Adhna Martin Family Visit in France

While we were in France, we had the opportunity to visit Sister Adhna Martin and meet her family.  
Sister Adhna Martin, from France, served with us on our mission in Louisiana. She was an awesome missionary and is such a beautiful young woman.

Adhna in Mazumet, France

Adhna's family lives in this little village in the mountains outside of Carcassonne. We left early so we could enjoy a leisurely drive and it turned out to be very enjoyable.

It was an amazing drive through tree lined streets.

We saw some amazing villages as we drove through the mountains.  Here's just one of those breathtaking views that we got on the way to Mazumet.

The Martin Family

After we arrived they took us out to see their garden. It was awesome, so huge and they have fruit trees and a little stream running by it for the water.

We loved getting a walking tour of their village and loved to see the "countryside of France".  It is so different from the cities.  It's clean and green, not dirty and gray. People take so much pride in their homes and yards. There were vegetable gardens all over.

Flowers among the flowers on our walk.

We gave the girls the camera to take pictures for us and then when we got home we had all of these beautiful pictures. They truly have a knack for taking gorgeous pictures.

We spent the evening with them and enjoyed a wonderful dinner and a private concert by the older girls.  They are all very talented. Her grandparents joined us for the evening and they were quite delightful.

We love the Martin Family and will visit them again, hopefully we'll see Adhna when she travels thru to go to BYU-Hawaii.

Carcassonne, France

We stayed in Toulouse, France for most of our trip.  We used it as our base and went off in different directions each day. On our way, we could see the cite of Carcassonne off in the distance and stopped to take a couple of pictures.

Here is a picture of the aerial picture displayed at the rest stop.  You can tell why we were so excited to visit this Castle.  It is considered the best restoration of a medieval castle in Europe.

Michelle with Carcassonne in the distance.

Carcassonne from a distance.

The day we went to Carcassonne was sunny and very humid.   parked in Le Cite and walked the mile to the castle walls, then up the hill to the castle itself.  

Here we are inside the Carcassonne Castle

We took the audio tour, the speaker hangs around your neck and you push a button which gives you a prerecorded description of what you are seeing.  We did the tour in English. 

View from one of the castle windows

Awesome picture by Don of the architecture inside the castle walls.

Another awesome shot by Don.

Our day in Carcassonne was awesome, we enjoyed taking pictures and learning about this awesome place.  This is a UNESCO world heritage site and truly deserves a visit if you are ever in France. To learn more about Carcassonne, click here.

Avensac, France with Elder Cornette

We got ahold of Elder Cornette, Don's missionary companion and made arrangements to visit him at his home. Elder Cornette has leukemia and has been undergoing chemo. His most recent treatment was pretty rough and he had only been out of the hospital for 4 days before our visit. It was awesome to hear Don speak fluent french for over six hours as they reminisced and caught up from 30 years ago. It was a beautiful drive and we got some really great pictures. In Iowa, there are cornfields on both sides of the road. In France, there are sunflower fields on both sides of the road. It is magnificent.

Sunflowers on the road to Avensac.

The Cornette family lives in a remodeled home that was built in 1862.  It is pretty interesting to see how old the home looks on the outside and then you go inside and see this beautiful home, with electricity and modern plumbing.

The traditional side of the kitchen.

The modern side of the kitchen. Check out how big that loaf of french bread is.

Sylvie served us the most wonderful duck. She sautéed it right before she served it. It was so tender and one of the regional specialities. 

Sylvie setting the flowers on the table so perfectly. We had a wonderful visit in the yard under the tree.  It is truly beautiful in the country in France.

Don and Gerard visiting on the couch.  Here they are a couple of hours later looking at Elder Cornette's scrapbook from his mission.

What a treat to meet the missionary companion I'd been hearing about for years and to meet his lovely family.

Sylvie, Melanie, & Rhoca

After dinner we had a wonderful concert .  Gerard and Sylvie both played the guitar and they sang for us. It was so great to see them having so much fun performing for us.

Our departure was very emotional. We were all crying and knew that this was truly a unique opportunity. 

Switzerland

We took a trip to Switzerland to visit Don's mission area and a couple of  people that he baptized on his mission. Jean has been very ill and Don wanted to visit him.  Jean asked the missionaries to teach a single lady and her daughter the discussions.  It was in Lausanne, Switzerland that Don and his companion, Elder Cornette taught Christiane and Isabelle about the Church.  They were baptized and later Jean and Christiane were married.

Jean and Don

Don, Christiane and Isabelle at the Church where they were baptized.

 Isabelle, Don, and Christiane in front of the baptismal font where they were baptized.

The French Alps behind Lake Geneva.  Taken from Lausanne, Switzerland.

Gruyere Castle, where Gruyere cheese originated.

Gruyere cheese factory.

Dessert of Raspberries, Fresh Cream, and Meringue. Yummy.

Michelle, Isabelle and Christiane sharing lots of laughs and good times.

We spent the entire day sightseeing and had such a wonderful time.  It was hard to say goodbye, not knowing when we would see each other again.