Chartres

We missed our train again this morning only by a few minutes this time. So we got a new ticket for the next train which was only forty minutes later. We walked around the station, got some breakfast, and shopped a little. Rachel had two chocolate croissants and I had a muffin and banana bread. We went into every news stand and book store in the station looking for an American newspaper, because Rachel felt disconnected with the US and "missed reading English." We ended up finding one in the last store that we looked. We got Friday's USA Today. It actually had some interesting news in it. I cant believe Judge Sotomayor isn't a justice yet! Comeon Senate! Please let us know when she is confirmed.

We got on the train and were on our way to Chartres at about 10:00. I'm not sure what they put into the air on those trains, but even if I am fully awake right before I get on, after just a few minutes I fall asleep. I can't help it. Anyway, I woke up in Chartres about an hour later and Rachel and I headed for the tourism office. We got a map of the town and they offered us an audio guide tour of the old city. It was pretty inexpensive and had time to kill because mass had just started in the cathedral and we couldn't visit during mass. We did the tour and learned a lot about the city. It was originally founded by the Romans a long time ago and then there was a fire. Then the Catholics took it over, then there was a fire. Then, and still, the French live there. We saw that a lot of the buildings are built inside of the old structures. For example, part of the restaurant we ate at for lunch was built inside of an old wash house (old fashioned laundromat). There were old churches and mills and bridges that were all very interesting. After our tour, we went and ate lunch.

Rachel read on frommers that we should eat at this expensive fancy French place right on the river. "It is a little expensive, but well worth every penny." We went in to check it out. The hostess didn't speak a word of English, but eventually we got a table. We sat down and waited. We looked at the menu (completely in French) and couldn't pick out a word. This was not the sandwich and fromage(cheese) that we were used to. Eventually our waiter came over who spoke a little English. He helped us figure out the menu and we each ordered. We weren't sure exactly what we ordered, but it was fine French dining, so how bad could it be? While we waited, they brought out two tiny sandwiches and two shot glasses with a thick yellow mucus-like soup for us to eat. We saw everyone around us eat them up, so despite our intuition we gave it a try. The soup tasted like tomatoes mixed with lemon and orange. I took a few bites, and left it at that. After some coersion, Rachel tried one bite. The sandwiches were good. Thirty minutes later someone brought out our food. He announced to us what it was in French, but we couldn't tell him which one of us ordered which dish. We all just kind of looked at each other for a minute before he finally blurted out "egg?" The food was good, and after our main dish we got a chocolate cake which was superb. Two hours and a lot of discomfort later, we left the restaurant and headed for the cathedral.

We went inside and waited in line for an audioguide, but when we got to the front they wouldn't give us one because there was a concert in 45 minutes. So we just looked around ourselves and read all the posted information. I thought it was more of the same, but Rachel found it unique and interesting. Something I found unique and interesting was the labyrinth built into the floor of the nave. They had most of it covered with chairs so we couldn't do it, but we could imagine what it would be like. This church was built specifically to house a piece of cloth that they claimed to be the Virgin's shroud. They have it on display in the back so we went to go look at it. We saw a white piece of cloth in a very elaborate case wit h a huge stained glass window behind it. Thousands of people each year pilgrimage there to see this piece of cloth. At this point, it was about 4:00 and our train left at 4:30, so we headed back towards the train station.

The famous "Chartres blue" stained glass. Original from the 12th century!

Sitting across from us on the train were two guys. One of them was sketching the other while he slept. Rachel and I quickly fell asleep on the train and when I woke up ten minutes later, both of the guys were looking at us very intently and the same guy was sketching again. I assumed he was sketching us, and I think that's really cool.

We got back to Paris and went to the Tuileries Gardens. When we got off the train, it was very hectic with tons of people and we couldn't figure out why. When we got out to the street, there was even more people and we realized we had taken the train right to where the award ceremony for the Tour de France was currently happening. We mingled among the masses for a few minutes and watched the winners get their trophies on a big screen. It was very exciting to completely on accident stumble onto such a momentous event! We walked through the gardens and found a café to have dinner. After our pricey lunch, we just got sandwiches. After that we headed back to our tiny hotel room to enjoy our champagne and our last evening in Paris.