Lisieux (a Stop on the Way to Normandy)

My parents arrived at the beginning of March and just a few days afterward we packed up and started the long drive to Normandy, France.  The day after they got here, my dad started having back spasms that were pretty debilitating.  We consulted a few friends of ours that are doctors and the consensus was that the best plan would be to buy a TENS unit that gives electrical impulses to the nerves and helps with the pain.  We drove straight to an Apoteka (a pharmacy) and bought one.  They are not cheap, but several days later, we were happy with the results when we finally figured out how to work it.

\

We decided to go to Mass on Saturday evening for the vigil in Lisieux due to the fact that we had a scheduled tour guide all day on Sunday.  So we knew there was a vigil Mass at the cathedral in Lisieux at 6pm.  We had to try to plan around that and still drive the rest of the way to our Gite (a frenchy French word for a farm house you rent) that same night when it was another 1.5 hours farther.  This timing created a problem for our time in Lisieux.

My dad's back was still pretty bad at this point and so he decided after seeing the amount of steps up to the cathedral alone that he'd hang out in the van for the afternoon.  We first went in to confirm the Mass time since we have learned to never trust the websites in Europe.  Then we looked at the cathedral and made our way to the convent where ST. Therese of Lisieux's relics were.  There was adoration there.  We stayed there a bit and then looked in the shop briefly, picking up a small statue of Mary as she appeared to St. Therese.   Then Judah had another emergency potty need which really threw us off our schedule because all of the public bathrooms all being locked after 4pm.

After taking care of that issue there was just not enough time for even trying to get over to the basilica.  We just went back to the cathedral and got ready for Mass.  Mass was held in a small chapel all the way in the back of the cathedral behind the main altar.  The church was really cold inside, much colder than outside which was sunny and "spring-like" to us.  The back chapel had light heaters on the wall, so that must be why they held a vigil Mass in such a small space.

During Mass there was a little boy with his parents across the aisle and up a few rows from us.  I was happy to see a young toddler at Mass because that is somewhat rare in Europe.  I noticed he had a ball and remember thinking that that was a risky move in church with such a young boy.  During the homily he started throwing it down the aisle and running to get it and throwing it back down towards the altar and running to get it.  This goes on throughout Mass.  As Mass was coming to a close, during a nun's announcement (in French, I had no idea what it was about) the boy threw the ball down the aisle again and ran to get it.  My mom motioned to me that the little boy left the chapel area.  He had gone down the stairs and could no longer be seen.  His parents never turned around.  I put Bobby down and went to check on the boy.  He was nearly halfway down the huge cathedral.  There was a boy, maybe Isaac's age, who was trying unsuccessfully to talk him in to coming back.  I just went over ad picked him up and brought him back.  I talked to him gently and just held him in the back of the cathedral.  At some point the older boy came back and took him from me and took him back to his parents.  But it was a pretty strange occurrence altogether.  My mom told me later that the dad turned around and saw me holding his son and just turned back towards the altar unbothered.  Odd.

After Mass, we went to about 6 different restaurants that were all closed.  We had to settle for Doner kebabs on the go.  We got to our Gite super late and went to bed.