Return from Paris

My dear Friends

I have been home from France exactly a month, and I still have a deep impression in my heart. For some years now I have been praying the psalms in French, as well as in Hebrew, and this, combined with a few lines every day of a novel, keeps my French alive. I was brought up to believe that you best learn a language, including a spoken one, by reading first-of course it is not a real substitute for talking to people, but it does give you an insight into the culture.

And there is the food! Been buying French cheeeses, jam and I brought some wonderful peppermint tea with pepper (actually tastes much lighter than the stuff over here) from Provence to make what the French call a Tissane. I didn't watch the rugby match recently, but I found someone else who supported France!

So I have become a real Francophile (devotee of everything French). To carry on this process and in order to visit Alexia and her family again, I found the cheapest rate on the new Eurostar from St Pancras (just a hop from Kings Cross where the Cambridge train gets in) and am going from December 13th to the 19th. One of my favourite times of the year, it was the time in 1989 I first went to Amsterdam and celebrated my first Christmas there as a new Christian in the Church.

Je vous embrasse (big hugs)
Sister Gila