Nevers, France

On our way back home from Lourdes, we stopped in Nevers.  We decided to stay in the convent where St. Bernadette lived out the rest of her life after becoming a nun and was buried to complete our pilgrimage.  We had to get two rooms.  Brian and the boys were in the room with bunk beds, and the girls, Bobby and I were in the room with three single beds.  They were across from each other at the end of a hallway with a table in between.  We arrived so late and had not had dinner yet.  At the table was a lady who spoke German.  She started a conversation with us and couldn't believe that we hadn't had anything for dinner.  She asked if the girls could go with her down to ask for some bread.  She took them, and Brian went to order a pizza with the man who checked us in.  The German lady came back with the bread and the girls.  Then she went and retrieved some jam and wine from her room to give us.  She was so very kind and helpful.  The pizza arrived and it was Dominoes!  How funny to have Dominoes pizza in France.  It was delicious and a welcomed taste of America after many months of only having European food.  Drew, however, didn't eat but a corner of his pizza before saying his stomach hurt and he didn't want anymore.  After we finished our pizza, we went to our separate rooms to go to bed.

The boys' room had the bunk bed, the trundle bed, and a full sized bed too.

This was Judah's first night ever in a real bed!  I just didn't want to lug in two pack-n-plays for just one night.  He did great!

The Girls' Room

The next morning when I went to get the boys up for breakfast, I found a very sick Drew and a very tired husband.  Drew had thrown up while Brian was brushing his teeth right after we had went our separate ways the night before.  He threw up for around 7 hours at least once an hour.  My amazing husband let me sleep through the whole thing!  Poor guys.  Alas, our plans to walk the grounds of the convent that morning after the complementary breakfast were foiled by the rain (pouring down rain!) and our plans to go to Mass there and visit St. Bernadette's incorrupt body now turned into a quick visit of her body after packing and loading the car.  We put Drew in Judah's stroller and stopped in the chapel on the way out.

St. Bernadette

After we all were in the van, Brian made a quick run around the grounds in the rain in search of this statue.  He took some pictures for us.  It really was raining, but you can't really tell in the pictures.  I think it must have slowed down a bit.  I just remember running to  the van in the rain and being really cold.

This is the statue of Our Lady of Lourdes that St. Bernadette thought better represented the woman that appeared to her.

And that was that.  We headed home with a quick grocery store trip to load us up with some lunch and snacks.  Drew didn't throw up anymore, but he wasn't too hungry and he slept a lot of the way home.  That sweet boy never complained.  We were so proud of him being so tough in a hard situation.  Our only other adventure was when the tape came loose from all the rain and the plastic on the window came loose.  We had to pull over and tape it back up again.  Hannah kind of panicked, but it was really no big deal.  We joke that we all have a bit of PTSD from the whole window shattering shenanigans, but Hannah has it the worst.

I lived in fear that someone else would get the stomach bug all week.  Hannah and I had a stomach ache and lost our appetites for a few days, but then just when I thought we were in the clear being a whole week out from Drew's bug Genevieve got it.  Same thing, puking for about seven hours.  The next afternoon Judah got it, but only threw up and felt bad for about two hours.  The last time he threw up it got in his hair.  When I put him in the bath tub he told me he was all better, and though he didn't have an appetite for a few days he was done with the bug.  As I write this no one else has come down with it.  That is a total miracle.