Day 9: On To Paris

We slept well and attended the Mennonite Church in Montbeliard with the Pignard family. The church is interesting because it is a large French Mennonite Church and also because many of our ancestors are from this very region. They announced our name at church and afterwards people with the last name Rich and also the last name Witmer came and greeted us.

We shared another lovely meal with the family. Mrs. Pignard (Beatrice) had invited her parents to the lunch and her father brought various genealogical documents and photos. Her parents' last name is Lugbill which is the same last name as grandpa Phil's mother. We discovered that Phil and Pierre, Beatrice's father, are fourth cousins and he had a photo, taken in Canton, Ohio, of Christian Lugbill, who is Phil's great-grandfather. Christian Lugbill immigrated from Montbeliard to Ohio
in 1872. Apparently the photo from Canton had been sent back to France at some point.

We greatly appreciated the hospitality of the Pignard family and had a lovely stay. After lunch it was time to head in the car and leave for Paris. After a hot, long drive with lots of traffic delays, we were delighted to arrive in Paris and greet our friends Neal and Janie.