There is a water feature in Bordeaux that sprays a mist and bubbles up water for people to play in and this band was playing some fun music in the mist.

Ihave spent a truly lovely weekend with my son’s in-laws in Bordeaux. What a great family!!! Denis took be around on Saturday and again on Monday showing me the city and its history. They have taken very good care of me. On Sunday I went to church with them and their son’s (Alban) fiancé (Chelsea from England) took the time to interpret for me. She and her family were wonderful as well! full of smiles and very friendly. At the end of the Sunday service an elderly man came to me and said I was going home with this family for dinner. I told him I was here with the Poussard family and he said, with surprise, “Oh, I did not know this. We just wanted to make sure you had someone to spend Sunday with.” What a great people.

I must say again, since most of the people reading this may have some reservations or prejudices against the French people, since I have been in the South of France, these people have been great! They are much more welcoming, hospitable and helpful than I ever expected and even more so than most Americans. If you ever go to France go to France and not Paris. There is a world of difference.

Yesterday was officially one month since I started my pilgrimage. Although things started off a bit rough, I am enjoying myself immensely. The freedom to move as I please, sleep when I want, study when I want and feel no pressure from deadlines or people needing or expecting something from me is truly something that takes getting used to. I have never spent an entire afternoon just watching people walk by and enjoying the views around me without thinking of other things I should be doing. I still have projects I am want to work on but I work on them at my leisure.

I have seen so many beautiful views and met so many wonderful people I'm wondering if I will ever have the desire to go back into the normal system of life again. To be able to help people at will and think of others without having to worry about yourself, your responsibilities or what it will cost you is a blessing to be adored.

The beach in Arcachon was basically a bust due to bad weather. Had the beach mostly to myself. It is a lovely beach with fine sand but it is in a bay so there are no waves. It would be very fun playing with family or friends in the sand and in the water as it is like a giant swimming pool.

The day before I was told to take the surface roads instead of the highway as the views are so much nicer. I started doing so and received two short lifts when the second lady, who spoke very little English, took me to the highway saying it would get me to Bordeaux much quicker. I tried telling her I wanted to take the scenic route but she didn't understand. After waiting for over an hour and a half at the toll booth and none of the richer people who can afford to pay the toll would pick me up, I ended up setting my tent up in a small field of ferns. The next morning I waited about another hour before a trucker finally picked me up. He went about half the distance then dropped me off at 10:30 am in a small town area then said if nobody picks me up by 1:30 pm he will be back and can take me to Bordeaux. After about an hour of hitch hiking I was picked up by John Philip.

I think this was a jelly fish that washed up on shore during high tide.

John was 22 years old and told me his younger brother was killed by a drunk driver a week ago and last night his girlfriend of three years just told him she doesn't love him anymore. He also hated his job and tears began to flow. My heart went out to him as I began to share a few tears as well. During our long journey we talked and he ended up changing his schedule so he could take me all the way to Arcachon (the beach I was heading for near Bordeaux). He ended up buying me lunch as well. Without going through the details, he ended up saying, if he had not met me today, he would have been crying all day and probably for weeks and now look, you've put a smile on my face.

He also said I was the first American he has spoke to and I am different from other Americans because he has seen documentaries and such. I explained to him that I am the way I am because other American's taught me to be this way. I explained that I also had prejudices against French people because my first encounter was Paris and I thought all French people were just as rude and despiteful as the people from Paris. We both have discovered that the media paints inaccurate pictures of the world and most people are good and helpful. It is only the big cities where people turn their heart to stone and care for money more than their brothers and sisters.

His phone's battery had died so he couldn't contact his company or check his emails. I told him I have a computer if he can get me to a place where there was WIFI so we found a McD's and he checked his emails and was able to contact his company. He ended up getting good news all around and he was jumping up ecstatic. He then said, “Can you believe it? This morning I didn't want to live and now today I have met a Mormon who has changed my life.” He then told me “the road turns”, It which is a French expression meaning basically, life changes. He thanked me over and over again but I reciprocated the thank you because he helped me more than I helped him. We helped each other in our various hours of need. Before he left he gave me a bottle of grenadine syrup and a T-shirt from his company. It was a great discussion and one I wish I could have every day.

A random peacock at town hall in Bordeaux.

Google maps lied to me telling me this is where my son's in-laws lived.
A lady there from Chad actually gave me a lift to their house.

Bayonne was a very interesting city but Biarritz had the most character of any city I have ever seen. The beach was awesome but the city was stunning. Each building has it's own character and style and I couldn't help but keep taking pictures. They also have surfing championships here every year. If you are into surfing or just beach life and you want to come to Europe, this place is a hit! I won't comment on all the pictures but will just show most of what I took.

I ran into the missionaries in Bayonne and they gave me a few of their cards for contacts. This was quite fortunate because I finally had a good spiritual talk with a woman in Biarritz named Veronica. She was reading a book on the beach when I approached her. I met her the first night I was there in the cove and we talked until after midnight then she wanted to continue the conversation the next day so I stayed another day. As we talked she wanted a copy of the Book of Mormon in French so I gave her the missionaries card and told her they could teach her the basics of the gospel. She is excited to read it.

This is the story behind the little building below.

They had an excursion planned today for the mountains in Spain but it rained all last night so they changed it to visiting the château in Pau (which was on my agenda to do tomorrow as I continued my journey). Too bad this wasn't planned earlier, I could have let them just drop me off and started today, but I'm really trying not to travel on Sunday's and they are already planning for me to leave tomorrow and will have a “picnic” for me, which I believe means a sack lunch to help me on my journey. Are these people great or what?

This is the crew I was working with. The tall man was in charge and he didn't speak a bit of English so never really got to talk but he tried and was a very good guy. The smaller man was a volunteer too and spoke just a bit of English so I mainly spoke with him. He was a good hard worker and at 62 he could keep up with me no problem and even jogged to get things. He was a very good friend here and helped me quite a bit.

Here's the proof I was actually working lol.

Some of the interesting things I've encountered here at Secours Catholique (the Catholic Mission):

Food- For breakfast they served a bowl of either coffee, tea or hot chocolate and bread. There is also butter and jam. They serve it in a bowl for you to dip your bread in. They tend to put the butter on the bread then dip it and eat it then eat their jam with a spoon out of the little container. It was different. Another thing I didn't expect was they had chocolate and what I thought was caramel éclairs. What a maple donut looks like in America is caramel in England and coffee flavored here in France. Since I can't stand the taste of coffee, I didn't want to waste it so I finished it but then went up to get a chocolate one as well :-). The have a coffee machine that makes several types of coffee but also warm milk/cream. I thought it was just milk until I drank it and it burned my mouth so I put ice cubes in it to cool it down. They've served duck, tuna cakes, salmon, hamburger, chicken and various other things that I don't know what they consisted of but everything has been good.

I've told several people here I was Mormon but it didn't seem to phase a one. They have all treated me the same as everyone else and have tried helping me as they have everyone else here. I know they've joked about me at times because they would all look at me and laugh but all I could do was smile with a sheepish grin having no idea what was just said.

Having run out of glue for my shoes, I found some glue specifically for shoes, so hopefully it will hold better, and some nails, which I sank in, which will hopefully help hold them together. However, one of the nails punctured the air compartment of my shoe so I'm walking on one flat ;-).