Hotel Armorial Chateaudun

... a ltr bottle of Vin rouge and a bottle of water. Not only excellent value but terrific quality and service. The atmosphere was friendly and relaxed and it was difficult to tell we were foreigners abroad.

Well fed and watered we got tucked for the night ready for an early morning START!!....

... well aware of the difficulty of having the stick in the wrong place, and while trying to concentrate on driving on the opposite side of the road, the last thing you need is to be looking for your gear stick. A quick car change and we ended up with a cute little Mercedes automatic, which was much more to our liking. For the rest of the day we have been wracking our brains to give it a name but yet nothing good has come to us, so for now it will remain nameless (feel free to ...

... sign. Jack was driving behind a people carrier so he didn't see the signs but the car in front had gone down a road other cars aren't allowed down so the security bollard was down for him & when we went over it it came back up onto our engine. After a whole lot of fuss & commotion (passers by called the police!) the car was towed to a nearby garage. We've since ...

... seemed to find it amusing to see on the adjacent minor road a strange apparition dressed like a huge wasp loom out of the mist. At least I assumed that was why they honked their horns!) Once again the sun broke through to present another clear blue sky and by 10:00 I rode into the historic cathedral city of Chartre. I love the architecture of cathedrals and this one certainly did not disappoint. But why did they have to build it on top of such a steep hill? Local people ...

... in towns today The cathedral has three large rose windows: one on the west front with a theme of The Last Judgment, one on the north transept with a theme of the Glorification of the Virgin, and one on the south transept with a theme of the Glorification of Christ. Statistics length: 130 m width: 32/46 m nave: height 37 meters; width 16.4 m Ground ...

... of all time, also. When he lectured, Mr. Trupe would always have some personal story to add about a family vacation when he was a little boy or some such thing. I made a mental note then that I had to visit Chartres, and on my third trip to Paris I finally have. Some parts of the Cathedral, unfortunately, are being renovated and are mostly covered. However, the impression the Cathedral gives is breath-taking. It's just the right size to be spectacular without being ...

... Bongo at the bottom of the pecking order and despite being one of the first to arrive, we were one of the last to be boarded. End result - we were about 15th on the cancellation list. There were 6 names called for cancellations, and you can bet they all arrived after us. We were on an LD lines ferry and the good points were: nice clean ship, good club class area, reasonable food and proper French coffee in the club class bar. The lows were cold plates ...

... commute into town and paid our respects to the Arc de Triumphe. Apparently THIS is where the Japanese tourists hang. We hadn't seen many others, but they were all there! We did not wait in the line to go up, but thought about it. We also did not go up Sacre Coeur the day before b/c the first line about that in our guide book included the words "narrow" and "claustrophobic" and I learned my lesson at St. Stephens. We are still ...

... here. They also seem to sleep late. Most mornings we were wandering around waiting for something to open. We headed to the Montparnesse area to take a train to Chartres to the see the cathedral there, about 70 minutes through the countryside. We've both always wanted to see Chartres (pronounced like "shart" or "shart-RA" if you're French) since seeing slides of it in art class. Both the ...

Hi everybody! We took a weekend trip to Chartres, France, for Melanie to see the famous Chartres Cathedral. At the moment, this entry only contains pictures from that trip. Story to come later. Melanie and Chris