Daily Journal Continued November 19,1998, William Thomas Thompson There are no Bibles here any where so far except my own. We are now leaving Paris at 7a.m.to the trainstation for Lyons in EasternFrance via the fast train through a heavyfrost at twilight for a side trip to visit the"Ideal Palace of Dreams"at Hauterives France. We carry alot of good memories of our short stay in Paris and some unpleasant memories also. We remember that little French restaurant down the street from the hotel where we got this fresh grilled salmon steak and potatoes the same as we get back home,we remember the lovely fabric walls of the delightful hotel. We rem- ember breakfast in the basement with the company of seemingly all professors that talked loudly to their wives with great authority and would clear their throat and blow their noses in tight space. we remember the smoke filled places and the happy faces,the great service and pleasant attitude of the hotel personnel so helpful. We are in a strange land that I donot understand,God help us. We have now traveled about200miles East in about 2 hours to Lyons and are off in their cool train station asking where is the Ideal but nobody ever heard of any such a place(Palais Ideal). Suddenly there stood a young man we ask and he spoke perfect English will- ing to help us find directions to the place taking our luggage to a hotel lobby nearby and arranging a nice new taxi van to take us round trip to see the palace. This persons name is Pascal Parrin, 10 gde Rue Saint Clair,69300 Calvire,France,phone33-478088496,ww, lparrinpre caaol.com. He is unemployed but would not take any pay for his service. Maybe someone needs his help,I do recommend him. May my days be productive Dear Lord my savior,my mind on Thee. We are now on a fast taxi ride for 1 hour South East of Lyons to visit this special palace across the rhone river and across this mountain and through the farming country on and on until we fin- ally came to the little town and finally found the palace dreams that looked toy size to me. It was built by the postman here who had died about 30 years ago. It appeared to be a mosque or tomb. We were alone and the meter was still running,we had to walk the last 100 cold yards to pay about $5.00 to get in. The taxi price was more than quoted about $200.00total. They claim that over one million tourist visit here everyyear,but I believe it is oversold and overplayed,it looks great in the pictures but not worthatrip. Signs of the winter olympics are on things here advertizing. We are now back on a train headed for Geneva,Switzerland near the Swiss Alps watching this river rise. We are headed more South now than East. The engine is pulling hard and our speed is slowing. I see a change in the style of houses and barns and the entire look ofthings as we wind around the mountain and a lighter feel in the air. As we approched Geneva the sight of a mountian top under the blanket of snow could be seem like a picture at dust dark draping the entire North side. Anyone would know that we are in Switzerl-and. The train stopped at the main station and we had to go down under and through like customs and back up on another rail for a train to Lausanne. We had 3 minutes but this train was 15 minutes late so we made it for a 45 minute ride on to Lausanne,we got off the train and found that the taxi would not take French francs at 5.5per 1dollar whereas the SwissFranc is 1.2per$,We had no hotel. Some how our hotel had been canceled and they sent us to another.