Now that's a church...

Last Thursday, the group piled on a less-than-comfy bus with all of our luggage and beat feet out of Paris for the quiet city of Chartres. After about an hour and a half of trying to maximize comfort, we arrived.

I can’t stress this enough to those who haven’t seen it, but Chartres is huge. Much larger, in fact, than Notre Dame de Paris (this was later confirmed by the tour guide). And as it happened, our guide turned out to be the one and only Malcolm Miller, who also happened to be my mother’s tour guide when she visited at the age of 18. He’s been there for 50 years and, according to him, will be there till Judgment Day.

Here’s one of the statues that’s carved into the side of the church. It’s of a baby Virgin Mary and her mother Saint Anne. Mary lost her head during the revolution, as heads were wont to do.

The cathedral is beautiful, with amazing craftsmanship in every angle. Mr. Miller was right when he said that an hour tour couldn’t do it justice, we only nicked the surface. But we had to pile back on the bus and get on our way to Rennes, where our host families would be waiting. (The wine at lunch helped facilitate a nap.)

Ciao et bises!