And So It Continues...
Posted by Ashley | | Posted On Monday, May 27, 2013 at 2:19 PM
I am trying so hard to be faithful in my blogging, since I am using this as my journal as well, but man...I am starting to get to the point where I can barely function at the end of each day. Your body really can only handle so much of just "go, go, go!" before it gives out. I am starting to reach my limit. However, even if it take a million energy drinks, I plan on pushing myself to the very end! Especially since my parents will be joining me for an extra five days in London :) I consider that my town, in all honesty. I am really excited to go back.
Most of our day was spent in Chartres, a little town that is about an hour train ride outside of Paris. The cathedral there is beautiful, one of my favorites this far and is an excellent example of the French Gothic style. We were honored with a special guest lecturer. Malcolm Miller, a British art historian, is the world's leading expert on Chartres Cathedral. It was a very interesting and well-done lecture, in my opinion. But it was also entertaining because he is VERY British. His sense of humor was pretty dry and definitely quirky and I found him very amusing...but he also seemed quite arrogant about his art history knowledge (which, I mean, he has dedicated his entire life's work to a single cathedral so obviously he knows what he is talking about but sometimes it rubbed me the wrong way just a little). All-in-all, I learned a lot and enjoyed the experience.
Following the lecture, I took some extra time to enjoy the cathedral's interior. I love the light spots on the floor that are created by the small slots between the stained-glass components of the windows. If you stand directly in the spot and look up you are blinded for an instant and then the light turns into that color star shape you always see in photographs. I took a moment to be a kid again and imagine that I was seeing a miraculous vision in those sun bursts. It reminded me of how when I was younger I always thought that sunbeams shining through the clouds meant that someone was having a vision. I used to stress because, according to that logic, hundreds of people had seen visions and I had not seen anything! It was kind of funny to reminisce on that for a few moments. I have noticed that lately I have this deep nostalgia for my childhood...it may have something to do with graduating college and having to go into the real world (well...as "real" as Disney World gets :).
Once I had my fill of the cathedral, I wandered into town and found a cute and delicious little bakery and had a simple ham and cheese sandwich and a MAXI pain au chocolate (basically a huge chocolate-filled piece of flakey, buttery bread). It was sooooo good, that I found Mehlanie and took her back so she could get lunch and I could try an apple beignet (which was delicious, by the way). We then went to the backside of the cathedral were there are some pretty garden areas and laid out in the grass to take a nap before having to catch the train back into Paris. It was a beautiful day and it felt so great to just lay down and relax.
On the way back to the station, I caved and bought my first country patch. Let me explain ("No...there is too much. Lemme sum up!"): a bunch of girls on this trip had been buying patches from each country we have visited. When I asked what they were for, I heard someone say that they were going to sew them onto a jacket. That didn't sound appealing to me, so I didn't pay too much attention. But then, a couple days ago, I saw this young guy on the metro with a professional backpacking back pack. On his backpack were all these patches from countries he had been to, including one for a base camp for the summit climb on Everest...! I was suddenly totally sold on patch collecting. Too bad I started in country 5/6. Fail on my part. After buying the patch, I had extreme buyer's remorse but oh well. I guess it will encourage me to actually fulfill y dream of becoming a legit backpacker so I can have an awesome pack to at least sew it on to!
After all of this, we rushed over to the Musee de l'Orangiere, because we found at the last second that it will be closed all tomorrow. There we saw Monet's Waterlilies (or at least a couple of them since there are 200+ paintings in that particular series). They were massive. I ha no clue that they took up entire walls on their own. They are also very beautiful in their simplicity.
We broke for the day after this ruses visit. Nate, Chelsea, Katie and I then went to Luxembourg Gardens with the intent of exploring but found when we got there that we could not stop thinking about crepes. Our explorations were cut short due to intense carvings and we finished off the night with Nutella crepes at my favorite joint at the Sainte Michel fountain.
Back at the hotel, I finalized Nate and I's travel arrangements for Cardiff and then spent a little time helping watch Will (James' youngest) while Mehlanie babysat the other kids so James and Katie could go to the Eiffel Tower together.
Not a bad day/night at all.
Most of our day was spent in Chartres, a little town that is about an hour train ride outside of Paris. The cathedral there is beautiful, one of my favorites this far and is an excellent example of the French Gothic style. We were honored with a special guest lecturer. Malcolm Miller, a British art historian, is the world's leading expert on Chartres Cathedral. It was a very interesting and well-done lecture, in my opinion. But it was also entertaining because he is VERY British. His sense of humor was pretty dry and definitely quirky and I found him very amusing...but he also seemed quite arrogant about his art history knowledge (which, I mean, he has dedicated his entire life's work to a single cathedral so obviously he knows what he is talking about but sometimes it rubbed me the wrong way just a little). All-in-all, I learned a lot and enjoyed the experience.
Following the lecture, I took some extra time to enjoy the cathedral's interior. I love the light spots on the floor that are created by the small slots between the stained-glass components of the windows. If you stand directly in the spot and look up you are blinded for an instant and then the light turns into that color star shape you always see in photographs. I took a moment to be a kid again and imagine that I was seeing a miraculous vision in those sun bursts. It reminded me of how when I was younger I always thought that sunbeams shining through the clouds meant that someone was having a vision. I used to stress because, according to that logic, hundreds of people had seen visions and I had not seen anything! It was kind of funny to reminisce on that for a few moments. I have noticed that lately I have this deep nostalgia for my childhood...it may have something to do with graduating college and having to go into the real world (well...as "real" as Disney World gets :).
Once I had my fill of the cathedral, I wandered into town and found a cute and delicious little bakery and had a simple ham and cheese sandwich and a MAXI pain au chocolate (basically a huge chocolate-filled piece of flakey, buttery bread). It was sooooo good, that I found Mehlanie and took her back so she could get lunch and I could try an apple beignet (which was delicious, by the way). We then went to the backside of the cathedral were there are some pretty garden areas and laid out in the grass to take a nap before having to catch the train back into Paris. It was a beautiful day and it felt so great to just lay down and relax.
On the way back to the station, I caved and bought my first country patch. Let me explain ("No...there is too much. Lemme sum up!"): a bunch of girls on this trip had been buying patches from each country we have visited. When I asked what they were for, I heard someone say that they were going to sew them onto a jacket. That didn't sound appealing to me, so I didn't pay too much attention. But then, a couple days ago, I saw this young guy on the metro with a professional backpacking back pack. On his backpack were all these patches from countries he had been to, including one for a base camp for the summit climb on Everest...! I was suddenly totally sold on patch collecting. Too bad I started in country 5/6. Fail on my part. After buying the patch, I had extreme buyer's remorse but oh well. I guess it will encourage me to actually fulfill y dream of becoming a legit backpacker so I can have an awesome pack to at least sew it on to!
After all of this, we rushed over to the Musee de l'Orangiere, because we found at the last second that it will be closed all tomorrow. There we saw Monet's Waterlilies (or at least a couple of them since there are 200+ paintings in that particular series). They were massive. I ha no clue that they took up entire walls on their own. They are also very beautiful in their simplicity.
We broke for the day after this ruses visit. Nate, Chelsea, Katie and I then went to Luxembourg Gardens with the intent of exploring but found when we got there that we could not stop thinking about crepes. Our explorations were cut short due to intense carvings and we finished off the night with Nutella crepes at my favorite joint at the Sainte Michel fountain.
Back at the hotel, I finalized Nate and I's travel arrangements for Cardiff and then spent a little time helping watch Will (James' youngest) while Mehlanie babysat the other kids so James and Katie could go to the Eiffel Tower together.
Not a bad day/night at all.
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