Reformation Tour

 Began in Paris - City of Lights, capital of modernity, at least the 19th century kind - striking for a European capital divested of its "dark ages," which Americans like ourselves come in search for.

Angelina's. the fabled tearoom and hot chocolate destination point, severely overpriced and where Jack threw-up.  There are several of these in Tokyo, and well-traveled Japanese are sometimes diagnosed with パリ症候群 *Paris Syndrome," a condition of experiencing letdown, thus mental disorder, according to Dr. Hiroaki Ota.

Dehydration was Jack's malady as we all adjusted to less water, European style, including David & Teresa, our guests from SoCal.

The zero point of Paris and France, near Notre Dame.

Laura gave an excellent tour of the Louvre, engaging children and adults alike. Paris Muse runs a first-rate guided tour, led by spunky PhD art history grads temporarily settled in the city.

Doug Bond (author, teacher) was our fearless guide of key Reformation sites, favoring Luther and Germany on this trip. He & wife, Cheryl, lead Christian heritage tours, but this was our first. Most all the key players below:

Calvin sites: University of Paris, Strasbourg (above), and Noyon, Calvin's birthplace with cathedral where Joan of Arc was posthumously cleared and Charlemagne named a regional king before becoming emperor of the Holy Roman Empire.

Noyon Cathedral.  Pierre Viret, prominent & unrecognized Swiss reformer, also studied in key institutions of Paris, marking a huge chasm between the church then and today, whose social luminaries tend to be in business or sports, not the academy.

Poppies were blooming.

Michael & I on an early morning, pre-breakfast hike of a local castle.

A WWI cemetary near Verdun; the French countryside marked by these somber memorials; our experience of cuisine, wine, architecture, & pastoral beauty continually punctuated by official loss.

 450th anniversary of the Heidelberg Catechism, many people's favorite Reformation document for its subjective warmth. The more often studied Westminster Longer & Shorter Catechism - except for its remarkable "Man's chief aim is to glorify God and enjoy him forever," always seemed bureaucratically accurate as a doctrinal statement, like reading the rules off a boardgame lid. (Heidelberg above).

Music, congregational singing, a great contribution of the Reformation - these psalm texts were prominently featured in the Luther Museum. Luther's translation of the New Testament into German, as well as printing technology, marked the revolution of the 16th century. A written vernacular, church singing, distribution of texts, etc eventually created a "people" which, in its secular stages, helped found modern nationalism.

The reformers seem to hold a "father of the country" status here, despite ridicule for religious content, unlike the Founders' pluralism, whose mixed heritage everyone claims.

After the Reformation Wall in Geneva overnight, we hightailed back to Lausanne, where we reconnected with M & J's school friends during their last week of the year.  The obligatory trip to Holy Cow, where Jack actually consumed an entire jr burger - a proud eat he returned here to accomplish.

The fries are most memorable and, perhaps, the only European venue which understands the place of ketchup in the American palate.  These wall/rooftop gardens have overtaken the city, beautifully. A dad of Michael's friend, is a city landscape architect, completing various projects such as below.