Day Three — Chartres

Ever since I took a humanities course during my senior in high school, I have been a little fascinated with the Cathedrale Notre Dame de Chartres.  On Friday we took the train to visit the cathedral. If you wonder what’s the big deal, do a Google search and check it out. It is sufficient to say that it may be the pinnacle of Gothic cathedral architecture. And it was built in the 13th century.

We met up with BIL and SIL’s friends Cindy and Hal at the train station with relatively little, but some, confusion. The train trip was very pleasant.

The cathedral was impressive. All it was cracked up to be.

We met up with the famous tour guide, Malcolm Miller, for one of his tours. $13 well spent. (10 euros)

We had lunch at a cafe there in Chartres. Their specialty was crepes…like 50 different varieties. A years, and I don’t remember eating a crepe. Now it’s been crepes for lunch two days in a row. Don’t see that as a trend when we get back home. Here are some pics.

The cathedral

Mrs P and me

Some detail

zMore detail

SIL, Mrs Poolman and BIL right after lunch

All of us

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Paris Day Two – Notre Dame

We all needed a good night’s sleep, so we starrd off slow this morning.

We had a nice breakfast at a cafe near the hotel. Then we finished repacking and took the Metro to the rental apartment that will be home for the next week. The apt is nice. We met the two older Canadian couples who were moving out as we arrived. I’ll post pics tomorrow.

Early afternoon, we walked a short way to Place de Concorde. During the revolution, this is where many heads rolled. Napoleon replaced the guillotine with an oblysk he stole from Egypt. Now it is a giant traffic circle and maybe as dangerous as during the revolution.

We bought tickets to the Batobus, which is a hop- on, hop-off tour boat that cruises up and down the Seine. Nice trip.

We got off at Notre Dame and toured the cathedral. It started to rain as we were leaving, causing hordes of tourists to try to cram through the exit doors. It was a serious crush of people.

We escaped to a nearby cafe and sat out the shower while eating crepes. Tres bien.

We walked around Ile St Louis for a bit and then caught the batobus back down the river and out apt on Place de Madeline.

We were pretty pooped, but still needed to exchange some trainm tickets (double bought) and shop for some food and stuff for the apt. It’s late and were tired.

Tomorrow we hook up with SIL and BIL’s friends for a trip to Chartres. Should be fun.

Mrs Poolman and me at Place de Concorde

The Batobus

Pont Alexander III

A chapel inside Notre Dame

Notre Dme in the background

A cafe on Ile St Louis

Checking in from paris

I havent been as diligent as I should have been for the past
few weeks.   Sorry.
Mrs Poolman and I are off on an aventure. We are in Paris for a a week, to be followed by a few days in Normandy and Mont St Michel. We have been planning this trip for months.
I am working off my nook tablet which does not allow me to be quite as fluid a writer as I would like. Mostly lll post pictures for now. Stories later.

The plane, ready to go.

Our room at the Holiday Inn St Germain

View from our hotel room.

Mrs Poolman sister- and brother in lawvchecking out a lunch menu.

Fellow travellers, brother in law and Mrs P's sister

,The two of us

Very good onion soup for lunch