Pumpkin Carving!

Pam, Maribeth, Debbie and I had a fall party, carved pumpkins, had good fall food, and enjoyed spending some down time together. I think our starry-eyed pumpkin turned out pretty sweet!

Big Blue - gone for good :(

We sold Big Blue this week! After years of service, it's finally been replaced by the ford which I've already posted on the blog. Amazingly, with over 300,000km on it, we still got 950€ for it (Marlin paid 1,000€ for it, which I believe was back in 2003 or 2004) - of course, the Château has put money into repairs for it, but still, it's held it's value pretty well! Here are the last pictures taken of it - just a few hours before it sold. I decided to post it online, so took some pics, posted it on "leboncoin.com" and a few hours later had it sold, which was pretty surprising to me. Leboncoin is kinda like craigslist in the States - and seems to work pretty well.

October 31

Winter's here! We had our first snow... sorta. It was really more of a snow/sleet mix, but still, cold and miserable.

We just finished up with 5 days of cooking for AEE - the French version of Child Evangelism Fellowship. Had a great time with them, and Pam, Debbie, and Maribeth did a great job keeping up with meals for the 40-some people who were here for the conference.

We had a day off yesterday, today we cleaned all the bedrooms & meeting rooms, and tomorrow the next group arrives. We're hosting a youth event which is a combined effort between the AAC (which is the Château association that organizes youth events) and Word of Life. This is a first, and hopefully there will be more of these camps/events.

Yesterday Debbie and I drove up to Montceau to spent some time with the Hoberts, which we try to do every so often. Dave Hobert is the president of the CEP - which is the other Château association, the one that is more in charge of the Château ministry overall, and planning events that cover all ages. Debbie and I love the drive up there, it must be one of the most beautiful hour long sections of road around, we're really lucky to live here. On the downside, the gatehouse roof leaks like a sieve, despite my efforts to re-arrange the tile to stop the leaking. The forecast is calling for 6 straight days of rain (this is day one, and we've already got 5 leaks, and a couple gallons of water).

3 presidential debates synchronised

Get the latest news satire and funny videos at 236.com.

interesting time lapse video

Nothing to do with anything in France, but ran across this cool time-lapse video composition, and thought I'd share it. Nature is so interesting.



Nature [Time-Lapse] - Numaga - HD from Van Thieu on Vimeo.

October pics

"Ahhhhh.... I hate pigeons!"

Hello all - thought I'd post some more pics from the past month or so for you to enjoy. There's a whole album of them available by clicking here (20 some pics)

Also thought I'd throw in some old pictures of the Château, from before GBIM bought it, just 'cause they're kinda cool.

Enjoy!



Things are going well here, we've got a group of about 50 coming this weekend, AEE (Child Evengelism) - and we'll be doing the cooking for them. We've been enjoying getting to know people in the neighborhood - we spent all afternoon & evening with an older couple down the street, Marcel & Yvonne - had a great time, they were really friendly. Debbie made cookies today with one of our neighbors, Aurore - who is the older sister of Correntin, who comes over quite often to help with chores around the Château and play video games in the cave with me :)

Pear tart

Pam made tarts for the group today too. This is what interns get to
eat when they come, so if you know anyone interested, show them pics
of the food here - we'll need an intern to replace Maribeth when she
leaves in January :)

Blanquette de Veau

Mmmm.... blanquette de veau. We've got a group here from Villeurbanne this weekend, about 45 people, which is a good number for the Château, not too crowded, and pretty easy to take care of.

We had a great day yesterday with the "Operation coup de main" - which is the work day where people from the various churches come to help out (mostly the Mâcon church). We got a ton of yard work done, and a few other misc projects - but the weather was great, and everyone enjoyed being outside.

Today my parents arrive for about 10 days, so Debbie and I are driving down to Lyon to pick them up this afternoon.

Gatehouse work

Nadia decided to help debbie with some of the work on the gatehouse.
Since we took out a wall, we're now re-plastering the walls to make
them match.