Inter-Hotel Le Chatelet Chartres

... a ltr bottloe 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.<br><br>Well fed and watered we got tucked for the night ready for an early morning START!!....

To Sylvie&#8217;s in the French Countryside-Sylvie, who was an exchange student at the Harty&#8217;s back in 1970 lives and works right outside of Paris. We have reconnected with much effort from Adrienne Harty (Steve&#8217;s mom) and she invited us to dinner at her country home and also to spend the night. What a generous treat. The ride to Houdan was a beautiful drive through the French country (after we managed to ...

... next destination, Amboise, a small village in the Loire valley. We passed through some beautiful countryside, firstly fields of crops, as you would probably imagine French countryside to look. Then we drove along the Loire River, surrounded by small forests on one side and river on the other &#8211; truly picture postcard beautiful.<br><br>We reached our lovely hotel to discover half of it has been built in to a cave in the hill behind it. I suspect that is where the wine is ...

Will fill you in on the story of Chartres later!.....<br><br>...(writing this from Carcassonne, Fri 12th)<br><br>From Versailles we drove to Chartres, in the rain. We got a little lost trying to find our campsite (French road signs SUCK!) when I saw a sign for the tourist office. Forgetting it was Sunday &amp; it wouldn't be open we followed the sign. It turns out it was just a ...

Once again I was away by 07:30 in a heavy fog that caused me to be grateful for the excellent lights on my bicycle. I shunned the scenic route - nothing to see! - and took a direct route that left the GPS totally confused as it tracked my progress across a completely blank screen: a new road had opened recently so was unknown to the software. But I trusted my map and guidance from a young man waiting at a bus stop and pushed on, with a brand new motorway to my right. (Drivers of ...

... to blend modern with old town centre architecture, most notably its impressive clock tower. My hotel for the night was equally unremarkable yet provided an amazingly comfortable bed. That evening I strolled through a very quiet town centre and ate in the trendy 'Market Pub' (While the UK long ago borrowed the terms 'bistro' and 'brasserie' the term 'pub' seems to be a recent trend in France). DISTANCE FOR THE DAY: 100 km TOTAL SO FAR: 376 km

... 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 ...

... building but part of a large monastery that looked like a mini Versailles. Definitely worth a visit, and there is some good quality hand crafted pottery in the shop as well, if you're into that kind of thing. We indulged in more food shopping (not recommended when you are hungry), and had a swift half on the terrace of the village inn, then continued our journey. We diverted east and followed the Eure, passing through Louviers and stopping for lunch on a river ...

Much to my surprise, I gasped today. The day pretty much started out like this...he was up first showered and humming while I overslept. Then there were metro changes, my pass didn't work, hard to find the train but we did, then a long line for tickets, then on the train and it was so crowded we couldn't sit together. Things started looking up a bit when we got to Chartres and found a little pub with a nice ...

... contained several pieces of art by various artists, of differing periods and differing materials. It was out of this world! Luckily, I was able to take many pictures. (http://www.cnac-gp.fr/Pompidou/Accueil .nsf/tunnel?OpenForm) We took the metro back to our hotel to clean up and dress for our one "big" dinner out. per the recommendations of many Tripadvisor members, we dined at Le Coupe Chou. It was exactly what we'd been told: many little rooms with wood beams and ...