We were all up and packed before we met for breakfast for out last day together.  It has been such a great couple days with who once were strangers and now are friends.  This was Brian and Carlo’s first time volunteering with refugees……..Brian’s daughter Seanna is a dynamo who has been and led a number of trips and Carlo’s wife is a rock star who was one of CTF’s 1st volunteers.  They now will go forth and continue to tell the stories that they have heard and the things they have seen.

We took a quick tour to go see the sea side- the ferries leave

from this area for the UK and it is surrounded by high double fences- sea side cottages line the sand.  The water was cooollllddddd!  We were the only ones on the beach- so beautiful.

It was a quick drive to the warehouse- there was a possibility for us to head back to Paris easier than planned to work at a camp near Paris, but that was not to be so we all split up and started working in teams.  Rita and I got to organize “Tent World” in it’s new

location-Brian and Carlos had moved it the day before.  The picture on the right are tent polls!  Crazy!  The warehouse was filled with the usual about 20 volunteers who are there for weeks at a time and we were joined by another about 2o volunteers, again mostly students- the ones that work 7 days a week at the camp use the washing machines at the warehouse and all live together in a tent caravan center near town.  Their needs are few

and they are very hard workers.  Music blasts the whole day- not obnoxiously, and there is a tea break about 11 and lunch is served about 1:00.

We started back to Paris about 2:00, Rita’s plane was the first to leave about 8:30pm.  Carlos was thinking of places we could stop as we had about 90 min to spare if traffic was not to bad- it wasn’t and we decided to head into Paris to go get macaroons and go to the

(I got in trouble for taking the photo- I didn’t use a flash and can you see the Eiffel tower?)

Musée de l’Orangerie- to see Monet’s water lilies.  It had been years since i’d seen them and the enormity of the pieces and the color was breath taking- the iconic “American Gothic” by Grant Woods was also on display – as beautiful in person as seen in images.

I got to drive the big old VW van in Paris traffic- no accidents, but also no lines on the streets – it was fun!  In all we drove 480 miles this weekend.  Amanda and I are staying at a hotel near the airport for our morning departure to Athens, we will be flying Air Serbia (a 1st for both of us) and will have to change planes in Belgrade for Athens- we will actually be returning to Belgrade in the next couple weeks to drive up 500 baby carries the camps there have requested.