France Trip Day 6 - March 16

Kenny and I got up and went running around Avignon. It was fun to see it in the daylight, and not raining! We were inside a walled city, and tried to just run around the perimeter of the wall and do a full circle. But the roads/paths didn't work out with that and forced us to cut right through the center, which I was actually glad about. We showered and got our stuff loaded back up in the car, then went to another boulangerie for breakfast. J'aime les chaussons au pomme!

Above, Kenny's in the bottom right hand of the picture, running up to it. Below, he's standing up on the first level with his arms outstretched. Only problem is he sort of camouflages with the stone :).

Before leaving we had to stop and see le Pont d'Avignon. (The bridge of Avignon). I always thought this song was so famous and that everybody knew it. But apparently, not in America because neither of our husbands knew what we were singing. But I guarantee if you took piano lessons as a child, you've heard and played this song. "Sur le pont d'Avignon, on y danse on y danse. Sur le pont d'Avignon, on y danse tous en rond."
Anyway it wasn't too big and impressive, but the history we learned about it certainly was! Below it looks like we're both on the phone, but in reality we are listening to the audio tour. Love those. They also had like 10-15 different versions of this song in various musical genres. It was so funny. And just like the song says to do, Steph and I danced around on the bridge in a circle. booyah.

From there we drove to Lyon where we were so dang excited to meet up with the rest of our family!! My parents and Sarah had been in Istanbul, just because my dad's always wanted to go there. And Kim and Caleb had gone to Romania because that's where she served her mission. But now we were finally meeting up and I was so happy! We got there first and checked into our hotel then found a "Laverie" (laundromat) to do our laundry since we were about out of clean under clothes. We had just gotten ourselves some lunch when they arrived!! It was such a happy and surreal reunion. After everyone getting all checked in, we rode the "founiculaire" up to tour around Vieux Lyon and see the Notre Dame Basilica and the Roman Amphitheatre.

The city of Lyon is below/behind us.

My awesome parents!

The whole group! L to R: Kenny, Lindsay, Steph, Andrew, Sarah, Mom, Dad, Kim, Caleb

While at the amphitheatre, Kenny ran down and we wanted to test out the sound of this place. so he did his "Ricola" thing he was doing in the grand hall the other night. Then someone got the idea in their head that all of us girls should go down and sing together. For some crazy reason, we did it! It was hilaroius. We sang "Sisters" (like the one on White Christmas) and it was pretty embarrassing. But all the other tourists who were sitting there clapped for us and were good sports. :) Hopefully not too annoyed by our loud and obnoxious American-ness. It makes for a fun memory anyway!

We walked all the way back down...it took a while.

Above, all of us with our matching purses my mom all gave us. So cute.

We mostly just went down so my parents could change and get ready to go to the mission home and pick up Tim!! But we went right back up there that night and ate dinner at a gorgeous, fancy restaurant with this as our view while eating! It was a lovely meal but mostly just because I was so happy to be in France with my husband and family. I was missing those that couldn't be there with us. The dinner took SOO long and my parents had to hurry and go get Tim, so they had to leave a little bit early. We took our time and since they had the car, (we had all crammed in there quite illegally to get back up to the restaurant) we walked back down to our hotel. It was another long walk, but nobody minded.

Kenny kept saying if he had his own castle, he would make the lion "his animal". So when we found this statue we had to take a pic. (Naturally, we were in Lyon!)

The Notre Dame Basilica is that huge building up there at the top where we had been and walked from, back across the river. SO pretty all lit up.

My parents accidentally made a mistake in where they were supposed to pick him up, and ended up getting there quite late. We were all upset, not because Tim would be, but because we knew how much that would break my mom's heart. She was certainly in tears about that mix-up, but she handled it well and they brought him back safe and sound. We were all walking around the streets, (toying with the idea of renting bikes...) just killing time. But we saw a car pull up in front of our hotel and they got out. One of my sisters said quietly, Tim? And then we realized it was him and we all screamed his name "TIM!!!" And all of us sisters literally ran over and gave him a huge group hug. We were so happy to see him!!! He looked so good and so so grown up!! He definitely came home a man. We went in the hotel room and all met in one room. My dad spoke to us, and set him apart--it's convenient that he's the Stake President so he can do that ;). He had Tim bear his testimony, and we all sang together. The spirit was so strong and many of us were emotional. It was a beautiful moment and I'm so glad I was there for it. I love my family so much and love what good, solid people they are. So inspiring and uplifting.