Photo Group One: Outside Paris

Rouen, Hon Fleur, Mont Saint Michel, Chartre

On the way north with my colleagues from the Fourth Provisional World Parliament in Barcelona, we stayed in this chateau in the Bordeaux region.    It was owned by Rene Marchand who, with her then deceased husband, Guy Marchand, did many years of wonderful work for World Mundialism.

I dropped my colleagues in Holland and returned through France alone in my rental car.   The first night I arrived at the village Chartres in the afternoon and walked around this amazing place with its magnificent cathedral.

A close up of the main entrance of Chartres Cathedral

This beautiful canal runs through the village of Chartres just below the Cathedral.   I parked my rental car in a parking space facing the canal and slept that night in the car.   The next morning was very beautiful next to this canal.

I drove across France southeast (heading back to Barcelona) that day until reaching this region in the south east of low mountains.   I got off the main highway and found a little used back road on which I decided to sleep once again in the car.

Here is the spot where I slept.  I picked this spot hoping not to be discovered but also hoping to climb a hill I saw in the distance with a statue at the summit.

Here is that statue in the distance as seen from the car.   I hiked up there to see.  It was quite dark by the time I got back to the car.

It was a statue of the Blessed Virgin.   Here the sign that once hung and the small covered wooden box for gifts were likely long since gone.   She was built on this hill overlooking the village below, probably centuries earlier, to protect and bless them.   It was very beautiful and moving.

Here is the view of the village that the Blessed Virgin was facing that she was likely built to look over.   After what are probably centuries, she still looks down on this beautiful, simple scene.   When I think of France to this day, this is what comes to mind.

Paris 1

Paris 2