{"id":2209,"date":"2014-05-10T11:17:26","date_gmt":"2014-05-10T11:17:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/?p=2209"},"modified":"2016-06-19T13:03:49","modified_gmt":"2016-06-19T20:03:49","slug":"surprises","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/2014\/05\/10\/surprises\/","title":{"rendered":"Surprises"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Jumieges<\/a>
Jumieges Abb<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Sometimes, like the day we went to Mont-Saint-Michel,<\/a> you don’t expect anything and are rewarded with beauty, magic and meaning. \u00a0And sometimes you don’t get what you wanted but it’s really OK.<\/p>\n

We meant to visit abbeys and<\/em> chateaus but our guide was an Abbeys only sort of guy so we ended up at Jumieges Abbey about an hour and a half from Rouen. \u00a0We found soaring beauty, like this archway. . .<\/p>\n

And this Madonna , contemporary yet right where it should have been, in the Abbey Cloister, in the center, at the Abbey de Boscherville down the road, where she oversees a kingdom of her own.<\/p>\n

\"<\/a>
Abbey de Boscherville – Madonna<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We learned a great deal about Benedictine Monks, monasteries, the politics of moving from the election of the abbot (chief of the Abbey) to empowering the local Duke to appoint him, (you can imagine where that led.)<\/p>\n

And then there was the French Revolution<\/a>. \u00a0To us, that means guillotines and The Terrors. \u00a0In fact, there was a clear political philosophy and plan that informed the cause before it got away from the thinkers.<\/p>\n

Some of France’s basic principles of governance were, in fact, established by the revolutionaries, who fanned out into the countryside to create more than 90 “departments” through which to govern. \u00a0Each was required to be no larger in circumference than the distance a horse could travel in one day. \u00a0This kept the people close to, and invested in, their government. \u00a0It also \u00a0provided the government with ample intelligence on neighborhood issues and plans.<\/p>\n

The churches also faced challenges. \u00a0 Each town had to choose: \u00a0They were permitted only ONE church since there was only ONE city hall. \u00a0It was unacceptable for the Church to overshadow the state by setting up small parallel governments in or sphere of influence.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

And then we went to Honfleur<\/a>, one of only a few towns in France that suffered no bomb damage during WWII. \u00a0It’s had damage of a different kind, though — so many tourists — like Provincetown in August. \u00a0We were ready to be snooty about the entire experience and then we came upon her:<\/p>\n

\"Ste<\/a>
Sainte Th\u00e9r\u00e8sa de Lisieux in the Wood Church of Honfleur<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

She is Sainte Th\u00e9r\u00e8sa de Lisieux, a 20th Century girl who died of tuberculosis. \u00a0Her sister wrote a book about her and her good deeds and she was canonized during the papacy of John Paul II. \u00a0 This shrine is in the Wood Church of Ste. Catherine<\/a> in the middle of Honfleur and the church, and the haunting \u00a0Th\u00e9r\u00e8sa were worth the trip.<\/p>\n

Saint Joan was there too, so I’ve put her photo below. \u00a0Tomorrow Antwerp.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Saint<\/a>
Saint Joan of Arc in the Wood Church of St. Catherine<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sometimes, like the day we went to Mont-Saint-Michel, you don’t expect anything and are rewarded with beauty, magic and meaning. \u00a0And sometimes you don’t get what you wanted but it’s really OK. We meant to visit abbeys and chateaus but our guide was an Abbeys only sort of guy so we ended up at Jumieges … Continue reading Surprises<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6,98,78,1],"tags":[2668,1954,2673,3884,2672,2664,2669,2670,2671,2621,2640,2619,2665,2674],"class_list":["post-2209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture","category-religion","category-travel","category-uncategorized","tag-abbey-de-boscherville","tag-catholic","tag-church-of-st-catherine","tag-culture-book","tag-honfleur","tag-joan-of-arc","tag-jumieges-abbey","tag-madonna","tag-sainte-theresa-de-lisieux","tag-seabourn","tag-seabourn-cruise","tag-seabourn-quest","tag-st-joan","tag-wood-church"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4gBq8-zD","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2209","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2209"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2209\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4559,"href":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2209\/revisions\/4559"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}