Swiss Weekend

    
   We just returned from a quick weekend in Switzerland to a town named Bienne. Paul was invited to preach at the french church there that is part of the Association Baptist. We stayed with the pastor's family and enjoyed a nice time with them and going on walks around the town.

  Bienne (or Biel-Bienne, if you include the German name as well) is located by the border of french speaking Switzerland and German speaking Switzerland. So both languages can be found throughout, and kids can be sent to either french speaking school or german speaking school. It's at the northern end of Lake Marat and after taking three different trains, only 4.5 hours from Paris. 

 We left at 8am Saturday morning on a TGV from Paris to Neuchatel in Switzerland. We had to change to a really small train just before Neuchatel which was about 30 degrees warmer than it was outside. We were in this train for an hour, then changed to another train in Neuchatel for a 20min ride to Bienne where Claude-Henri picked us up at the station.

Stripped in the hot train.

   He's been the pastor at this church for a few years now, and before was the pastor in Nimes, in southern France. Before he was a pastor he was a professional volleyball player and even trained with Karch Kiraly. He and his wife Marie-Laure have twin 10 year old daughters, Lucie and Capucine. They also have two rabbits, Isis and Espoir.
   Saturday afternoon we went for a long walk through the old part of town and down to the lake. It was very cold out, but sunny and nice. Sunday after church we took a nap, went for another short walk up the hill to a lookout, and then played card games after dinner. 

Bundled up for our walk.

Checking out the snow.

 We had some light snow fall Sunday morning, but other than that it was icy and snowy  on the ground. We saw the mountains in the distance on the last morning and on our train ride back home. We had the same journey home and make it back Monday afternoon with some Swiss chocolate in tow. All in all a very good quick trip and fun to see another country!