9-15-19 - French Mass, International Boy Scouting & BBQ
/Day 91. Leanne and Kyle joint blog.
Yes! It is Sunday and knowing it would hard to top yesterday, we have scheduled in some downtime for the most part.
Corey and Justin have arranged to accompany Frederic’s son Paul to his scouting day. Our two Eagle Scout candidates set a goal to visit Scouting troops around the world, but over the summer we had a hard time finding troops that met year round like their troop back at home does. So we are happy to learn Paul is a scout. 12-year old Paul was bridging to the older boy scout troop on this very Sunday (what luck!) and our family will be there to witness this rite of passage. Yet another great cultural opportunity for the boys.
The day started with mass at the historic St Germain church with columns that resemble the Pantheon. The mass is packed with scouts, families and parishioners. The congregation belts out choral songs that make my ears dance with joy. A few tears stream down my eye. Just to be in this special church on this special day with our special French family. Tears of joy? Or maybe it was that overwhelming ethereal feeling of being so far from home but still knowing there is a place whether it’s Sydney or Munich or Paris, we can celebrate mass in our faith every week around the world. Although Kyle notes that it can be a little challenging to follow a 25 minute homily in a language we don’t speak.
After mass we head to The National Park of Saint Germaine-en-Laye that was once part of the Royal Palace back when the Kings resides at St. Germain — following 300 scouts leading the way. They all scatter to their well-known spot on the grass and we witness scouting French-style — including berets as part of the uniform. It was very cool seeing the differences between Boy Scouts of America and French Scouting.
After the bridging ceremony, Justin and Corey stay for the rest of the scouting meeting, Leanne takes the girls and John into Paris to shop and Kyle and Frederic enjoy the afternoon just catching up more and Kyle finally convinced Frederic to let one of us make him dinner. Pretty much the only cooking category Kyle thinks he might be able to outcook Frederic in is BBQ grilling. Frederic says he hasn’t used the BBQ in a long time and we go looking in the garage for it. It needs a bit of cleaning (I might be the last person to have used it 6 years ago when were here) but I gladly get to work cleaning the grill.
The rest of the clan re-assembles and we have dinner. Over Kyle’s signature grilled hamburgers and salad, we share a bit of American with our French family tonight.
