Monday day 5

The girls slept in really late today. Let's just say I had to wake them up at noon. When they woke up, they finally felt rid of the jet lag. We had lunch and then went to the Palais des Beaux Arts. The first picture is from the Internet of how it looks on a beautiful day. Unfortunately, it poured and poured all day long so we looked at a grey building. We had to rush from parking to each place we visited. It was dark and gloomy weather, but we still enjoyed ourselves immensely.
The next picture is the hall inside the museum. We spent quite a lot of time looking at the beautiful art works that are housed here.

The little picture of the church is a copy from the Internet too. It is Notre Dame de Pentecote which we visited later in the day.

There were many, many huge paintings throughout the museum. Jenna loves to stand and look at each one and study it for a while. Emma like to take a quick overview and study only the ones that interest her.

There were lots of sculptures, porcelain, bronze and marble statues and many other beautiful works of art to look at.

This is a statue of Napoleon.



We next went to the Museum of Natural History. It was quite small and we were a bit disappointed in it. It was just alright and way over priced.

We loved visiting the church. We tried to visit several other cathedrals and churches, but they were all closed and we couldn't find the biggest one.

So many of the churches and cathedrals have beautiful stained glass windows.

Lots of statues and paintings here too.

This is the altar.

Most of these photos are so dark because not only was it pouring rain, but inside the church it was really dark.

The girls had to confess again.

This is a memorial to the soldiers who gave their lives for France in Lille.

Almost every church has a memorial of some sort for the men from that city who gave their lives in the wars.

Of course, we had to stop and do some shopping before going to Family Home Evening.

We enjoyed FHE. Virginie gave a great lesson on unity. Then we all played Loups Garous.

We finished up with refreshments and just talking and visiting.

Here are some of the group voting that Jenna is one of the Loups Garous and she was.

Emma "sleeping" during night time in the game.

The whole village was asleep.

Of course we had to take some group pictures.

Everyone was so excited that these cute girls came. They were soooooooo nice to them. In fact, everyone has been extremely nice to them. Some of them tried to speak English and everyone spent time getting to know them. Who wouldn't want to spend time with these sweet girls?

After we got home we read scriptures and then the girls had lots of gospel related questions for Papa. We had such a great conversation together that before we knew it, it was 1:00am. Time flies when you're having a good time.

Day 4 Church and Vimy

We went to both of our wards, Lille and Ville Neuve d'Ascq sacrament mtgs today. This is what we
often need to do because of my need to translate for the Petrov's and also because if we don't go to one of the wards, they become upset.

Everyone was soooooooo nice to the girls and the girls of course were wonderful. Everyone said how pretty and nice they were. Luckily one of the talks was in English with Dh translating into French, so the girls could understand. Papa translated the rest of the talks into English for the girls. I translated for the Petrovs and the girls sat by 3 visiting young ladies who had previously served their missions here. One of them translated for E and J.

Cecile received the gift of the Holy Ghost today and unexpectedly Papa was asked to give her the gift and blessing. It turned out to be wonderful and both of the sacraments mtgs were very spiritually uplifting. Both Jenna and Emma said that even though they didn't understand they could really feel the spirit and felt very touched by the services.

After church was over we went into the Bishop's office with Frere Giles and Papa and Dh gave a blessing to the Petrovs. They are leaving for Bulgaria today and wanted a blessing of comfort. I did the translating for them from English into Russian and then from French into Russian. It is always kind of hard, but the spirit of the Lord helps so much. It was a very emotional time. They are sad to be leaving. Hayrie cried and hugged me for such a long time. She calls me her Mama because her Mama is dead and because she says I brought her real life by giving her the light of the gospel and a true purpose to her life. We were all very emotionally touched in that little room. We could feel the love that the Lord has for each one of us.

After a little lunch in the kitchen, we went to Vimy Ridge. This National Historical Site of Canada stands on Hill 145, the highest point of the 14-kilometre long Vimy Ridge.

"In the First World War, the Ridge was a highly significant part of the German defence system. Although French troops, in fierce and bloody battles in 1914 and 1915, had pushed the German line eastwards, they failed to take the ridge, which became strongly fortified. Superb planning and training ensured that the Canadian Corps would achieve its goal.

At daybreak on April 9, 1917, all four divisions of the Canadian Corps (aided by the British 5th Division and a considerable number of artillery units), fighting together for the first time, stormed the ridge. Preceded by a perfectly-timed artillery barrage, the Canadians advanced and , by mid-afternoon, had taken all their objectives except Hill 145 which was captured the following day. Then on April 12th, the 4th Canadian Division, with the British 24th Division on their left flank, took the Pimple at the northern end of the ridge.

The hard -fought victory was swift, but did not come without cost. Out of the 10,602 casualties 3,598 Canadians gave their lives.

The victory at Vimy was a significant landmark for Allied fortunes in the first World War and back home in Canada, it united Canadians and brought honour and pride to the young nation." quoted from a little pamphlet.

It took 11 years to build the monument which rests of 11,000 tons of concrete, reinforced with hundreds of tons of steel. More than 6,000 tons of limestone were brought in from Croatia and the figures are carved out of huge blocks of this stone.

The figure pictured above is of a sorrowing woman who represents Canada. she is carved out of a single, 30 ton block.

On each side of the staircase are the male and female mourners.

Emma and Jenna looking at the 11,285 names of Canadian soldiers who were killed in France and whose final resting place was then unknown.

This magnificent work of art was completed in 1936 and is the work of art designed by the Canadian artist, sculptor and architect, Walter Seymour Allward.

We were able to tour the monument, the trenches, the tunnels and the visitors center as well as one of the cemeteries.