“The Church of Our Lady”, Cathedral of Notre Dame, Chartres, France. It has been a long time since I’ve gone to a class lecture, but that is just about what Louise and I did this afternoon. We had heard about a guide at the cathedral in Chartres, a man named Malcolm Miller. He is supposed to be able to give you the tour that was really worthwhile, although it could be a little costly compared to others that we have attended. It seems that Malcolm Miller has been around this cathedral for a few years (since 1958 from Great Britain) and also has had some “in-depth” studies on the histories of the church and the Christian religion. Our tour cost us $10 Euro each for the hour, and I must admit, I would have paid more. It would do an injustice to Mr. Miller and the Cathedral if I were to go into detail on our web-page, so I won’t, except to tell you that the first church was built on this site some time prior to 743, as at that time, they were “rebuilding” the church after it was destroyed by Hunald, Duke of Aquitaine…are you following me??? Really, Mr. Miller was superb in his direction as we toured the cathedral for the hour. One big negative, it went way too quick. Also, we aren’t into purchasing much for ourselves on this “journey”, but we made an exception in this case…we bought a book that Mr. Miller wrote on the Cathedral. The church is best known for its 13th century stained glass windows that depict various bible stories of the old and new testament. Since in medieval times, there weren’t many written words, thus the windows were used to tell the stories of the bible. Pilgrims come from all over the world each year to view a piece of cloak, that was given to the cathedral by Charles the Bald and it is thought to have been worn by Mary when she gave birth to Christ. This cathedral is reported to be the 3rd largest cathedral in the world behind St Peters in Rome and the Salisbury Cathedral in England. Now we’ve seen 2 and 3 and we look forward to seeing number 1 soon in Rome. We had just about run out of time to get lunch before they close for the afternoon, so we ran across the street to a street side café. ST. Joel had French onion soup and Louise had a great blue cheese salad and a carafe of wine. We kind of like the French café’s. Our walk into and back from town took us along the bank of the river with having to cross it twice on a couple of unique bridges. Just prior to getting to the campground, I spotted another café with a patio right on the edge of the river. This gave me an excuse to have a café espresso and a small treat. Tomorrow…Northwest to Caen and the beaches of Normandy
4 August ’05, Thursday The Blue Virgin Window
“The Church of Our Lady”, Cathedral of Notre Dame, Chartres, France. It has been a long time since I’ve gone to a class lecture, but that is just about what Louise and I did this afternoon. We had heard about a guide at the cathedral in Chartres, a man named Malcolm Miller. He is supposed to be able to give you the tour that was really worthwhile, although it could be a little costly compared to others that we have attended. It seems that Malcolm Miller has been around this cathedral for a few years (since 1958 from Great Britain) and also has had some “in-depth” studies on the histories of the church and the Christian religion. Our tour cost us $10 Euro each for the hour, and I must admit, I would have paid more. It would do an injustice to Mr. Miller and the Cathedral if I were to go into detail on our web-page, so I won’t, except to tell you that the first church was built on this site some time prior to 743, as at that time, they were “rebuilding” the church after it was destroyed by Hunald, Duke of Aquitaine…are you following me??? Really, Mr. Miller was superb in his direction as we toured the cathedral for the hour. One big negative, it went way too quick. Also, we aren’t into purchasing much for ourselves on this “journey”, but we made an exception in this case…we bought a book that Mr. Miller wrote on the Cathedral. The church is best known for its 13th century stained glass windows that depict various bible stories of the old and new testament. Since in medieval times, there weren’t many written words, thus the windows were used to tell the stories of the bible. Pilgrims come from all over the world each year to view a piece of cloak, that was given to the cathedral by Charles the Bald and it is thought to have been worn by Mary when she gave birth to Christ. This cathedral is reported to be the 3rd largest cathedral in the world behind St Peters in Rome and the Salisbury Cathedral in England. Now we’ve seen 2 and 3 and we look forward to seeing number 1 soon in Rome. We had just about run out of time to get lunch before they close for the afternoon, so we ran across the street to a street side café. ST. Joel had French onion soup and Louise had a great blue cheese salad and a carafe of wine. We kind of like the French café’s. Our walk into and back from town took us along the bank of the river with having to cross it twice on a couple of unique bridges. Just prior to getting to the campground, I spotted another café with a patio right on the edge of the river. This gave me an excuse to have a café espresso and a small treat. Tomorrow…Northwest to Caen and the beaches of Normandy
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3 August ’05, Wednesday. The weather has been very nice the last few days and the outlook is for the same. Louise mentioned this morning that the mornings are more like early Fall than those we think of in August. The sun is shining, and the temp is rising, but there is something cool and refreshing in the morn. One thing for sure, it makes for a great driving day. We left Troyes and headed west, passing just under Paris. Our first stop today was the Palace of Fontainebleau. This was one of the favorite palaces of the kings of the 16th through the 19th centuries. Now after having a chance to visit Versailles and now Fontainebleau, (2 palaces that are close to each other and to Paris), I don’t understand the favoritism of those kings to Fontainebleau. I didn’t think it held a candle to Versailles. It may have been much bigger, but the architecture and the gardens at Versailles were much superior (even if it poured the afternoon we were there). My thinking of Fontainebleau may have been influenced by the extravagance of the palace…the overall size being what is was. Even being a king, with all the extravagance that would be expected, still makes this excessive and in my opinion “over-done” (I’m sure your happy to hear my opinion, aren’t you ?). Continuing our westward route, we arrived in Chartres just before 4. We are again camping in a “municipal” campground. The grounds are nice and reasonable, as before, and are within a 20 minute walk into the town. As we were about 3 miles outside of Chartres and traveling through the rolling farmlands, were the wheat is being harvested, we could see in the distance the tall steeples from the cathedral. For over the centuries, those making a pilgrimage to the Cathedral of Notre Dame, Chartres, have had this same site to enjoy and lead the way. Tomorrow….Cathedral of Notre Dame and the town of Chartres 2 August ’05, Tuesday. Our walk into Troyes continued… I’ve just got to get used to the businesses closing from noon to 2 or 3. And the other closing that I’ve got to really get used to, is the early closing of the restaurants. They are usually open from 11am until 2, but then too close. They will re-open about 5 or 6 and go until at least 9pm. Anyway, after we finished lunch we made a casual tour of Troyes. It’s an amazing town architecturally. You are really transported back to the “Medieval and Renaissance” times with the “half-timbered” houses. Quite a few of them have already been brought back through rehab. Even today, they are seems like they are taking the whole town on. Plaster, wood, bricks, and slate are all being taken off and new put on. The thing is, they are doing it right, as you would have a tough time telling new from old when they are through. Also, the original pastel colors that were once found here are now being used again. The streets are cobbled stones, narrow, and winding. When you look down one of the narrow side streets, what you see is very unique. The buildings seem to bend and twist and then, almost touch at the roofs. It is almost like they are swaying in the breeze. Now Troyes is not a large town, but there must have been a reason for the people to have needed 8 churches, one synagogue, and a huge cathedral on top of all that. You will only walk a block, turn your head to the right or left, and there is another church. The Jewish Synagogue Rachi, is very simple and dates back to 1040. The Cathedral of St. Pierre St. Paul on the other hand, is known as having the largest collection of stained glass in the world. I have never seen so many beautifully crafted windows. It has over 1500 square meters of stained glass, and most of them have come from the craftsman of the 13th through the 16th centuries. We even came across an archeological site right in the middle of Troyes. It seems that they have found another very important church. Well, speaking of churches, one thing that we have found being back in Europe, is that we can enjoy the ringing of the church bells. As we awake in the morning and as we make it through the day and night, we hear the bells…what the heck happened to the bells at home ??? Speaking of home…we needed a wash day and we got a great day to wash, so that’s what we did today…washed clothes. Tomorrow…Fountainebleau and then onto Chartres 1 August ’05, Monday. August 1st, it is hard to believe…the 1st of August…where the heck has it all gone, …the SUMMER…it’s true, we have had a few really hot days, and a couple of really nice days, but it’s also true, we have had a lot of “Seattle weather”…clouds and rain…we’ve even had a lot of thunderstorms to help us remember it’s SUMMER… Ok, it really got to me today. Between the weather and the “Service” that you get at the stores and restaurants, I finally hit the bottom, or should I say, I finally blew my top off… Sorry Lou for you having to put up with my “downer day”. I’m sure France is a great country, and I know that it has a lot to offer, but there are areas that we as tourists just have to put up with. We can sit at a restaurant table waiting for someone to recognize that we have come in, or even that we might want a menu…now when we have ordered and been served, we might even want something additional…or maybe the bill…or…I won’t even get into the rest of this, but France is France (so they tell me). Ok, what did we do yesterday? We took a ride. Fact is we drove to Reims, which is about a 30 minute drive from Epernay. Our drive took us over the mountain and then dropped down into the valley in which Reims sits. The books tell us that for the tourists, Reims doesn’t have a lot to keep a tourist doing what a tourist does. It does have a number of wineries, but Epernay has the better to chose from, and it does have a beautiful cathedral. “Our Lady of Rheims” is one of the most beautiful gothic structures of the 13th century. It was destroyed twice, and rebuilt the last time in the 15th century. This is also the cathedral were all the kings since King St Louis 1226, have had their coronation. In 1429, the Coronation of King Charles VII had a special guest, Joan of Arc. In 1996, Pope John Paul II visited and held the service celebrating the 1500th anniversary of the baptism of King Clovis by Archbishop St Remi. Back in “Bumble Bee”, we headed back over the hill. This time, we took to the back roads. They took us through the hills and hills of all the champagne grapes. Vine after vine, grape after grape, and winery after winery, all serving up their own champagne. It was a beautiful drive, and we did enjoy some wonderful sites. We did top it off by stopping by the most incredible villa. I probably don’t have the taste-buds to tell the “finest Champagne” from the OK champagnes, but I will tell you this, if the villas have anything to do with it, we found the cream of the crop. “Chateau de Boursault”…wow… The history behind this “Chateau” is, it was built for a wedding gift, and then passed on to the grand daughter as a gift a little later. It is still privately owned, although, not lived in as it is just too expensive to maintain as a living quarters. Now getting back to the champagne, we bought a bottle…our first, and we will save it for the 20th for our special occasion. By the way, the website for Chateau de Boursault is www.champagnechateaudeboursault.fr Today was a travel day, so we packed up and headed south. Our destination was Troyes, and we finally pulled in here just after 2. After setting up, we put on our walking boots and headed into town. Now I must admit, Louise asked if I wanted to fix a sandwich before we left, but thinking that we would have lunch somewhere in town, I passed…big mistake !!! I wont go into that all over again, and I’ll fill you in on what we saw in town in the next journal…. Tomorrow…Troyes and more… 26 July ’05, Tuesday. What do you know about Verdun, France ? I would have been only to say that it is somewhere in the northern part of France… Well, I would have been right on that regard, (although if you had asked me that question a few months ago I would not have even had that right), but now that we had taken this morning to go on a tour of the “Lower Citadel”, I can tell you a little more. Can you imagine a conflict, no, a war, where over 700,000 men lose their lives in just 4 months, and to top that all off, neither the aggressor or the defender gained any strategic advantage over the other. Verdun is where that part of WWI took place. Our tour took place inside the Citadel. This Citadel, built by the Vauban’s in the 17th century as a logistical center for the military, was “honeycombed” with tunnels that seemed to go forever. It could house over 2,000 men and supply them with all their needs from cooking, medical, armament, and command posts. It also gave them their access to the trenches that they fought from. Our tour took us 6 at a time, through the tunnels on a small tram. It was really done well, with videos portrayed as if we were there at the time, and fixed displays of the mess and living areas to mention a couple. If it had a negative, it was that it was COLD as hell in there…about 7 degrees Celsius, but that also gave me a little “close time” with Louise. We continued our walk of Verdun by going into the town its self. Verdun sits on both sides of the Meuse River. It isn’t very large so we were able to walk it in no time at all. Fact is, this is the first time that we have seen physical evidence of fighting from WWI and WWII. There are a number of buildings that still have areas where bullets have hit the building and left the marks to show it. Seeing as how most of the shoppes close down from noon to 2, we went looking for lunch. I must say, Louise seems to always order the right foods…she ordered this chicken and corn salad, and it was fantastic. After lunch, we found the internet, so I was able to up-load and Louise was able to answer some emails that were over do. As we walked through town, we came upon a long water feature that came down from a tall monument at the top of the hill. The first look, it reminded me of a Aztec pyramid, but it was one more additional WWI monument to those who fought for Verdun. You might say, that I was a little taken with all that we saw. We also saw a wonderful cathedral. Most of the stained glass windows were from the 13th century. It is amazing to see the work that they could do then, spectacular. You know, it’s always good to get back to “Bumble Bee” after a day like this, because we have that little time where we sit outside, around the table and enjoy a well deserved glass of wine and a taste of cheese. Then of course, comes out the barbeque to complete the enjoyment with a great meal. You know, I’ve been going to mention this for quite awhile…(now that I think about it, I’ve already done it a time or two, but..), in this campground we have a mixture of travelers from all over Europe, but a group that stands out in numbers are those from The Netherlands… If we were to take a count tonight, I would lay you odds that about 80% are Dutch…THEY ARE THE TRAVELERS and we have seen them in every country we have been in!!! Tomorrow, we pull up again and this time we are heading up to Luxemburg for a day or two 25 February ’05, Friday Grande Arche la Defense Paris, France Day 2 in Paris…A short walk to the bus, and on to the metro station…today, we are going to try the metro, and take it to the Musée du Louvre. This museum is probably the world’s most complete and impressive art museum. We would have enjoyed it all, but it is just too large and has so much to take in for a days visit. I guess the real star in the museum, if there is a “star”, is the painting of the Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci. Some of the other works of art we saw included, Rubens, Raphael, Titian, and Rembrandt to name a few. Well, we did see it, and it was impressive, but the negative, is the crowd that it draws around it…you have to give back what you are given, in getting to the front…push, punch, kick, in that order… just kidding, but it was a tussle. I guess I should step back a little and tell you about the museum itself. In overall area covered (ground), it’s not as big as “Hotel National des Invalides”, but it makes up for that by having more square footage of rooms to fill with all the “art” and artifacts. The building architecture is a mix of “very” old and new. The metro delivers you directly into the lower floors and, as you exit, you find yourself walking a shopping mall. Most of the items for sale are related to what you will find in the floors above (the museum). As you walk the long corridor to the end, you find a large glass inverted triangle. Just around the corner from that, you enter the museum itself. Once you have your ticket you are ready to walk the beautifully ornate rooms that hold all the museum pieces. The structure, since 1682, was once the palaces of the kings of France, and is one of the largest palaces in the world. In 1793 it was officially opened to the public as a museum. It was a full day in the Louvre, but we had one more stop. We boarded the metro again and headed out to see “La Défense” of Paris. This is a largest modern architectural development of tall buildings in Europe. All stand on a large, circular, raised concrete pedestrian slab, with roads, parking and subway below. This “community” of ultra-modern towers was established to take the development pressures off of Paris and it’s historic preservation. The one structure that I wanted to see for myself, was the “Grande Arche”. This is an office tower in the shape of an open cube. It is enormous !!! It just happens to be the same width as the Arc de Triomphe and completes the long series of monuments extending from the Louvre through the Arc de Triomphe and on through to the Grande Arche La Defense….all, in one long line following Champs Elysées Boulevard. 24 February ’05, Thursday. I’ve got to tell you, we enjoyed both, the Blanc and the Rouge…. We didn’t make it to the Louvre as per previous plans, but we did see a ton of Paris. This is a great place to visit !!! Yesterday (Thursday) we decided to “hoof it” around Paris and take in as many of the sites as we “physically could”, and we took in a lot of the great city. We did catch a bus to Porte Malliot, which is just up the road from the campground about a 2 miles. From there we walked up the avenue des Champs Elysees to the Arc de Triomphe. This trip to Paris, brings back some wonderful memories that we had with you girls (Mikleane, Leslee, and Joelle), seven years ago. That time, as well as this one, we walked our legs off. From the Arc we continued onto the Eiffel Tower. The crowds were much smaller for the lift to the top this time…it must have been because of the cold and snow. I tried many different pictures, with as many different angles, and it still came back to the traditional long shot that looks the best. We walked to the Trocadero, the Grand Palace, walked the banks of the Seine, and had lunch at a typical non-descript restaurant that served a good meal at a fair price. We visited the “Hotel National des Invalides”, which included Napoleon’s Tomb, the Museum of the Order of the Liberation of France, and displays of history from WWI and WWII. The Army Museum included items of history (1650-1945) from Louis XIV, Napoleon, and De Gaulle. There was also a graphic exhibit on the massacre of the Jews by the Nazi’s. The overall size of the Hotel National des Invalides, is amazing…I have never seen anything like it, the buildings and the exhibits were all maintained and done well. About 5pm we started walking back towards the Arc de Triomphe and our bus connection, but before we got there, we were pulled into a movie theatre by the smell of popcorn… We saw “Aviator” and really enjoyed it. This brings to mind one more thing…we have heard so many stories of how “rude” the people of France may be, and how “no one” will acknowledge speaking or understanding English…well, I would like everyone to know that we haven’t found that to be the case, as a mater of fact, it has been just the opposite. We have been treated with respect and courtesy, and just about everyone at least tries or succeeds in speaking to us in English. On the bus and the trains, we have encountered a few who have found it necessary to take more than one seat and give no inclination that they will give one up to you, but that has been the only negative thing. Well, after the show, as we were heading for the bus, we continued looking for an internet café that we had been unsuccessful finding in the morning, so on the way back we continued. Just prior to getting to the bus stop, we stopped and asked someone in a store once again, and he was able to direct us to one, so we changed directions a little and took care of a little business. Having accomplished that, we headed for home, a snack, and a quick to bed (by 9:45). Another big day for tomorrow. 23 February ’05, Wednesday. Basilica of Notre Dame de Fourviere, Lyons France Yesterday we enjoyed a full day just wondering the streets of Lyons. The Basilica Notra Dame de Fourviere, in all it’s striking majesty, sits high on a hill overlooking the old city…as you look up to it, it will knock you over because of it’s size and it’s beauty. Now, that’s before you find all the stairs that you have to climb to get there. It is a huge complex of church and chapel of the Virgin. We opted for the steep streets going up, and the stairs coming down, and my muscles still cramp thinking of all that torture. This Basilica has some of the most beautiful mosaic tile art work in the world. I wanted to take a picture of it, but because of the brilliance of some of the tiles, it made it impossible. Now, a surprise to me, Lyons is the culinary capital of the world. We didn’t hit the “High-roller” spots for lunch, but the restaurant we did go to, served a wonderful lunch and at a reasonable price as well. Next on our list, was the Cathedral of St. Jean. A beautiful gothic church that houses a fourteenth century astronomical clock. A real treasure. Today, our drive from Lyons to Paris was about 450 km and we took the toll road to make the best time we could. Unfortunately, we didn’t have any campgrounds prior to Paris that we could stay at, seeing as this is the winter time and most are still closed. We were on the road by 9am and we pulled into the campground about 3pm, or 6 hours to cover 290 miles. We didn’t get a chance to really enjoy the scenery, as we had snow falling off and on the whole way. The clouds were right down on top of us. We did see a few fantastic chateaus and some rustic villages. When we found our turn off from the toll way, the snow was coming down pretty good. As we came to the first corner, it turned out to be a giant round-about, and it led off to at least 5 different directions….”what one do we take ????” “I can’t find our sign”…”Go right”…”What is that???, O God, it’s the Arc de Triomphe, and we’re going the wrong way…” “OK, hold on, I’ll make a U-Turn and we’ll go back..” “Right in front of the Arc de Triomphe ???”..”Oh God”…”OK, now, go around the round-about a couple of times so I can read the signs…” Well, we found our sign and were able to make our way to the campground without any additional hitch. We are camped on the bank of the Seine River and on the opposite side of the road is a huge park called Bois de Boulogne. Our bus stop is just up the street a little bit. We will grab the bus and the metro tomorrow and go to the Louvre and hope to see the painting of the Mona Lisa, along with many other fine works of art. Now for that glass of vin de France!!! Rouge or Blanc ??? 21 February ’05, Monday. Roman Viaduct Pond du Gard 9am the sun is shining, a little toward the COLD side and we push off towards Lyons. Our first stop will be about 40km (25 miles) up the road to Pont du Gard. Pont du Gard is a beautifully preserved Roman aqua-duct. It sits in a remote and very peaceful country setting, with the Gard River running under it. This structure is more than just a viaduct for carrying water. The water “trough” is at the highest point of the structure, and then they built a bridge beside it that is about 1/3 the height of the whole. This was the highest bridge ever constructed by the Romans and was used to carry water from Uzes to Nimes, which is over 50 km away (30 miles). The water channel isn’t in use now, but we could walk across the bridge portion. Again, it turned out to be just the right time to visit, as the sun was out and starting to warm things up a (very) little, and there was very few visitors there. We enjoyed about an hour there and then got back into “Bumble Bee” and continued on to Lyons. Again, our plan was to take the secondary roads and enjoy the scenery and get up and personal with the little villages along the route. We had a much straighter route today, which was nice, but the “round-a bout’s” will drive you crazy after awhile. About noon we found ourselves getting into some weird weather for this time of year. Snow…coming at us sideways, the wind blowing so hard that it pushed us all over the road, and then everything would stop, begin again with the largest flakes just floating, and then the wind and snow again…hell, it was quite a show. By the time we arrived in Lyons and found our new campground, there was enough snow in the ground that all I had to do, was dip my bucket down once to fill it with enough snow to cover our champagne bottle that complimented tonight’s dinner. Our plans are to spend 2 days here and then continue heading north with our next stop in Paris. 20 February ’05, Sunday. A French Village on The French Riviera This morning we found ourselves up, showered, breakfast finished, finished our packing and we were heading out for the gate by 9:15am…I believe it is in record time for us. Yesterday late afternoon I went up to see Rebecca Kaufmann at the front desk of “La Vieille Ferme Campground, to pay our bill so we could possibly get this early start, and what do you know, it worked. Speaking about working…Rebecca was really one of the best host or hostess that we have had in camping this last year, and I just wanted to say “Thank You” one more time for making our stay just that much better… Last night as I was walking back to “Bumble Bee”, I was called over to the “Morgan” caravan. We had met Jackie and Don Morgan earlier, and had enjoyed their invitation for a glass of wine then. Well, Don thought it might make a good excuse to have another one seeing as how we were leaving in the morning, so we joined them again and had a great time…”Thanks Morgans”, we hope to see you again in England later this year… Today we hit the coast road heading West as far as la Ciotat (just before Marseille), and then turned north-west, with our destination being the campground at Nimes. Taking the coast road was just as we had expected…winding and twisting. Traveling on a Sunday, we had a lot of bicyclist and sport car enthusiastic (we must have had every Porsche in France go by us) on the roadway…it has to be the twisting road with the outstanding views…WOW !!! It wasn’t long after we got past Cannes that we started to see some real changes in the soil and rock formations. Deep rust colors were the first, and they went right on down to and entered the blue-green waters of the Med…Really spectacular, and then, we started hitting the beaches with the dark gold sand. This continued with changes just about every 20 minutes or so…quite a day. Our plan for the day was to stay off the “Pay” roads, but as it was we still had a couple that we just had to pay out on…France is the worst for this…pay, and then pay again… The truth is, even if you stay off the pay roads, you pay for the extra gas and time. If we were to have taken the pay road all the way to Nimes, we would have most likely made it about 3 hours earlier and with less than half the gas that we had to use on the slower windy roads…pay them now or pay later. Tomorrow we pull up camp and head to Lyon. We will pay the “troll” of the road… |
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