Yesterday was day 7 in Paris, we decided to take the train to the small town of Chartres. The train ride was an hour, but taking the Metro to the train station, buying the tickets, and waiting for the train added another 45 minutes to the trip!
The important thing about Chartres is it’s beautiful huge Cathedral. A cathedral stood on the site starting in the 4th Century. This church played a part in the Roman empire when Charlemagne ruled, it stood during Napolean’s reign, even survived WWII. It was rebuilt, expanded, and today is larger than Notre Dame. Most of the church was built in the late 1100’s after a fire destroyed much of the church. After that it was rebuilt much taller and more stained glass windows were added. In fact, this church is the best example of medieval stained glass windows in existence. During World War II the stained glass windows were removed and hidden to avoid damage during allied bombing.
We took a tour by a man that has made the study of the Chartres Cathedral his life long pursuit. He has lived in Chartres 51 years and has been giving tours twice daily for over 30 years. It was enjoyable and we all learned a lot. Now I’ll order a couple of history books from Amazon along with the art books I would love to have.
That was the hilight from yesterday, though my husband and I had an enjoyable and delicious dinner at a cafe later that evening. The kids ate take-out early so it was just the two of us for dinner.
This morning my daughter and I headed off to see Musee d’Orsay again and my husband and son went to the Science Museum. We got to the Musee d’Orsay and discovered a line of 600-700 people! We waited about 15 minutes and decided we would do something else. Apparently because many of the other museums around Paris are closed today, Musee d’Orsay is crowded on Tuesdays. So my daughter and I crossed the Seine and went into the Tuileres Gardens again. We watched the people, then sat down at a cafe in the gardens and ordered two hot chocolates.
After our hot chocolate we walked around the city for almost 3 hours. We had a plan to meet up with the other half of our family, but not until 2:00 this afternoon. We walked along the Seine and just saw so much. We stumbled onto the same little used bookstore and my daughter bought DVD’s of “The OC” in french. I bought a book for the plane ride back home since I’ve almost finished the book I brought. In english.
Time to go . . . be back later.
It’s late now, this evening we took the Metro to Montmarte. We walked up to Sacre-Coeur for an incredible view of Paris. It was fun, there was a lot of night life in the area. After walking around Montmarte, and having crepes filled with chocolate (yummy!) we headed back to our area of town. We walked past the Eiffel Tower on the way from the Metro station to our hotel and the Eiffel Tower is lit up with blue lights, we assume for the Olympics. Very interesting to see the Eiffel Tower blue. We stopped at a cafe around the corner and we had a late dinner. Now we’re back at the hotel and it’s time for bed.
Tomorrow the plan is to take the train to Giverney to see Monet’s garden and house.