so small there that you needed a magnifying glass to read them. (Easy for hiding though). On one of the walls there was a list of people who were captured and on that list was a Bonin (my mother’s maiden name) so maybe I’m related.

Once we were done touring the museum it was time for lunch. We went to a restaurant and a very French meal (which was delicious of course). I had steak for the first time since coming here! I also had some very encouraging conversation with some of the women on the trip.

To work of our large lunch we went on a hike up to a cave where Christians used to meet and worship in secret. There is a cross carved into the wall and it was just really fun to explore inside of the cave. We also sang some worship songs inside the cave as people would have done back in the day. There were two other men there who were not part of our group. Apparently we made quite the impression with our worship because they than us very sincerely. I must also tell you that this hike was no joke. It was EXTREMELY steep (Dad and Aunt Missy would have had a heart attack).

We then headed to a 13^th century chapel where we again we worshipped. Apparently the chapel isn’t usually open but it was for us and it was quite a blessing. The worship was so sincere and people were moved to tears.

After the chapel it was dinner time!! We had this fantastic (and calorie-filled) potato dish! Once we had finished dinner we had time to hang out and relax in the living room. I learned some new card games like Ultimate Snap (and I thought Egyptian Rat screw was intense) as well as a board game called Mister X (Johnny and Julia would like this one). I was so exhausted from the hike and we wanted to get up for sunrise so I went to bed around midnight.

I woke up first for the sunrise and it was stunning! Unfortunately my camera could not capture it for beans. Once the sun was up I went for a walk on the grounds by myself for some time with just God (and my camera). I’ll tell you one thing, between the size of the grounds and the castle and its contents; I cannot fathom how much this guy is worth. I actually haven’t said anything about the owner of the castle yet have I?

The owner of the castle, Monsieur Cassanove is 94 years old and lives with his brother. He has no children or wife, but he is quite the whipper-snapper. He came in Saturday night at midnight carrying an armful of wood.  He is also very funny! When we were leaving he was waving his handkerchief and fake crying! I just cannot get over how adorable he is!

So anyway back to the morning. After breakfast Ella and one of the Dutch girls took us on a tour of the castle! Apparently Monsieur Cassanove had taken them on a grand tour of all the grounds. The girls were so cute recounting all they had learned on their tour. Sadly, our tour got cut short because it was time to clean the castle!!

That’s right folks; we cleaned the entire castle from top to bottom before we left. Talk about feeling like Cinderella! Although I don’t think she used a vacuum cleaner. The castle was sparkling when we left. Before we left we ate our leftover food in the back overlooking the entire town below.

It was time to go and the car ride back was extremely uneventful because I slept almost the entirety of it. This was especially good because right when I got back I had to go to a practice at church because I was helping to lead worship during the service that Sunday. It was a great service and it was nice to be able to use my talents again for the Lord. After such a great weekend I didn’t want to go back to classes…