Category: Settling down

It feels strange living here

I grew up in Vimines, a village about ten minutes drive from where we now live. I went to primary school in Vimines, but spent the first few years of my secondary education in Cognin, the town where we now live, on the outskirts of Chambéry.
Living in the countryside, we often went to Cognin. The church was in Cognin. There was also a small supermarket in Cognin. I played basket ball in Cognin for a few years. It sometime took the bus to Cognin before heading home. But I never actually lived there. Cognin was a small place you had to drive through on your way to the bigger town, Chambéry.
But now I live in Cognin. It is a strange feeling. I feel like I know the place. I can find my way around. The buildings are familiar. But at the same time, I feel like I don’t know the place at all. Strange, and exciting new experience.

Slowing down

Since we got married, Esther and I have lived in Cardiff and Ferney-Voltaire. Cardiff is a big city, it is buzzing, busy, and everything goes fairly quickly (although not as fast as bigger cities of course). Ferney-Voltaire was a small town, but on the outskirts of Geneva, so things were quite similar to Cardiff, always rushing around.

We have now been in Guingamp for almost two weeks now. Esther noticed yesterday that things were slower here. She is right. No traffic jams, people do not seem to be running around like headless chickens. It is a bit early to come to a definitive conclusion, but I am sure our own pace is also slowing down, taking more time to enjoy life.

Our first Sunday in Guingamp

I did not know what to expect for our first Sunday in Brittany. Although I have been brought up in France, I had got used to busy Sundays in Cardiff, with two services, and Sunday school in the afternoon. What would we be doing? How would we make the most of the Lord’s day?

The building was full, which was an encouragement (there were a few visitors, including 9 people of Mr Higham’s family). We were blessed by Emmanuel Hartiel’s sermon on Luke 10:1-3. Then, we went home, had lunch, and went for a long walk behind the house. Our location is great. We are on a small estate, and the Breton countryside is right behind the house. So we did a loop, went throught some lovely wooded paths. On the way, a nice lady gave the children some raspberries. She had a lovely English accent, but I let her speak French for a while before telling her we’d lived in Britain until last week. Her name is Penny, she comes from the Isle of Wight. I am sure we’ll meet her again.

Then, we went home, had our tea and family worship before a quiet evening. Praise God for this first Sunday which went much better than expected.