CHARTRES

This weekend was amazing. On Friday night I met up with Uncle Todd and we had a great dinner at a small restaurant near his hotel. It was so good seeing him, catching up, and swapping stories. It really raised my spirits :)

On Saturday morning, Uncle Todd and I decided to go to Chartres for the day. I woke up early and it was POURING/SNOWING. This was slightly funny because I had told Uncle Todd the night before that it never snows here. Luckily by the time we left the station the weather had cleared. It is partially a miracle that we found each other - the train station was huge and I could not find the left luggage place anywhere.

I had never traveled long distances by train before and I must say that I really enjoyed it. It was great to see the French countryside. I think that I am going to travel by train as much as I can - just to see the sights.

We finally arrived in Chartres around 10:45 AM. We headed straight to the Cathedral . The Notre Dame Cathedral Chartres is absolutely spectacular and has such a rich history. The first record of the church is from the 800's but many people speculate that the church could be older. We toured the crypts of the church which was a lot of fun in a freaky kind of way. There was a well that must have been 30 ft deep and dates back to Gaelic times. After, we took a tour of the cathedral led by Malcolm Miller - an expert of the cathedral who has written numerous books and has led tours of the Cathedral for over 50 years. Miller did an amazing job - I learned a lot about the cathedral and had a great time listening to all of his stories.

Uncle Todd and I decided to have lunch after Miller's tour and walked around the town searching for a place to eat. I was following Todd and he was following me so needless to say it took us a while to realize this and find a place for lunch. We finally settled on a restaurant that had an 11 euro formula (entree and main dish or entree and dessert). The food was excellent and our waiter was quite amusing.

After lunch we went back to the Cathedral for a bit, and watched a choir that was having a dress rehearsal there. The church is known for its' relic- a piece of cloth from the clothes the Virgin Mary wore while giving birth to Christ. The fabric has been dated back to the first century which helps support the claim.

Todd and I finally took the train back to Paris around 5PM. We had a wonderful time together and I hope that I get to see him again soon!!

Some pictures from our trip (before my camera died):