I was jumping up and down on the sidewalk outside our apartment in Lyon. My GIRLS are coming to visit!!! Whoo hoo!! Aubrie and Ben landed in Paris on June 22, toured Paris and Normandy, and then visited a castle in the Loire valley on the way to Lyon. France is a beautiful country full of history and castles. I am thrilled to have my daughter Aubrie and her family here. I see them!!!! The first one I see is Little Penelope sitting on her mamma’s lap in the front. They stop in the middle of our tiny one way street, which is what the French do, and turn on their hazard lights. Penny gets out but the door is in the way and I can’t grab her and hug her so we walk around the parked car and I take her into my arms. YAYAYAYAY!! Then Mae, Reese, Eva, Aubi and finally Ben. Hugs all around. Tim and I are excited to host our family! We take them into our apartment while Ben and Tim go and park their car. Parking is hard here in Lyon. Sometimes you have to drive around for a while and then you have to pay for parking. So Tim parked our car in a parking space earlier in the day, then pulled out so Ben could park his car while Tim parked our own car in our underground parking garage.
I took the girls and Aubi to our mailbox and told them “here is what we do everyday”. We walk up, open the box and say “nobody loves us”. Of course I was a bit over dramatic, but I think it worked. We put all of their bags in our tiny elevator and Aubi went with the bags. We ran up the one flight of stairs to meet the elevator on the 1st floor. I opened the door and they were able to see our apartment and all of the pictures of our grandchildren and families that are taped to the wall. Lots of pictures of Jesus and temples as well. It is a missionary apartment for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints for sure.
They were all famished, so we heated up some taco meat, made burritos and had some fruit, French bread and cheese. I also bought some croissants, plain and chocolate, and some assorted desserts from a Patisserie. After showing them around we went for a walk down Roosevelt Boulevard to the Rhone river. We then decided to cross the bridge to see the beautiful Bartholdi fountain, designed by Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi who had earlier designed the Statue of Liberty in New York. It was fun to talk them to some beautiful parts of Lyon. Eva stayed home and slept.
The next morning Tim took Ben, Aubrie, Eva and Mae on the metro to the Basilica Notre-Dame de Fourvière. I needed to stay at home and save my feet from our trip to Avignon that afternoon. Penelope, Reese and I stayed at our apartment, drew pictures, laughed, talked and enjoyed just being together. I sure love these girls.
We all loaded up and drove to Avignon which is about 3 hours away. I had arranged for us to stay in an apartment very near the Popes Palace. Parking was terrible. We enjoyed seeing the huge palace and we walked through some shops. The girls love to shop. We had a great dinner and headed to bed. We had hoped to see the Lavender fields of southern France. We did see some but to see the hills covered with Lavender we needed to drive off the main road, so that was a bust. The next morning we got ready and drove 2 1/2 hours to Annecy. On our way to Annecy we lost Ben and Aubrie and their phones didn’t work so we had no contact. We had Penelope and Reese with us and drove to the hotel, which was our only meeting point. Finally, Aubrie and Ben stopped in Annecy, borrowed a man’s phone and texted me. I gave them the address and we met there at the hotel.
Annecy is known as the Venice of France. It is a beautiful city in the Alps by a lake and the town has canals and bridges like Venice. WE LOVED ANNECY!! See the pictures. We sat and put our feet in the cool water and walked all around. We ate ice cream and had a yummy pizza dinner outdoors like the French enjoy doing. It was such a lovely day and we were so blown away by the beauty of this beautiful French town.
We got back to the hotel, showered and my heart started to feel heavy. I knew I was going to have to say goodbye to my girls the next morning at 5:00 am. It was hard to sleep. We got up and the girls got ready. I gave big hugs because I knew I would not hug my sweet girls for another 11 months. ugh! Little Penelope walked down the hall and kept looking back and my heart sank. I miss my family more than I can bare sometimes. I am trying to stay focused and commit to my Savior as His disciple. Sometimes it is very hard and then miracles happen, like the miracle we had at church the next Sunday, but that is another post.
I love you Ben and Aubrie! Thank you for bringing Eva, Mae, Reese and Penelope to France to see us. It meant the world to me. Now you know where I am living and can relate to things you see in pictures. May 6, 2025, Nana and Tim will be home.
Latter-Day Saints 