Amidst all the blogging about snow and socialists, I neglected to tell about the trip the boys and I took yesterday to Chartres, a town of of about 40,000 located 60 miles or so southwest of Paris. We decided to go because Suzie was off visiting a friend of hers in England. We left our apartment in the late morning, took the Metro to Gare Montparnasse, bought tickets for the 11:15 train. I will only rave about the train a little bit … it was quiet (electric, so no engine noise), comfortable (like riding on air), relatively cheap, quick, and it deposited us a short walk away from the center of the city. It’s this latter aspect that makes the trains so useful; you can go from city center to city center more quickly than you could drive, because unlike a car, they train doesn’t get stuck in traffic or have to stop at stoplights.
After a quick lunch we headed to the city’s main attraction, it’s magnificent gothic cathedral, dating from the 12th century. It has two spires, the highest one being 370 feet:
The inside of the cathedral is an enormous open space, with amazing stained glass windows and an almost overwhelming amount of intricately carved stone. Unfortunately, it was so dark inside that it was difficult to take pictures, although this one gives a sense of intricacy of the carvings (although not the volume):
After viewing the interior, we walked out the western entrance, which was again flanked by detailed stone carvings:
The cathedral is located on a bluff above a small river, which we walked down to, and along, for a period of time.
Eventually we started uphill again, past old houses in the half-timbered style:
Eventually we came to the main shopping area of the city, and we stopped at a bar/cafe for hot chocolate and coffee, to get out of the cold. We walked about a bit more, got crepes (the best I’ve had in France so far, made by a friendly, meticulous young man), and generally took in the ambiance.
At this point Andrew, who had brought his skateboard with him but had not had much opportunity to stake, wanted to find a stakepark, so we went to the tourist office and asked if there was a stakepark nearby, and were told, erroneously as it turned out, that there was one in a park just north of the train station. We found the park but after a diligent search we concluded that there wasn’t one there, which greatly irritated Andrew.
We took an express train back to Paris at 5:15, and were in our apartment by 6:30. A very nice, if cold day. More pictures for those who are interested are here.
Categories: Travel -- France
Tags: Chartres France