Pretending for Real

So here’s some synopsis on my time in France, only a month and a half after the experience, but better late than never, I hope. I really enjoyed the time there, went on a helter skelter tour around the country, but had family that made the whole trip great and fun and educational (fun and education in the same sentence, horror, jokes!).
I flew from Cotonou to Paris, waited in Paris eight hours, then flew to Geneva. I spent two full days in Geneva, staying at the Adventist school in Collonges with family. Then took the train to Valence, where my grandma’s brother and sister live. My grandma, Mamie, was visiting her sister whose husband recently passed away, so I saw her too. She lives only two house down from our house in Canada. Then Valence to Montpelier, drove down with my uncle and aunt. Then after that up to Paris with the same aunt and uncle where their daughter, my cousin (go figure), lives, well just outside of Paris,in Marly-le-Roi, literally Marly the King, and not because Marly was a king, but because a king had a park in Marly, so anywhere the king has something is blank the king. I had excellent tour guides with my aunt Nicole and uncle Maxim. My uncle is a retired pastor, who spent thirty five years ministering in France. He lives a five minute walk from the South France SDA Federation building. I met cousins and uncles, and aunts, and friends of the family until I couldn’t fit the names in my head, but I thoroughly appreciated getting to meet all these people. There were many places to visit. Went up the Eiffel tower, to the second floor, on top of the Arch De Triomphe, to the palace of Versailles (if you go on the first Sunday of the month all public places are free!), Notre Dame de Paris, Le Sacre Coeur Basillique. In Valence we visiting the Cathedral where there is a plaque commemorating the pope who died there, part of prophecy. The end of the 1260 days when one of Napoleon’s generals took the Pope captive, but he was sick and didn’t make it Paris, passing away in Valence. Went to Aigles-Mort which is a big fortress city built by Saint Louis. There is the Tower of Constance where Hugenots Prostenants were held during the inquisition, the women that is, the men were put on rowing slave ships. One woman Marie Durand spent 38 years in that tower, never leaving, seeing the outside only when they were let out on top for fresh air, and she held strong in her faith! Saw in Geneva the great reformation wall with its huge statues of Calvin, Knox, and the writings of many great reformers, also saw the chapel where Calvin and Knox preached. In Notre Dame, saw the spot (we think) where Napoleon was crowned his empress Josephine.
One place that was really moving was near Valence in the countryside where my great great grand parents lived. Their homestead still stands, and is being lived in by others. There are so many stories of that area, especially during WWII when Valence was taken by Germans and when my grandmother was around 10-12 years old, maybe younger, can’t remember. Saw the small castle farm, where my aunt and uncle hid behind a door as soldiers kicked open each stall in search of hideaways. Their door was left slightly open, so the soldiers simply look in, and didn’t see them behind the door and moved on.
There’s another spot where the resistance fighters or Maquis had a surprise attack on the Germans, blowing up a convertible with high ranking officers in it. The Germans were mad so came back to the town right beside the attack location, called La Rochette, taking ten random men and executing them. The men were not even resistance fighters, most of them between 19 and 21, one who was 40. That story was really powerful, and others of the resistance. Here were these men who loved freedom, loved their country, loved their families and the future of their children so much they would give their lives to get it, to fight a common enemy. Today we fight in a war, all of earth’s history after the fall, has been in a war, a spiritual battle. I imagined how those men must have felt, my great uncle part of that attack was only 19. I pretended like I was among them, hiding in caves, doing spying. Then I realized I was pretending for real. That war I mentioned, it’s real, no guns or grenades, no generals or captains, but a war with battles won and lost everyday. But this war is a war with a future that is clear, a future with an already decided victor, and that’s makes all the difference!