Dad's Picts

I'm still planning at least one more entry about my parents' visit, but in the meantime, click here to see some pictures my Dad posted of their trip and of us in general.

Puy du Fou

One of the highlights of my parents' visit was our trip to the Puy du Fou. This is a theme park a little over 2 hours' drive from our house. It's not an amusement park in that it doesn't have rides. But, it's a huge park with a history theme. What they've done is re-created different epochs in French history. There was an encampment from the year 1000, a Roman coliseum, a Middle Ages village, a 19th-centure village, etc. In each area, you were free to roam around and explore. There were shops and street performers, and that sort of thing. In addition, in 6 of the different areas, they had shows. So you kind of planned your day to be in the right place at the right time to catch the maximum number of shows. They were all pretty impressive. We actually made a 2-day event of it, and stayed in their Roman Villa, aka hotel overnight. I think that, despite the rain the second day (but, what's a Kummer vacation without a bit of rain?) a good time was had by all.

I think that probably the most impressive structure in the whole place was the Roman amphitheater:

We saw a show here complete with chariot races and Christians being thrown to the lions...who mysteriously refused to eat them! Then, here is a barbarian ship coming to attack a settlement:

The barbarians' bad intentions are foiled when the saint whose relics they are trying to desecrate miraculously comes back to life and converts them to Christianity. These two shows both showed a surprisingly positive view of Christianity and its role in history. On the way home, we discussed the fact that Vendée, the region where the park is located, is a very conservative region. In fact, it's one of the few regions in France where a person who attends Mass on Sunday is not necessarily considered an oddity. (However, a person who attends a protestant service of any sort is still weird.) Its regional president, Philippe De Villiers, is known on the national level for his strong advocacy of moral and family values. We hypothesized that, if this park had been created in a different region, it might have portrayed Christianity very differently.

Here we are on the train the morning of our second day, already prepared for the rain that would inevitably fall:

Here is Alina's doll enjoying the 19th century village:

And, here are the Medieval knights:

Notably absent are any pictures of our favorite show, the "Ball of the Phantom Birds." This show was amazing. It took place in an open-air theater and starred a whole bunch of trained birds: falcons, eagles, vultures, etc. The birds swooped over, around, through, and even onto the audience. It was amazing, and, unfortunately, none of our pictures do it justice.

Did you ever wonder...

...why it is that, if birds are going to attack your garden and eat what's there, they never eat the zucchini?

First Wedding

On July 19th, we had a first. Thomas performed his first wedding. It went very well, even if I'm the one saying so. He DID forget to ask them to kiss...but everything else was great! I, too, had a little part to play, and here we are in the heat of the action. Notice my skirt. I decided at the last minute I couldn't wear the dress I had planned on wearing, so my Mom and I whipped out this skirt the day before the wedding, and hemmed it the morning of!

Here is our little family:

And our big family (the two you might not recognize are Thomas's parents):

It was interesting because the couple are very good friends of ours, and I suppose preparing something like that with friends is not the same as with strangers. Also, they are not at all church-going, and neither were the people the invited. In doing wedding preparation with them, Thomas got a unique opportunity to talk to them about the Bible as being a sourch of practical advice and instruction that is still applicable today. The ceremony itself was very personalized, and his message was predominately about grace--in our human relationships and God's grace. During the festivities that followed, several people told him how much they appreciated what he said. They said it was very appropriate. We actually ended up having a long spiritual conversation during the reception with a guy who had really liked Thomas's message. Then it turned out we were seated next to him at dinner! All in all, it was a neat opportunity.

Yesterday, driving home from the train station and reflecting on the 3 weeks of my parents' trip, Thomas said, "Wow, I didn't realize that the wedding would take up so much time!"