Provins -- Day 7

This is our last day in France.  We do not leave the Charles de Gaulle airport until evening so we wanted to do something on the way to the airport, but after staying up so late enjoying the lights of Chartres, we had a hard time getting moving this morning.  By 11 a.m. we were driving out of Chartres, headed for Provins.  We chose it because it is another UNESCO World Heritage site.  During medieval times it was a fair town.  It was another lovely drive through the French countryside.  We spotted the town before we arrived.

We took a driving tour through town.  We went past Caesar's Tour.

Then over to the Saint Quiriace Collegiate Church.

Bryan always drove and I served as the navigator.  As we tried to make our way through the narrow streets of the town, I got us lost.  Some of the streets were just as wide as our car.

We finally made our way to the ramparts.  We got out and hiked to the top.

It gave us a nice view back towards the city of Provins.

We had hoped to eat a nice meal in this city in the Champagne region but we had run out of time.  We ate energy bars in the car as we headed for the airport.  We ate a perfectly horrible meal in the airport before loading onto our plane for a 12 hour flight back to California.

Mont Saint-Michel -- Day 6

I woke up extra early this morning to the sounds of seagulls.

I was so excited about visiting the Abbey that I wasn't upset about the rude awakening. I wanted to be one of the first people into the Abbey. The only problem was that the Abbey didn't open until 9:30 am.  So first we walked out to the causeway because I had heard that the island looks best in early light.  However, with the cloud cover we didn't get the desired view. But I did get a good picture of Bryan.

We walked back through the silent streets for breakfast in our hotel.

Then before everyone descended on the island we strolled slowly to the top...

....and waited at the top of the Abbey steps.  It wasn't long before the rain began and the crowd followed us.

We entered the Abbey at the head of the line and after a quick look back on the causeway and the building of the new bridge...

...we headed into the sanctuary before everyone else.  I reveled in the beauty and tested out the acoustics.

On the chancel area is what looks like a manhole...

We got a different view later in the room under the sanctuary, the Hall of Grand Pillars.

After the sanctuary we entered the cloisters..

...before entering the refectory or dining hall, where the monks ate in silence as one person read the Bible to them from a pulpit.

After several more massive rooms we were directed into the ossuary.  During the Revolution, monasticism was abolished and the abbey became a prison.  A large treadmill was placed in the ossuary. Six prisoners marching two abreast on this wheel, powered two-ton loads of stone and supplies up the cliff.

Looking from the top you can see the way the supplies came up the wall.

We also saw this section from below while taking our morning walk.  They are using this ramp now in the work that is currently happening on the island.

The final room we explored was the Scriptorium Hall where the monks decorated illuminated manuscripts.

From there we were directed outside and down past the gardens.  We looked out, past the cannon to the mudflats below.

We spotted one family taking a tour on the mudflats, during low tide.

Before we left this most incredible place, we got our picture taken with the abbey behind us.

We hurried down to our hotel room to meet the 11:30 a.m. check out.  The streets of the island were now packed with tourists.

We walked through the rainy streets with our suitcase, down the causeway and caught the shuttle back to our car.  It was Sunday and we thought we would get away from the tourists and find lunch along the way.  Our GPS routed us through lovely French countryside.  It was beautiful but we weren't prepared for how everything would be closed on a Sunday.  It rained the whole day.  When we finally made it to the Autoroute, we found a gas station and bought a prepackaged sandwich to eat in the car.  This was the view of the rest of our trip to Chartres.

We arrived in Chartres around 4 p.m. and made a very wet two-block dash for our hotel.  We hurriedly checked in and went out to explore.  Across the street from our hotel was the Place des Epars.  The local Rotary club was running an event in which, for a few Euros, you could get a ride through town in a vintage automobile.

We decided to pass and instead made our way for the Chartres Cathedral, a UNESCO world heritage site.

As you can see the steeples on the cathedral are mismatched.  After a fire destroyed the tower on the left, the spire was topped with a Gothic steeple.  The inside is just as impressive.  A labyrinth is inlaid in black marble on the floor.  Chairs were up for mass and we could only partially see it.

The cathedral is beautiful with a beautiful sculpture of Our Lady of the Assumption behind the altar.

We toured the stained glass and got to see the relic of Mary's Veil, behind bulletproof glass.

In some of the stained glass of Chartres is what is referred to as Chartres Blue, a color created by mixing cobalt oxide into the glass.  This color is no longer made because they aren't exactly sure of the process.

We then walked completely around the outside of the building.  I was stunned to find the signs of the zodiac in the portal about the door on the north porch.

Behind the Cathedral, in what used to be the Bishop's Palace is now the Musee des Beaux Arts.  If you peek over the wall you find another labyrinth, this one made out of grass.

By this time, we had fallen in love with the City of Chartres and decided to do some more exploring.  We walked past the Church of Saint Aignan...

...past the half-timbered house...

...past the abbey church of St. Pierre...

...and down to the Eure River canal.

By then we were trying to figure out how we could move to this beautiful place.  As we walked we noticed little lights in the pavement along the way, powered by tiny solar panels.  We would discover later why these lights were throughout the city.  We headed back up the hill and ate at a restaurant directly across from the cathedral.  We walked back to our hotel.  While I did research for our next day, Bryan fell fast asleep. About 10 p.m. I looked out the window and couldn't figure out why the "ancient Chapelle Sainte-Foy, we had passed on our way back to the hotel, was lit up in such an unusual way. I did some Google looking and discovered that beginning in the middle of April, the city of Chartres does light shows on 29 of their buildings and calls it Chartres en lumieres.  I convinced Bryan that we had to go out into the rain and experience this amazing thing.  The light projected onto the buildings tells stories.  It is hard to capture in a still photo. This is the building next to our hotel.

This is Chapelle Sainte-Foy, which also had music.

But the most impressive site we visited was the Chartres Cathedral.  We sat on a bench and enjoyed the light show, along with several dozen other people.  The music changed to match the lights.

By the time we had been to three sites, it was late and we were freezing.  We knew we would love to walk down to the river and see what amazing things they created down there but we were literally too tired with all the spectacular sites we had seen that day.  We reluctantly made our way back to the hotel as the rain began in earnest.

Leaving Paris -- Day 5

Up and checked out of our hotel by 7 am to catch the train to the airport.  We had a terrible time using coins at the metro station to buy our tickets.  We asked the woman in the information booth for help but she treated us like imbeciles.  She even slammed the door on us.  After about ten attempts we finally made our coins work.  Luckily we were making this trip on a Saturday morning and the train was not too full.  We went to the airport to rent a car.  We have a little black Peugot.  We were very nervous about driving in France and so paid the extra money for GPS.  I highly recommend that decision when traveling in a foreign country.  It saved us repeatedly.  The French countryside was spectacular as we headed to Normandy.

Our first stop was Arromanches to see Port Winston Artificial Harbor.  This is where the Allies landed in the largest amphibious attack ever.  Since it was Winston Churchill's idea it was named for him.

Then we headed towards Omaha Beach to the Longues-sur-Mer gun battery.  Four German casemates (three still with guns intact) can be found here. They are the only original ones left in the D-Day region.

From there we went to the American Cemetery, where 9,387 crosses and stars of David represent the American soldiers who gave their lives on the beaches below.  It is a haunting site.

Bryan's father was drafted at the age of 29.  He came to Europe via Normandy.  Bryan was able to map his father's journey by looking at the walls of the memorial at the American Cemetery.

We wanted to go down to Omaha Beach but police were barricading every route.  So we headed to Pointe du Hoc where US Army Rangers scaled the cliffs to disable a German gun battery.  Huge craters in the ground showed how the Allies had bombed this place to smithereens.  The view from inside the German bunker showed just how vulnerable the Americans were.

Up to this point, the weather had cooperated with our trip, only raining when we were driving between locations.  But at Point du Hoc it began to thunder and so we took off for the car at a run.  We set the GPS for Mont Saint-Michel and ate bread, cheese and strawberries as we drove.  The scenery was stunning.

When we finally spotted our destination we were not disappointed.  My grandmother, who travelled around the globe 11 times with World Campus Afloat when my grandfather was dean of the ship, once told me that I should make sure to visit Mont Saint-Michel before I died.  Now I know why she thought this was such a fabulous place.

Mont Saint Michel seems to arise out of no where.  After several failed attempts we finally figured out where to park the car and catch the shuttle to the island.  We were dragging our suitcase because we had been lucky enough to score a reservation on the island.  The shuttle drops you halfway down the causeway. 

While there were several day tourists entering with us, the Abbey was already closed for visits and the island, which is usually wall-to-wall people, was very quiet.

We walked up,the cobbled street quite a ways before locating our hotel.  This is the view from our room.

We threw down our stuff and headed out the door to explore the island before it got too dark.  We started by walking up to the Abbey.

Then we walked the ramparts.  It was raining again by then and the stone stairs were wet and treacherous.

Every few steps I turned to discover yet another magical view.

By then we were wet, tired and very cold.  We decided that bread and cheese in the car needed to be supplemented.  We ate a lovely dinner overlooking the bay.  Still not ready to pack it in for the night we decided to explore what was behind our hotel.  There is a little cemetery there and as we went up to take a look we discovered that the church next door was open.  What a treasure to find ourselves all alone in this sanctuary.

By then the rain was picking up again and our jackets weren't keeping pace with the frigid air.  We had been hoping to stay outside until the lights on the Abbey came on but we knew we wouldn't make it.  We retreated to our room, turned the heat on max and tried to get warm.  After Bryan fell asleep, I sneaked outside and tried to capture some of the magic of the island at night.

I can't wait to explore the island in the early morning light.