Chartres Day Two, Part Two

I only hung out in my room for about an hour, before heading back out again on the long walk to find the Maison Picassiette, which is the second biggest site in Chartres. I didn't realise how far it was, though. I walked, and walked, and finally found a sign, and walked some more. When I checked my map, I realised that it would be faster to cut through a cemetery that's just nearby. It turned out to be several city blocks wide, though, I swear, so it was more walking until I finally came out exactly where I needed to be!

The Maison Picassiette (or Picassiette House) used to be where Raymond Isidore and his wife lived in the early to mid-1900s. He was a basic manual worker, but some passion, insanity, or inspiration drove him to cover his entire house in paintings and gorgeously complicated mosaics made from crockery, bits of glass, and other random things like shells. They don't allow pictures (which seems stupid to me; what are they protecting? They don't have a gift shop or anything), but I sneaked a couple anyway. The amazing thing is that you don't expect every single thing to be a mosaic, but it is. The sewing machine, the stove, the walls, floors, flowerpots, *everything*. A lot of it is depictions of Biblical stuff and Christian iconography, and there are also world monuments, and a whole area full of designs and models of the various sites in Chartres (he seemed particularly preoccupied with the cathedral, which he apparently visited every year on his birthday). They had a couple of records written by his wife, along with pictures and the basic history, and she said that he basically just always wanted to live surrounded by beauty and couldn't imagine why people wouldn't, and so he made that beauty himself.

The house is pretty small, and doesn't take long to circuit through, so I was done quickly and headed back to town. I went through the cemetery again on my way, and this time wandered through at leisure and took some pretty pictures. People think it's weird, but I do love cemeteries; they're peaceful, and beautiful.

When I got back to the town center, I was dog-tired and my feet were killing me from all the walking, so I went back to my hotel for a nap. That evening, I ended up deciding that between the fact that it was raining, how full I still was from lunch, and the little bit of food I had left over from my lunch on the train the previous day, I would just stay in for dinner and not worry about it. I set my alarm (properly this time) and went to bed.

Chartres Day Two: Things Start To Wind Down

This morning I planned to wake up early so that I could get over to the cathedral by the time the North Clock-Tower was supposed to open. I'd brought my alarm clock along, but I had to reset it before I went to bed since I'd taken out the batteries for traveling.

I mention this, because I ended up accidentally setting it an hour early. I woke up unawares, got showered, worked on getting myself together... and then realised that it was an hour before I had to be anywhere near ready. So, I napped a bit, and then got up and got dressed. I went down for breakfast at the hotel (which, for future reference, the convenience is probably not worth the 7 Euro). I had a croissant with some honey and applesauce and orange juice, and headed back to the cathedral.

I wanted to wear my black slacks today, but I realised when I went to put them on that the basting stitch Gramma used to hem them to my short was coming loose, and the hem was flopping around. I saw a Singer store when I was out and about yesterday, so I decided to go looking for it first. I wandered a lot, and found the apparent shopping district of Chartres, but I couldn't find the store. I did see a beautiful flower market, though, and was really tempted to buy myself some tulips (they were only 5 Euro...) but I resisted the urge. I also saw an adorable little girl who looked to be around six, walking a big brindle dog that was about as tall as she was. :)

Eventually I just headed back in the direction of the cathedral, unknowingly passing right by the Singer store without noticing. >.> There wasn't anyone at the desk where you pay to go up in the Tower, so I kind of looked around trying to find someone, before finally a guy came over. I told him I'm a student, and he kind of looked at me, and asked where I'm from. I told him, quite truthfully, that I'm living in Tours, and that got me in for free (it's only supposed to be free for EU students, ages 18-25, but I *do* study in Tours, so I wasn't *technically* lying). ;P

The staircase up to the Tower was intense. It took ages to climb, and was very narrow and twisting. There were little arrow-slit style windows, so I took pictures as I went up. About halfway up the tower they let you out onto a little walkway just under the roof. I assume that's to help with traffic flow, since it'd be hard to pass by people, and also to give people a break from the climb. When you get up to the top, it lets out in two directions, and you can go all the way around. I took a billion pictures of gargoyles and carvings and other Gothic amazingness. The wind was really strong; a couple times I thought the whole tower was going to blow away, and me with it! My hair was a mess, but whatever; the view was fantastic! Apparently on a clear day you can see all the way to the Eiffel Tower in Paris. Unfortunately it's been really wet and rainy so it was cloudy, but it still seemed like you could see forever. Again, though, the passages were incredibly narrow. After a while I went back down; I looked at my phone when I headed down and figured out that it took over 5 minutes of straight descending to finally get to the bottom.

After the climb I was surprisingly drained and my legs were shaking; I checked out that the Crypt tour was at 11am, and went outside to eat a candy bar I had in my purse, then hung out in the nave until the guy showed up to take us on the tour. We went outside, since the Crypt is accessed from there, and down beneath the cathedral. Apparently the Chartres cathedral crypt is one of the biggest in the world, and runs a complete circuit beneath the church. We got to see the oldest part of it, where the walls and the foundations of the church date back to the Merovingian and Carolingian kings. There's also a well at one point whose foundations go back to the Celts; it's believed that the cathedral stands on the site of an ancient Druidic holy site that used to be the capital of the whole region and was mentioned in the diaries of Julius Cesar. Then we went into the Roman part of the crypt, which is covered with ancient frescoes. They tried to uncover and restore the frescoes, without much success, so there's not a lot to look at. We also got to see the reliquary containing the second existing portion of the Veil of the Virgin Mary; apparently it was split up into six pieces in the Middle Ages and divided between various lords. The two pieces in the cathedral are the only two to be recovered. They've been scientifically tested and positively identified as being from Palestine and about 2000 years old, so who knows? There's also a statue of the Virgin that is one of the few to show the transition between the Celtic religion and Christianity; it shows her seated, with her eyes closed and Jesus on her lap. A similar seated goddess with children and closed eyes was venerated by the Celts, which is one reason why the Virgin was used to smooth the introduction of early Christianity. Apparently the Cathedral in Chartres was one of the very first to ever be dedicated to Mary.

After the tour, the guide told us a little about the labyrinth (which I already knew about) and about "St. Jacques' Nail," which is apparently a big nail driven into the floor of the cathedral which corresponds to a pane of white glass in a nearby window. At noon on the summer solstice, the light comes through the glass and shines directly on the nail's head. Our guide said that scientifically it was probably a way to keep their calendars consistent. But there's also apparently some kind of festival that still goes on in the South that has to do with people carrying around torches for Saint Jacques; I didn't really understand the specifics, but he said that the nail might have something to do with that, too.

After I visited the Crypt, I decided to go find that Singer store and get myself some needles and thread. I felt dumb when I realised that I'd just passed right be it before, but I managed to get what I needed. I was also really tempted by some pretty yarn, but I managed to restrain myself. Then I went to find somewhere to eat lunch, and found a Moroccan restaurant, "Le Table au Sud". They had a meal (entrée + main dish) for 13 Euro, which was why I went in, but then the lady told me that it wasn't available on Saturdays. *sigh* I went ahead and just ordered what I had chosen off of the regular menu. My entrée was a "Délice Chevre," which was goat cheese wrapped in some pastry thing with sauces to eat with it. It was really good, although kind of difficult to eat. Then she brought out my Couscous Maison; and kept bringing out food until my eyes about fell out of my head in surprise. There was a heaping dish of couscous, a big bowl of vegetables in soup, another dish of chicken and sausage, and a little dish of chickpeas, white raisins, and some sort of spicy red sauce. They were all table dishes; you serve yourself from them. Even if I hadn't had an entrée I don't think I wouldve been able to get halfway through all the food... it was incredible. I ate until I felt like I would explode, then finally told the waitress I was done. I tottered back to my hotel room to lie down for a bit, hoping it would digest away some.

Once Again Out and About

So, I haven't updated in ages, mostly because I haven't been doing too much that's obviously exciting. I don't really go out much anymore (with just the girls and their boyfriends, it's started to pall...), but I have been hanging out with Giovanni, the guy from my Greek class, and his friends. It's fun, and he's starting to teach me some guitar! I've learned the chords C, D, E, F, G, A, A minor, and B7, and I can do a simple chord progression. It's really not much, but I've never really worked on learning, so it's fun. I got sick, I've been getting better, and I've had classes, obviously. This week was the last week of class, and then we have two weeks of break before Finals, and then my family is coming to visit me here and we're going to have a blast before I go home! It's approaching incredibly quickly; I'm excited to go back, but I'm really feeling good about being here too.

Anyway, for our two weeks of vacation I'm going to Chartres, Bruges, and eventually Carnac. It's not overly adventurous, but I ended up doing it all myself, so I feel like it's very much *my* trip. This morning, I didn't go to our last Écrit/Orale class because I had to catch the train to bring me here to Chartres. Chartres is famous for having one of the most beautiful Gothic cathedrals in existence, and not much else. It's a really small town, with a couple other sites peppered around to make staying here for a day or three more feasible. The Chartres cathedral is also well-known for having a huge stone labyrinth paved into the floor of the nave, which was my personal reason for coming. They clear the chairs away on Fridays so that people can walk the labyrinth, so I was hoping it would work out. Unfortunately it's also Good Friday this weekend, which I hadn't thought about, but I'll get to that.

I took the train from Tours to Le Mans this morning and transferred trains there to come to Chartres. I had bought a sandwich and had some juice for my lunch while I was on the train; it ended up actually being surprisingly crowded. I also had my ticket checked on both trains, which almost never happens usually. When I got to Chartres, the first thing was to find my hotel. I'd specifically picked one that was close to the train station, and also not far from the cathedral. So close, in fact, that I walked out of the station and barely started down the road in front of it when I saw the hotel on my right. It's called the Hôtel Jehan de Beauce, which is the name of the street. Their main attribute is their location. I checked in and everything (my first time doing all this on my own! I was excited!) and went up to my room. It's really small, but that fits me pretty perfectly. I dropped off my luggage and took my purse and my camera and went to find the cathedral. The hotel gave me a guidebook/map, so I had some idea of where I was going.

Which turned out to be a moot point anyway, since I walked down the street and saw the cathedral instantly. It really dominates the town; you can see it from everywhere. I easily made my way over there; like I said, Chartres is *really* small. When I went in the cathedral itself, they were in the middle of Good Friday services. This was less intimidating than it could've been; they were walking around the nave, stopping at various points and praying. One woman gave me a paper that had the various stopping points and the basic prayer for each one, so I ended up just following and watching the procession. It was interesting in that I was probably the youngest person there by a couple decades; there were maybe four or five kids in the whole group, but I didn't see them until later. Each time they stopped represented a specific part of the crucifixion of Jesus; the three times he fell on his way to the mountain, the time a woman wiped the sweat away from his face, when he actually died, when they took his body down from the cross, those kinds of things. I did surprise myself with how much I was able to follow what the priests were saying; and I did pick out the Lord's Prayer (obviously it was all in French). After the procession, they gathered around the altar for more prayer, and I walked around to see the church itself. I took a lot of pictures of the choir screen, which was incredibly beautifully carved. It was also interesting because the carvings in the shrines were all covered with purple cloths, presumably out of reverence for the day. I was very disappointed in my timing, however; because it's Good Friday, they had all of the chairs out in the nave, covering the labyrinth, so I didn't get to walk it. I still took a few pictures, but I was sad.

I went outside again, and walked around the cathedral, taking pictures of the architecture and the area. It was already late enough that everything would've been closed, so I just wandered around the town and looked at things. It was sunny and beautiful, and just a really pleasant walk. When I headed back towards the hotel, it was getting cloudy and started to rain, so I was glad I'd brought my umbrella. I spent a while relaxing and settling into the hotel room a bit, while I was waiting for the restaurants to open for dinner (most places in France don't serve dinner until 7:30pm at the absolute earliest).

There's a restaurant literally just next door to my hotel that a lot of people recommended when I was looking into visiting Chartres, so I figured I'd try it. It's called "017," and while it's not exactly formal or über-fancy, it is definitely a more upscale place. I went in about 8:20, and was only the second person there. I got a glass of rosé wine and a carafe of water to make it last, and then they gave me ample time to look over the menu. The thing about French waiters is that they expect you to take your time, and to relax and converse with people when you go out to eat. The fact that I was by myself made that a little superfluous, but I went ahead and glanced through my little map guide and started planning what I'm going to do tomorrow. Eventually a different waiter came over. He turned out to be fun; when he caught my accent, he said "Oh, you speak English!" and went to go and get the other waiter (who, I found out when she was talking to a British couple that came in later, does speak limited English). I quickly assured him that no, I spoke French too! It was funny.

I got seafood in a curry sauce for my entrée; it was really good, flavourful but not too spicy, with mussels and calamari and all the kinds of ocean creatures I love to eat. For the main dish I basically just picked something that had a Provençal sauce, and it turned out to be a white fish with pasta. It was pretty good; not heart-stopping, but decent. I did decide over the course of my meal that I wouldn't mind making a habit of having a glass of wine with dinner; it was a really good rosé (and this is coming from me, whose palate is so untrained that almost all wine tastes too strong). The fantastic thing, however, was the dessert. Everything was plated very prettily (with random pine sprigs in, for some reason), but my fondant au chocolat was beautiful. I posted a picture on facebook, but it was basically a little chocolate cake with a gooey chocolate center and a little ball of ice cream on top, and there was a little pitcher dish full of cream to pour over it. I practically swooned, it was so delicious. It pretty much wouldn't have mattered at that point if the rest of the dinner had been gross, I was so enamoured with the fondant. When I'd finished, the waiter came to take the plate and caught me nabbing one last taste with my finger, and I assured him that it was perfect. When I had gotten the check and was about to leave, he shook my hand and welcomed me back again.

Then I came back to my room and stretched out on the bed, contentedly full, fat, and purring. I uploaded pics to facebook and wanted to write this before I forgot, but now I'm going to go to bed. I'm getting up early to see things tomorrow! :)

Finally Warming Up

I feel bad complaining about how cold it is, since it's really only, like, 20 degrees. But after walking around outside for 2 hours, my feet were so cold it was painful!

Anyway, recaps. Yesterday we didn't really do much of anything. We were waiting for Sierra and Aaron to show up, and they were supposed to get here around noonish. So we thought that once they came, we could go out and look for cell phones and see the town and stuff. After waiting most of the day, though, we got bored and went for a short walk. Then we came back... and waited even longer. By evening we thought to look up their flights, and it said they wouldn't be arriving until today. So it was quite a surprise when suddenly they were here that evening! Like our original trio, they showed up just in time for dinner and then we hung around a little and went to bed.

This morning, we had to get up early because we had a meeting. The people from the Université wanted us to come by to get paperwork in order, so we had breakfast and left around 10ish. I knew where we were going, after Jacqueline's mini-tour yesterday, so I led the way. When we got there (after having to ask for directions at one point) they took us to a little meeting room and we had to fill out some paperwork. We have another meeting next Tuesday at 3pm, and by then we need to have mostly decided what classes we want to take. We've received all kinds of different reports about when classes actually start; right now our understanding is that regular classes start the 18th of January and the classes for French learners start the 25th. Since we'll be taking both kinds of classes, we need to know both dates.

Caroline was the woman who was helping us, and after everything was filled out she took us on another tour of Tours. We saw mostly just the same stuff as on Jacqueline's tour, but Caroline pointed out some stuff that she knew about that's specifically helpful for students. She left us in front of the Cathedral, and then we went back to the Prefecture to take care of our immigration paperwork. The office didn't open until 1, though, leaving us 20 minutes to stand outside the closed gate. We got sandwiches at a nearby patisserie (where they apparently sell the largest pastries in Tours) while we waited, and then talked to the lady for two seconds. She basically just said we had to mail the papers in to the office.

By the time we got home, my feet were so cold they'd gone past being numb and had started hurting. So I got into bed and have been sitting here for a while warming up. Now I'm not sure what (if anything) is planned for the rest of the day; there's been talk of watching a movie tonight, and we might go out tomorrow night now that everyone's here.

I miss you all (Hello, homesickness. I wondered where you were.) and I hope things are going well back home. <3