The blond girl in the blue shirt, in corner of the photograph is Monique du Pont, she used to pester me to join the annual Paris to Chartres Pilgrimage. I have always wanted to, well not the walk, sleeping in the field, singing in French Ging gang goolie bit but just being their. This is one of the most exuberant youth events in France. See the pictures here courtesy of Monique
Seminarians!!!
Dominicans!
Gosh, L'Animateur, even in the traddie world you can't get away from them!
3 comments:
Nice to see St Patrick's banner there in your first photo! And so good that the young people still go on this pilgrimage each year. Amused to see 'l'animateur' in full swing too!
A few years ago the centre of Chartres was being dug up to install an underground carpark. Archaeologists were hard at work when I walked past one afternoon as a Gallo Roman cemetery was in the process of being unearthed. I stopped to watch for a time as yet another body was gradually appearing. There were several complete human skeletons nearby all in a row.
A lady stopped near me with a small boy and then realising what we were lookin at she started to walk away. 'Are they dinosaurs?' the lad asked. Sensibly I think because of his young age the lady agreed that they were and smiling at me as if to say 'don't you dare spoil his illusions' she drew him away. I can still picture these early inhabitants of Chartres and remember one of them only had one leg!
Excavations have also taken place right in front of the Cathedral but it has since been covered over. The Cathedral itself is of course one of the great wonders of France and I can imagine the joy of the pilgrims as they first spot the unusual dissimilar spires as they approach across the flat fields of the Beauce. It must be such an uplifting occasion but you would have to be fit to join it!
All looks rather splendid...these young Catholics seem to have got it!
Les Animateurs ought to have at least one hand bound to their side. I find them irritating, to say the least. They were particularly omnipresent during the recent Apostolic Visit to the U S of A. Strange how we manage without one in our parish and people...well, they just sing!
What do these music leader-types think they look like! Everything else looks to be wonderful. The future's bright, the future's young!
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