June 15, 2025: Church, Eiffel Tower, and Eurostar to London

Written on June 17th by Brian

Captain’s log, day 25. The children have gone feral. The co-captain and I fear that waking them up early yet another day would result in catastrophe for the expedition. It would inevitably end with two of them stealing glasses, starting a fire, and dancing around the resulting bonfire wearing pig heads. 

Instead, we have abandoned our agenda of rising early to see the Tower of Eiffel, and let them sleep in as late as possible while still meeting our previous obligations of the accommodations. It was not enough time as we were only out of the dwelling 10 minutes later than desired. Still, we pushed forward with our day desiring to see all that we could of the city before moving on.

Crammed into the elevator leaving our final French apartment

Bread from the bakery near our apartment where we got breakfast

We hailed a hired driver and rode to the station of steel carriages to stow our belongings until we could retrieve them again, and set out in search of a chapel where we could worship our Savior. We arrived with haste and just in time to take the Sacrament of our Lord, and were even more pleased that the service was done entirely in our native tongue. It was a meeting where every individual was invited to come and give their own words about their feelings on Jesus Christ, and our dear Rachel even got up to share her own message which marks the first time she has done so. After the services, we spoke at length with a family from our own village that was embarking on a one year expedition similar to ours. As they had only been out 2 weeks instead of 3 or more, the children had yet to the same basality we had witnessed of our own. Fortunately, the mother was a doctor of children and could share advice on Gabriel’s predicament of a rash on his foot.

After taking leave of our new acquaintances, we determined that we wanted a closer observation of the legendary Tower of Eiffel as our final task in the grand city of Paris. We furiously ran to the local underground transportation system, we discovered that we had inevitably ended up on the wrong side of the tracks, so to speak. However, there appeared another transport only minutes later, and we were on our way.

Having arrived at the Tower, I determined it was time to obtain sustenance for our traveling company, despite objections to just go directly to the Tower from the gallery of peanuts. We discovered several small vendors on the street and acquired a variety of pretzels, crepes, and even a hat of the local population.

Food stands near the Eiffel Tower

Arriving at the grounds of the Tower of Eiffel, we marveled at its scale and beauty.

Sadly, we only had several minutes to admire it before we had to move on in our travels. We took the underground transport again to our final destination in Paris: the Gare du Nord station. We passed through several points of presentation for our documentation to move, in essence, from the territory of France into the territory of the United Kingdom. 

The "UK Border" at Gare du Nord Eurostar Check-in

In an embarrassing turn of events, I was temporarily detained in a washroom facility without proper papers until our first born was able to rescue me from the porcelain throne. Finally, we boarded the transport bound across the rest of France, through the underground Chunnel, and ended our journey in the city of London.

King's Cross Station

King's Cross Station

We realized too late, however, that the instructions given to us by the owner of our new temporary abode were insufficient. While I searched in vain for the KeyNest kiosk as instructed, Devri and the children tried to keep their composure from ruining what had been a rather grand day. Finally, our local host responded with further instructions and we were able to obtain our key and find the local residence. 

Finishing up dinner in our London apartment

Rachel giving Brian her Father's Day present

Happy Father's Day to this incredible father and Husband!

Hugs for her thoughtfulness--she made this and packed it before our trip

To our joy, we found that the new habitation was both expansive and comfortable. Further lifting our spirits, we discovered we were in a country that both spoke our language and had many more familiar objects to us, and we were happy to finally be back in a country closer to our homeland.