Chartres Surprises
18 June 2017 | Connelles, France
Ted, Hot and still
Despite our desire that Sunday be delayed, it came anyway. Our breakfasts in B&Bs always seem to take an educational bend. The owners of Les Fleurons, Tim and Carolyn, told us much about the historical buildings along the Loire. Carolyn had taken us on a tour of a two-bedroom apartment they were finishing for use, giving Shan more decorating ideas. She also tactfully resolved Shan and my argument as to whether a word we had seen the evening before on a menu board was a noun or a verb. One of their guests, one from New Zealand, gave us a lesson on cooking soft-boiled eggs, also resolving another of our discussions about cooking time.
With the car packed and good-byes said, the headed for the local Carrefour market to get food for the evening when markets would be closed and restaurants full. Although we always check our routing using the Internet, we never really know how our GPS plans to route us. The GPS voice is a woman with an English accent whom call "Veronica". Consequently, the route Veronica chooses comes sometimes as a surprise. Today we had driven for about an hour or so, and then having left the autoroute we saw the spires of a great cathedral looming in the distance.
Consulting her paper map, she determined the spires were those of Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Chartres dating to the 13th century and home to a famous labyrinth that pilgrims have visited to walk its paths for centuries. Shan's words of "No, we don't need to stop," most usually, after 29 years together, I know to mean the exact opposite. We stopped.
Shan only took about 75 photos and lit a candle for loved-ones who might need a boost. Trying to capture the essence of such a great structure as this cathedral is like try to do the same with the Grand Canyon. Not really possible, but worth a try. She did walk the labyrinth, not inside the cathedral as it was Sunday and chairs were set up over it, but out behind the cathedral there was a smaller one in the garden, which the picture above shows her success in getting to the center.
Eventually, we did find our way to the hotel in Connelles. We had made reservations at the last minute and were also surprised to find us booked into the 3rd floor (4th in America) with no elevator. Good exercise for the knees! The other surprise was that a convenient bar had opened across the street, although no space for dinner, they did have space of us to have a gin and tonic to combat the 94F heat. The manager of the bar was Portuguese and preferred speaking English, so we got a short lesson in Portuguese and well as relief from the heat!
Tomorrow Giverny!