The next day being Wednesday, we went to Église Sainte-Marie du Peuple (Church of St. Mary of the People) to attend the 8:30am mass and visit an old friend who is a priest.
St. Marie du Peuple is architecturally striking and one of the most beautiful churches I have ever seen. This is how it looks on the outside, simple and elegant, with no hint of the magic inside.
The interior of the small church... the church is quite small and can seat about ten people comfortably.
Those open niches where natural light just pours in and strategically lights up the important aspects of this stunning chapel. (church 4)
The open niche above the bible...
This is how it looks... with natural light just streaming in on the words.
The altar, where natural light streams in through the cross like opening... and the grooves to hold the light that constantly burns near the divine sacrament. The most peaceful and divine chapel (I think it's the natural light streaming in that fills this chapel with a divine grace); every time I come back to this place, I'm struck by how grateful I am for life and existence in general.
A statue of Mother Mary and baby Jesus, outside the chapel.
The intricate cross outside the chapel...
This is where we actually attended mass, a larger church (five feet from the chapel) since the main church cannot accommodate a lot of people. This is just a simple church with light streaming in from the top. Met Fr. Gabriel after mass, he introduced us to the community and welcomed us warmly. We made future plans to meet him.
After coming home and having some breakfast, we decided to drive to the chocolate factory, Cailler, which is about two hours away.
Stunning views on the way... we (me and Nam) had visited the factory back in 2017. This time we took mom and dad along and they liked it.
The Cailler chocolate alongside the Cailler building...
Took a picture in this field back in 2017 (click to read about it)...
This was taken in 2017 (I was closer to the hut)... It was too hot in June and I didn't want to make the others wait, so just dashed in for a quick photo and then
we drove to a small town called Gruyere, famous for its cheese. It was lunch time and quite hot, so we first sat down for lunch. This is some salad.
This is the restaurant we ate at.
Mom had some pork and chips.
Dad had a veg burger and potato wedges.
Me an Nam had raclette cheese with baby potatoes, pickled gherkins and pearl onions (which is not something to have during the hot days of summer).
The charming hamlet, Gruyere (click here to see pics from our trip to Gruyere in 2013)
Just a cute statue...
Views around...
Cute corners...
Gruyere Church... (church 5)
Inside the Gruyere church...
Mother Mary in soft lights...
Eglise Gruyere...
Charming pathways...
It was really hot, so after looking around we drove to the cheese factory, but they were closing for the day... so we drove to Jaun falls (which me and Nam saw in 2017, and we knew we had to bring mom and dad here). That's in the next post... stay tuned.
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