Category: Daily life

9:30 pm, Sunday night. The phone starts ringing

21:30, Sunday night. The phone is ringing. That’s odd. Who would phone us at this time of the day. (In France, you don’t usually phone people after 9). I’ll answer anyway.
Me: Hello ?
Person on the Phone : Mr Durand ?
Me : Yes
Person on the Phone: This is Chambéry central police station. Do you own a Renault trafic ?
Me: Yes
Police officer : Someone contacted us to let us know that your car is opened.
Me: Ok, Thanks, I’ll go and check.

I went and checked.

A local councilor had spotted that the back door of our van was opened and contacted the police to find the owner. He closed the door and waited for a while to see if I would turn up. He was still there when I arrived.

Silly me had left the back door opened after coming back from a walk with the boys. No one had visited the car as far as I can tell.

At least, I got to talk with one of the local councillors.

For once it is not the French trains that are on strike

I am going to Brussels again next week but I am due to come back on Friday 9th October and the Belgium railway workers will be on strike. I need to go to the station in Chambéry tomorrow in order to change my tickets so that I come back on Saturday 10th.

I am due to preach on Sunday 11th in Bourgneuf so I would appreciate your prayers.

It is here

It is here. We went to pick it up on Monday afternoon. It is big. It is powerful. It will take a bit of time to get used to it. It is our new vehicle: a second-hand Renault Trafic. It is a 9 seater so there is plenty of space. Esther’s mum and dad are with us until Sunday so we’ve been on several test rides.

The timing is perfect. Esther had problems with the old, faithful Multipla. Our plan is to get it destroyed anyway so it will go earlier than we thought. Just as well.

I’ll post pictures later.

When you are 80 km away from the nearest hospital…

We spent the weekend in the family chalet. It is located in a remote valley at the heart of the Massif des Ecrins. It is a beautiful, wild setting, facing the Ecrins and it is a good place to rest and meditate. There is no electricity, but running water and gas to heat the water and cook. The weather forecast was good. We had planned a walk on Saturday and drove up on Friday afternoon, after school. But early in the night, one of the boys hurt himself. He fell in the dark and hurt his left arm.

I sent him back to bed but he was still hurting after several hours and couldn’t sleep. His elbow was swollen so I thought I needed to take him to the nearest hospital. Except the nearest hospital was in Grenoble, over 80 km away, the first 30 km of the journey being on a narrow, dark mountain road, with impressive drops at places. But there was no choice. It was about 3 am. We drove down and saw plenty of wild life: deers, foxes and badgers. 2 of each.

We got to the hospital at 4:30 am and checked in the Emergency Unit. It seemed quiet. the staff was quick and efficient. We were able to leave at 7. We were back in the chalet at 8:30 am. Not bad. We spent more time on the road than in the hospital.

Maxime now has a plaster on his left arm. We are not sure what the problem is. The doctor couldn’t see any broken bones on the x-rays. But we will check in a week time in the hospital in Chambéry. He is fine. Thanks to those who showed concern.

The rest of the weekend was uneventful. We weren’t able to walk much on Saturday but we made the most of the mountains. On Sunday I went for a quick walk with Jean-Baptiste before packing up and driving back. It was sunny and there wasn’t a cloud in sight.