Day Trip to Chartres Cathedral

On Saturday we hopped on the train out of Paris to visit The Notre Dame Cathedral in the nearby town of Chartres.  We had heard of this church before but were convinced we should go when Graham's french teacher referred to it as having the most spectacular stained glass windows in France. Our guidebook also cited the town as being very pleasant.

 

On the slick TER double decker train.

Notre Dame

South facade.

The crowning glory of this cathedral is the complete set of huge 13th century stained glass windows that fill every part of the building.  They are absolutely stunning.  


The church has been dubbed a true "bible in stone" because each window tells a story which can be read from left to right, bottom to top.  We spent quite a while picking out bible stories from the many beautiful windows.  Here are few pictures I've found online, but they don't do justice to the number and scale of the windows.

photo by Cadman

photo taken from here

photo by Walwyn

Lovely medieval building called "Salmon House"

Salmon!

We have noticed many different varieties of hydrangia in France, so lovely.

Beautiful clock tower on the North facade.

Standard Graham photos of the train station at Chartres (yes, we have one from most stations we have waited at while on holiday.  Yes, I do try to delete them afterwards)

This is another standard travelling photo.  

It is me in the middle of saying "please don't take a picture of me".  

Yes, I do also delete these.

A night at the theatre: Our engagement story

In my last post I mentioned that we got engaged last time we were in Paris.  Last night we revisited the theatre where Graham proposed and it was so great to relive the moment again after over four years!

The Gardens of Versailles: music + crazy fountains + flowers + enormous = my fav

Welcome the second installment of our trip to Versailles (a.k.a. how the other 0.000001% used to live).


In the last post I shared about our tour of the palace itself.  Here are some pics of the central court, which is the oldest part of the building and has the most crazy gold window sills.

The Palace of Versailles: fancy stuff and a little bit of racism

Last Sunday we visited Versailles.  Graham and I visited Versailles the day after we got engaged in 2007 but we only went into the gardens that day because the queue to enter the palace was craaazzy.  We loved our visit to the gardens, in fact here's a picture of us loving it that day:

Bastille Day: the day I learned not to mess with the French military

July 14 is Bastille Day in France.  It begins with the largest and oldest regular military parade in Europe along the Champs-Elysées.  The main festivities are held in the Place de la Concorde but that area is invite-only so we walked up the Champs-Elysées.  

Cheap Eats in Paris

Paris is often touted as the epicentre of fine cuisine but as any tourist will attest, it is sometimes very difficult to find good food on a tight budget in a place that you aren't familiar with!  

Our Parisian Pied-à-Terre

I finally got around to taking some photos of our studio in Paris, so here's a little tour!