Versailles

Versailles - the palace build for the most powerful king in the world! The gate is even covered with gold leaf. Pretty impressive.

water lillies

Monet's Water lillies are so peaceful. They are displayed in the Museum of Orangerie in two oval rooms; which just takes you there.

Museum of Armies

Phil really enjoyed the Museum of Armies in Paris. It had an huge collection of armour and a great dispaly on Napoléon; plus much more we did not have time for.

Shopping and Eiffel Tower

After doing some washing, we hit the French department store - La Galeries Lafayette near the Opera Garnier ( see Phil's theatrical attempts below!). It is a beautiful store that helped us to appreciate the similar attempts of Myers and DJs back home a little more. We then headed to the Eiffel Tower for sunset and to see the city of lights come to life!

Parisian Markets

On Sunday in the Marais district there are some local markets which we went to check out. It was a bustling hive of activity as both locals and tourists shopped at the many frech food stalls. There were many bakeries, butchers, cheese shops, sea food shops and many other stalls with lovely gourmet foods. We atempted to barter here for our lunch items. Trying to order food in French was an exhilarating hcallenge. Picked up some lovely bread, cheese (so cheap), ham, dip and fresh strawberries for a picnic lunch in the Tuileries gardens (just near the Louvre) before heading to the Musee D'Orsay for the impressionist and post-impressionist art of the like of Monet, Gaugin and Cezanne as part of the free first Sunday of the month museum events!

Notre Dame...

Our first day in Paris involved a beautiful stroll around the 3rd arrondisement (where we were staying, there are 16 in total numbered from the inside out) down to the Notre Dame Cathedral. It was great to see all the boutique shops and local business, there is stark lack of commercialism compared with the USA. We finally made our way down to the Ile de Cite, an island in very middle of Paris with the Notre Dame and many other sites (you can see Fi standing on the marker for the very middle of Paris)! So here are some pics :)

In Paris

Hi all. We made it to paris!

We have limited internet access (and the keyboards are crazy) so i, must be brief.

We are having alot of fun and hope to post more pics and update soon.

with love,

phil and fi

LA and London

So in the past few days we have passed through Spokane, Portland, Las Vegas, LA and now London. Needless to say - we are very tired and very jetlagged! Just trying to stay awake so we can re-set ou body clocks to European timezones.

Portland and Vegas were like "coach" stops on the plane we flew out of Spokane. LA was an overnight stop at a chain hotel.

Now London is crashing some friends from Sydney's floor for the night before heading to Paris on the train tomorrow. It will be fun to see them - and hope to see them a little more when we finish up in London in April. Yes it is like 4 days of being in transit. We are sleep deprived, hungry and uncomfortable. Cannot wait to arrive at our little French apartment stay and start this actual holiday!

So here are a few observations:

1. LA is very smoggy.
2. London is very diverse. The buildings are very old. There are no lifts for the underground which is a pain when you are carying four large bags between two people.

Anyways, that is probably enough jet-lagged rambling for today.

Good bye Spokane!!

It has been a big, busy, stressful and sad week for us. We packed up our little apartment, moved all our things, cleaned it up, packed our bags and left Spokane. It was always our plan to live there for nine months - working and getting to know Phil's family better and then head off on a big voyage. It was much harder to leave than we thought! We made brilliant friends here and we are going to miss them all so very much. People have asked us what we have learnt living here in the USA - here are a few thoughts:

1. So to start a little deep - we have learnt that this life and world are temporary. We knew we were only here for a brief time and this shaped all the things we did. So we made the most of the opportunities before us. We dove straight into friendships and ministries because we knew the time is short. In many ways this is but a small reflection of how life is - we are in this world for a short time and must make the most of it!

2. We love community - the people of Spokane and especially our church showered us in so much love and acceptance. We hope that we might be able to bring this open welcomeness back to Sydney too.

3. American food ain't all bad - see Rusty's ribs below!

Anyways, we have made our good bye to Spokane. thanks to the CTR crew for our farewell. We love you all. Thanks to Phil's family for loving us. We will miss you.

Please be praying for us on our journeys - hope to post pictures and updates often! We head to London tomorrow arriving on Thursday and off the Paris on Friday...



Phil, Russ and ribs...

Lucy, Lisa and Fi... lovely

The last of the party!

Family farewell at the airport