Just a few days after the Toussaint break, the school had another long weekend for "Le Pont du novembre." November 11 is a national holiday, and since it fell on a Thursday, the school was also closed on Friday. So since we had another long weekend, I took advantage to drive to the east where it would be too far to do in just an ordinary weekend.
For this pilgrimage we went to Nevers, Paray-le-Monial, Ars-sur-Formans, et Lyon.
Nevers is the town were Saint Bernadette was a nun and where her primary relics are found. We walked around the garden where she walked, saw the statue she had a habit of praying at, and of course we were able to view her body, which is incorrupt, but her hands and face are covered with a "thin layer of wax."
Those are Saint Bernadette's actual clothes. It looks a lot like what she's depicted in in the CCC video about her!
Some of Saint Bernadette's devotional items.
This statue of Our Lady of the Sea, in a niche filled with shells and a crown made of shells, is in the far corner of the convent gardens. St. Bernadette said this one reminded her most of her vision of Mary.
After Nevers, we went to Paray-le-Monial which is where Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque received the visions of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. There are several significant sites in this town. There is the chapel where she received the three main visions that contained the message of the Sacred Heart for the whole world (she received many other visions which pertained to her personally); there is La Chapelle de la Colombière where are kept the relics of her spiritual director, Saint Claude la Colombière, the basilica church, Parc des Chapelains and the Visitor's Center where one can watch a video and/or get an explanation of Margaret Mary's visions and the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the history of the devotion throughout France and the world.
As it turns out, it took quite a long time for the devotion to become officially recognized. The reigning king of France and his two immediate successors did nothing to propagate the devotion on a national level, although it was spreading among the laity to a certain extent. Finally, in December 1870, France was being defeated by the Prussians and there was at last a "National Vow" and the beginning of a plan to construct a church dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Paris at Montmartre. The apparitions at Pontain happened within just a few days or weeks of this! Our Lady protected Pontmain from the invasion of the Prussians which had been imminent up to that time. They "inexplicably" turned around. This story is explained better in the pdf I linked to in the post about Pontmain.
This is the body of Saint Jean Vianney. It is incorrupt, but there is wax on his face only.
The room he slept in most of the time, including the bed that was burned by the devil. To the left is his original coffin.
Mass kit which St. Jean Vianney played with as a child.
"Jean Vianney liked this painting and asked to have it placed there [in his house]. From time to time, ti was found in the morning, splattered with mud by the devil."
The incorrupt heart of St. Jean Vianney. It is housed in its own small chapel in Ars.
Lucy often complained about having to visit so many churches, but she got in the habit of drawing little cards/pictures for prayer intentions to put in the receptacles for that purpose.
Ars is only about 20 minutes away from the city of Lyon, which is the second largest city in France. So, we stayed in Lyon for two nights, but didn't actually see very much of Lyon.
Ars is easily visited in a day, or less than a day -- as long as you don't arrive there during the extended French lunch break when everything closes for a couple of hours. Seeing as how this trip was a break from school and we had already been traveling quite a lot, I did not make the kids get up early on the day we went to Ars, so we got there only about 20 minutes before the museum closed, which wasn't enough time to visit it. So we went to visit the chapel of the relic of his heart, the rectory where he lived, and the principle church of Ars, while waiting for the museum to reopen. Then I decided that it would be better for us to just stay in Ars for a Saturday vigil Mass, otherwise we would have no time Sunday morning to do anything in Lyon and we would only be able to go to Mass and then drive straight home. By the late afternoon we were sort of killing time until Mass began.
A story from Lyon:
Seeing as how Lyon is such a big city and even in small cities like Limoges it can be difficult to find parking, when I saw that our hotel had its own parking garage, I thought I should definitely take advantage of it.
Well, I pulled up to the door of the parking garage, which is entirely underground, under the hotel itself, and I was confused as to whether I needed to have already reserved a spot, or whether I could park and then pay later. I finally figured out I could go in without a reservation and descended the ramp into the garage. I passed through a full parking garage, saw the sign pointing the way to the next level down and knew that it would be impossible for me to make the turn because of the large cement dividers which appear to serve no purpose othern than to make the turn extremely tight. I had already scratched the first car I rented in a parking garage due to a a hairpin turn, so I wasn't about to repeat that disaster. So I continued forward and turned right down the next aisle, hoping that I might find a spot or more aisles to expore. No such luck. Not only were all the spots taken, it was a dead end and I needed to turn around. Unfortunately, the passage was once again so narrow, with cement dividers every 10 feet or so sticking out into the aisle just to make things *extra* difficult. My stress level was steadily rising. I took a lot of deep breaths and told the kids to sit tight because I was probably going to have to make an 18 point turn. (Meanwhile, I am picturing the scene from one of the Austin Powers movies where he is stuck in a narrow passage trying to turn around and can only move about an inch forward and backwards to try and turn. That was me.)
I did have to completely restart my turn three times because the various cars and dividers were just too close togther and my car is longer and larger than the average European car. There were dangers at every corner! I finally turned around making at LEAST half a dozen points to do so...maybe 10, but anyways, it was a lot.
Then I approached the ramp which I had previously descended, which was SO steep, AND it was twisting! The little machine to take your parking ticket was at the foot of that ramp. Simon put the ticket in for me, which makes the exit door open (which is at the top of the ramp), and I tried to make it up the ramp, again, being so nervous about scratching the car on the nose or the side due to the narrowness and twisting nature of the passage. What is more, manual transmission cars need EXTRA gas and power to go up hills... so how am I supposed to carefully "inch" up this incline while also gunning it to actually get out of this seventh circle of hell???? I advanced; I slid backward; slammed on the breaks; tried to go up slowly -- and quickly at the same time while not losing sight of all the different places I could potentially damage the car. By the grace of God, I made it up the ramp without damaging the car. But guess what? By this time the exit door timer had expired and it was closed! NOW HOW WAS I GOING TO GET OUT?? My little magstripe parking ticket to activate the door had already be sucked away into oblivion! Not to mention the fact that this door opened and shut with the speed and force of a guillotine!
Just a few minutes later, the door opened, but because there was another car trying to get in! I was essentially nose-to nose with the other vehicle. I had no place to go! So THAT car had to go in reverse to let me out... and again we are praying that all these maneuvers happen quickly enough that my car doesn't get slammed by the guillotine door, which we already know is on a short timer.
Well I did make it out, with only damage to my nerves, thanks be to God. I think the poor children were also petrified because they could tell how difficult and stressful it was and the car slid backwards with me slamming on the breaks multiple times. At that moment, I vowed never to go into another French parking garage ever again as long as I live!
(And now I wonder what my experience might have been if I had had to use a parking garage in Paris instead of the miraculously provided parking place that I ended up with? I had made a reservation in a parking garage and that was plan B if I didn't find street parking.)
So the day we went to Ars, I had tentatively planned to take the children to the Lyon zoo, as it was in the right direction. Well, I followed where the GPS told me to go, which ultimately was another parking garage. No way, José. I told the kids "Sorry," but there was no way I was going to try and park there to go to the zoo. So we continued on our way to Ars.
Further fun facts... most parking garages, and even above ground parkings with entrance restrictions, (I guess so that only cars can enter, not trucks) seem to have a height limit of 1.9 meters. (Some are 2.4m) Guess how tall my car is? 1.874m. Yeeah - 2.6mm to spare for clearance!
On our last day of our "Pont pilgrimage," I was fearing mutiny if I brought the kids to one more church (well, mostly just from Lucy, but they were all ready for a little change of pace, I think.) So I retried the visit to the Lyon Zoo and figured out a different route to take in order to take advantage of street level parking. This time I was able to find a place to park (just in the leafy median of a busy boulevard, you know, where I had to drive over the curb and had about 6 inches to spare on each side -- thank goodness for sliding doors -- but at least it wasn't underground!)
It was worth the effort because we had an enjoyable visit, despite the intermittent rain and chilly weather.
Why would anyone want to leave the hotel when there is a chalk board to color on???
The giraffes were very interesting to watch.
I reluctantly, but not regretably, paid for the kids to do this little chariot race activity. There was a whole section that was carnival-like with various attractions and games one could pay for.
This pelican escaped its enclosure. Then it couldn't get back in!
Just monkeying around.
I forget what the name of this primate is, but they were very active and playful and we had a great time watching them.
Simon's got a bright idea!
This was inside our hotel room in Lyon. It was a perfectly adequate hotel; very clean, modern, etc. Our room had six beds: a combination of some bunk beds and a double bed. The kids were super impressed and just thought it was an amazing, luxurious, upscale hotel! I guess that's what happens when you only have hodge-podgey airbnb's and pilgrim's quarters to compare to! lol!
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