At the beginning of December all of the ladies on my team were able to travel for a weekend away from the big city. There were 6 of us: 3 journeymen girls and 3 ladies who are married. We piled up in one of the family's mini-vans and drove 3 hours north of Paris to a small village called Les Loges. Driving out of the city was beautiful because it had snowed the night before and though next to no snow sticks on the streets of the city, the countryside was covered with a beautiful white dusting! We arrived and settled into our bed and breakfast for the weekend. We had prepared and packed all of our food for the weekend and since we were the only people staying in the house, we had it all to ourselves!
On Saturday we headed to Fecamp, a 30 minute drive through the countryside where we went to a large marché and admired our first view of La Manche (French for English Channel) We then drove along the coast to the city of Êtretat, our ultimate destination for the weekend. Êtretat is a small village on the coast which is characterized by several large arches spanning from the top of the cliffs to the grey-blue water of the channel. Monet painted several works on the beach looking out at these arches and after reaching the beach it was obvious why.
Monet's Porte d'Aval
Meredith's Porte d'Aval + crate
It was cold and windy but we were bundled up and resolved to walk to the top of one of the first arches that we saw. At the top we found a breathtaking view of the English Channel in the distance, of waves crashing below us on the shoreline and the combed back grass that had been beaten down by years of blustering wind. It was a scene out of my imagination. The older ladies decided to head back down to the beach while Brittany, Ruth Ann and I decided to walk farther over to the next hill. Once we got there we sat down and dangled our legs over the edge of the cliff, almost taunting mother nature to blow us over. I'll probably regret that decision at some point, but in the moment it was a rush to feel the wind blowing around my feet knowing there were only grass and rocks to hold onto, no guard rails or insurance liabilities. As we sat there admiring the inhibition we felt, the grey clouds parted and sun burst through onto the water. La Manche immediate transformed from stormy grey to a brilliant green-blue and we sat there together admiring the Creator of it all. At the particularly grey and cloudy point where I was at that time emotionally, it was a vivid remind of the faithfulness of my God to renew my weak passions and to sustain me forever. After 5 minutes of light dancing across the waters and the cliffs, the clouds moved again to cover the sun, but nothing was ever quite as dark as it was before.
After such a religious experience, we climbed back down the hills to the beach, RA decided to stick her feet in the cold waters and we traipsed about the town until we decided that it was time to travel on. We stopped at a goat farm and bought gourmet chocolates made from goat's milk, drove up another hill for a view of the entire village of Êtretat and then meandered on home. We spent the evening eating soup next to a large stone fireplace, playing question games and reading 1 Corinthians together.
Êtretat, the name of the village, is a really interesting name to me. The best I can deduce from my amateur experience with French (disguised as an undergraduate degree) would be that it comes from two different French words. "Être" is the verb "to be" while "etat" means "state or condition." The meaning that I've assigned based on these facts is that the village name means, "the state of being."
I really like the symbolism of the village name, "the state of being." This weekend retreat couldn't have come at a better point. The end of November brought a flood of emotion from my first Thanksgiving away from home, the onset of a hard and heavy case of culture shock, and a season of distance from the Lord (always me running, no doubt) Being able to escape to the north, to let down the guard of tough skin that one must develop to cope with living in a huge city, to sit next to a fire and laugh and cry and reflect with these women, it was bliss. I know beyond the shadow of a doubt that this weekend was instrumental in helping revive my spirits to continue working during December and to prepare me for Christmas away from home.
me, blissfully next to La Manche
