Southam/Kennard Family: August 2014

Usually on Saturdays I try to run for an hour or so, often in a different direction to see parts of Lyon that are new to me. Recently, I ran across town to the Saône River, and then north along the quai for quite a ways. I already knew about the "Frèsque des Lyonais," but I had never really paid much attention to where it is, and I had never thought of going to see it. But, that morning, I stumbled on to it during my run. It's pretty cool. It's the entire side of a building, plus the end, painted to look like windows with people standing on their balconies.

The people are all famous people from the history of Lyon (as understood by the proud Lyonais).

It begins with Roman Emperor Claude (14 BC - 54 AD) who single-handedly invented the Roman amphitheater (of which two fine examples are still in use here in Lyon).

Others include Laurent Mourguet (creator of Guignol); St. Exupéry (author of "The Little Prince," inventor of air mail, and France's answer to Amelia Earhart - having disappeared on a flight to Africa during World War II);

André-Marie Ampère (inventor of electricity, for whom "amps" are named);

Joseph-Marie Jacquard (inventor of the jacquard knitted sweater);

The Lumière Brothers (Auguste & Louis) inventors of cinema (for whom Disney's candlestick character in Beauty & Beast is named);

and Paul Bocus, of course the world-renowned inventor of French cuisine.

Across the street for this building, there's another building with a window painted on the wall in which a grandmother and her grandson are looking across the street and the grandson is pointing to all the famous people on the first building. Is this the invention of "interactive?"

One of the people honored on the big building was Major Général Martin who created a famous school (high school) in Lyon called "L'Ecole Martinière." Several others on the wall were famous graduates of that school. The school itself is just up the street from the Frèsque des Lyonais:

Around the corner from the school is an interesting luthier shop (violin maker) that reminds me of the one in downtown Salt Lake, with the mural on the wall. Here's a picture of this shop's wall and its store-front window display - made even more interesting by the reflection of buildings across the street.

A few more tidbits. In a city filled with wonderful wall art and out-of-control random graffiti, here is a bit of the melding of the two:

And, of course with two grandfathers and an uncle named "Leonidas Kennard," I couldn't pass up this little shop selling Belgian chocolates:

Finally, as I made my way home, and the battery on my camera was about to give out, I came to the Lyon Stock Market building (La Bourse). Mom and I had seen it once before and wanted to shoot it, but we didn't have our cameras. So, here it is. Enjoy!

Well, it's actually almost 5 months, but who's counting?

We've had an unusual blessing lately. One month ago I attended a baptism where three young men got baptized. The one from our ward is 32-year-old Arnaud. His mom (Huguette) attended the baptism and I introduced myself. She was very friendly and made friends also with Sister Séon, a French lady in our ward. I think Huguette was pleasantly surprised at how much she enjoyed the baptism. The next day Arnaud was confirmed in a sacrament meeting where all four wards were combined, because Elder Niel L. Andersen of the Quorum of Twelve Apostles was in town for the wedding of President Roney's daughter. So, Huguette was favorably impressed with that meeting too, and it was cool that Elder Andersen stood in the circle for all of the confirmations. Suzanne met Huguette, and they hit it off right away. Then, Sister Séon came up and invited Huguette and us all to a Sunday lunch. Because of scheduling conflicts it was set for two weeks later. Before the lunch Huguette came to church again in our local ward, so she was getting pretty comfortable with the Mormons. At the end of the lunch the Séons invited Huguette to receive the missionary lessons to be taught by the Kennards! She said "sure." What could we say? So, we had the first lesson at our house last week. I was really nervous. First time teaching the lessons in 47 years!

Sunday, Huguette came to church again, fasting and praying, as encouraged by Sister Séon at our previous meeting. The testimony meeting was very good. The Allal family were there, because they had come to visit us for the weekend. Their testimonies were very good (but they flattered me too much, talking about how I had taught their Papa & Grandpa Emile Duran all those years ago.) Huguette enjoyed the meeting very much. Sister Séon invited her to have the next lesson - at our apartment again, even though the Séons would be out of town, So that was set up for this last Wednesday. I brought in the sister missionaries to take the lead. Still, I was pretty nervous. The lesson went well. Huguette is reading the Book of Mormon and praying to know that it is true. Arnaud is very happy to see his mother making such progress. Huguette said she is very happy to have discovered that Arnaud's decision to be baptized is not something to fear. She said she is no longer afraid for him, but is very happy for him. And proud to see him blessing and passing the sacrament. She said the closing prayer for the lesson this week. The next lesson is set for her house.

We did not expect to be involved in actual proselyting work once we got assigned to the office. It's kind of scary, but it's also pretty exciting. Please remember us and Sister Huguette Charrat in your prayers. She is a very intelligent and confident lady. She retired from being the HR director for various big international companies (IKEA and others), working in England, New York, Paris, etc. If she decides to join the Church, she will be a great asset, and it will be so sweet to see her and her son progress together in the Gospel. Arnaud is preparing for an entrance competition for the French National Police. He's also very sharp.

Our office work is pretty much the same from week to week. The train ticket buying has been a little slow in the weeks between transfers, but Mom has had several emergency transfers to deal with. It seems like I'm always dealing with some kind of apartment crisis. Emergency need for a new one, old ones that suddenly become unacceptable, and a rash of leaky pipes or electrical problems in dozens of apartments scattered all over the mission. I've never been much of a handy man; yet here I am diagnosing leaky pipes and power outages over the phone. First I have to teach the missionaries the vocabulary & how things are supposed to work, and then try to get them to explain to me exactly what is going on in their apartment. We usually end up calling a plumber or an electrician, but it's useful to know what to ask for when we call the expert.

When the Allals were here last weekend we visited Lyon's biggest cathedral, and also some shops in Old Lyon. I'm always on the lookout for girly stuff for the granddaughters, and for monster stuff for Tommy and the rest of the grandsons. The cathedral did not have any gargoyles, but it did have some carvings representing various Bible stories. So, here are a few of the pictures from last weekend. Enjoy.