The weather was wet and I must have still been a bit jet-lagged as the work week began. I arrived at the front gate of our plant and was allowed to go ahead and make my way in the rain to the main office area. I got there and my contact was not around. Seemed I had completely forgotten about a meeting he had invited me to attend with him in another part of the plant. So back out in the rain I went to another building. So now I am tired and very wet.
Rain seemed to be the theme of the week and it was raining everyday – some days very hard – of the week. This significantly impacted my travel plans later.
The work week consisted mostly of meetings and developing an action plan for future work for the personnel I was meeting with.
The evenings consisted of dining alone at the nearby restaurants. Having been to Le Havre a few times before this trip, I decided to try to dine at places I had not been before rather than my favorites. Two reasons contributed to this. First, I wanted to experience more of the culture and foods recommended by the hotel staff and those in the office. Second, many of my favorites weren’t there anymore! One evening, I had walked down the ocean front because I knew there several small cafes there where I could get a quick meal (and quick can be important as a typical French dinner can last 2-3 hours). Boy was I shocked when I got the ocean front park and not only were the cafes not open, they were GONE! I am not talking about boarded up, but just not there. These places are seasonal cafes, open only from March until October, and are portable. So much for quick, unless I settled for French version of Domino’s pizza or Subway.
I wrote previously that Cafes are a part of the French culture, and the presence
of some dogs with their masters in these dining establishments is a given. One evening I dined at a bright and cheery looking place near the hotel. It must be very popular with famous French guests, for the placemats included “rave reviews” by some of the more well-known visitors. The only name I recognized was that of Sophie Marceau (who played the French born English Queen in “Braveheart”) who had eaten here on June 28, 2001. Near my table was a large “Marley” type dog (Labrador Retriever) who lay quietly by the bar the entire evening. Some things you just will never see in an American restaurant. The rain continued to wreck havoc on the week, and this was complicated by traffic problems reminiscent of home – road construction and trains. One morning, I left in a taxi for the office in a very heavy rain. Traffic was snarled some minor street flooding and it was the first day of school after a winter break, so lots of Mom’s and Dad’s driving their kids to school. As we neared the canal we have to cross to get to the office, the driver noticed the drawbridge across the canal was closed for repairs (this is not a very big town – you’d think the taxi drivers in the area would know what bridges were open and which were closed), so we had to double back through the school zone and water logged streets to another bridge. But that route was blocked by not one but TWO trains. Then when we moved on past the train tracks, the traffic was moving very slowly because ½ the road was closed for construction. Finally, what should have been a 20 minute drive took almost three times as long. Some things you will always see in and out of America.
The day did not end well, either. My wife’s father had been ill for several weeks before this trip. In fact, the trip almost didn’t even happen because of the seriousness of his condition. But just a few days before I was to leave, he started showing signs of improvement. However, five days into this trip, my wife called me one evening and said things weren’t looking good. We were still hopeful and prayerful he would get better because he had rebounded already several times before. This very rainy and hectic day ended with my wife calling me late in the French afternoon to tell me that her Daddy had gone to be with the Lord.
It was too late to try to get my flight plans changed and arrange for last minute transportation during the evening back to Paris, so I planned for Friday to be the travel day to get back to Paris and the airport. Then the rain impacted my plans again. I went to the train station that next morning to catch the first train possible back to Paris. When I arrived I could tell this was not a normal day for train trips to Paris or anywhere from Le Havre. The steady and heavy rain all week had caused overnight mudslides and flooding on the tracks just south west of Le Havre and al train service was stopped indefinitely. I called the office and they made arrangements for a shuttle to take me back to Paris, but it would not be available to leave until nearly lunch time. So I waited. And fretted. And realized there wasn’t much to do but trust it would all work out. In hindsight, things worked out as well as they could have. Had my father-in-law died just one day later, I might have been away from the office for the weekend with my luggage in storage in a different town than I as in. Had I been able to changes my flight to Friday instead of Saturday, the terrible weather might have prevented me from catching the flight.
As it turned out, God in his mercy allowed for things to work out in a more relaxing manner than I could have expected. I was able to arrive in Paris in the late afternoon – with all of my luggage and with the weather clearing up - and relax for a few hours. I was able to appreciate in ways I have seldom had the chance to appreciate before, the beauty of the changing leaves in the Paris parks; two people in love taking each other’s pictures in the park; shopping for gifts for the people I love whom God had blessed me with; and the beauty of a man-made structure built and dedicated to God’s glory, Notre Dame.
As it turned out, God in his mercy allowed for things to work out in a more relaxing manner than I could have expected. I was able to arrive in Paris in the late afternoon – with all of my luggage and with the weather clearing up - and relax for a few hours. I was able to appreciate in ways I have seldom had the chance to appreciate before, the beauty of the changing leaves in the Paris parks; two people in love taking each other’s pictures in the park; shopping for gifts for the people I love whom God had blessed me with; and the beauty of a man-made structure built and dedicated to God’s glory, Notre Dame. I was grieving, but refreshed.
Pictures of the trip are at http://scottshots4.shutterfly.com/424
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