Happy Labor Day everyone!! I hope this finds you well. We are still here and enjoying every minute of our brief time in Europe.
I thought that this week was going to be a quiet week of rest after rushing around for the last three weeks. I was wrong. It had been quite a busy one.
It started off quietly, with lots of laundry and the boys to the tutor's. Then on Wednesday we were up early to watch history as it happened. We went to the smith's office (at the end of the runway), climbed on the roof of the building (through a bathroom and up a ladder), and watched the A380's first flight. There were around 50,000 people watching, some having camped out all night. We got there about 30 minutes before the scheduled take off and had some of the best seats. It was really amazing. This huge plane was so graceful when it took off. And quiet, too. It is half as loud as a 747. The flight went really well and they are planning another for Monday. That one we will watch from the front yard. Then it was back down the ladder (the highlight of Michael's day) and home for lunch.
The next morning, my parents, the boys, and I left to do a little spelunking. We drove down past Foix to the Grotte de Niaux. This is a cave with 15,000 year old cave paintings that you can still see. We had a tour reserved at 1:00 and it turned out that we had the tour all to ourselves. So the five of us and the tour guide grabbed some flashlights (no electric lights so as to preserve the paintings) and headed into the cave. We walked in the dark through the caves for about 35 minutes before we reached the first paintings. They were in a dead end that had the most amazing echoes. The paintings were beautiful. The ones that we have seen in Lascaux were redone to look like they had when they were first drawn. These were obviously much older. It is amazing that any survived. In fact, the tour guide showed us one that had almost washed away in the span of a few days when the cave started draining a new way a few years ago. They had to adjust the flow of water to protect it. Incredible.
We spent about a hour and 45 minutes in the cave and saw two major painting sights. Then when we came out (surprised that it was daylight), we went to the prehistoric park near by. This one is much more modern and technologically advanced then the one near Lascaux II. In the first building, we wore headsets that were controlled by infrared lights. Where you were standing determined what the tape spoke about. There were many interesting displays along the way, including an exhibit of prehistoric artifacts and a recreation of the caves.
From this building, we went to a mock archeologist's dig. This was an opportunity for children to learn how to be an archeologist. The next class didn't start for 30 minutes though, so instead we continued exploring. There were neat paths through the woods and alongside a river that took you out onto a hunting plain. At this sight, there was an opportunity to learn to throw a spear using a spear thrower!! WOW!! We all took a turn and were pretty good with most of us hitting the targets.
Unfortunately, we learned that the park was closing then. We still had half the park to cover! We will definitely have to go back. It was really cool.
When we got up Friday morning, we learned that mom and dad had decided the night before, after we went to bed, to leave that morning on the train. So we dropped them off at the train station and wished them well. It should be interesting to see how their vacation goes.
Friday night we had the Reich's over for dinner and haircuts. We even figured out how to use the charcoal!! We had a very nice evening and wished them well as they head to Paris this week.
Saturday we finally had our rest day. We didn't do anything until late afternoon and then it was only a trip to the store for a few things. It was a good day and we are almost recovered from our travels.
This morning we had a totally new adventure. We went to church. The Toulouse International church is in a town right near here. We had been invited by a friend of Dave's at work. Although it is more new age and fundamental than we are used to, it was nice to be at church again. When we are here, we see a lot of churches, but don't ever go to church. This was a nice change to that pattern and I think that we will go again when we are in town on Sundays.
After church, we had lunch with the Wichman's (he invited us to church). They have 5 children, ages 3 1/2 to 14. We all had a great time. The boys especially had great fun playing with other children, something they have really been missing. We were there most of the day. We are going to schedule another visit soon.
Well, that's it for another week. We are quickly running out of them. We are looking to be home the second or third week of June, so the weeks are definitely numbered.
Until next week.
A bientot!!
Amy
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