South - to Chartres

May 21 - Time to leave Paris.  First stop - Chartres to see the Cathedral and perhaps even the Stained Glass Museum.  It was a beautiful day and Grace was at her best guiding us through all the "peages" (toll booths).  Since it was a throughway, there were plenty of those, and like the gas situation in France, quite expensive to use the turnpikes.  It seemed as if every few minutes one had to cough up more euros to go through the turnstiles!  Oh well, we don't come here every year and I had already calculated that the tolls would be high.  As I planned our trip, I used the website Viamichelin to find the best route or the most scenic one which might cost less, though the scenic routes are always filled with those very tricky windy roads.  In reality, I didn't know Grace would be so good at her job so I had printed the time, cost, and actual route all the way to Provence and back (excluding the two weeks we would spend in the south).  Still, it was difficult to keep shelling out our change or breaking a new 10 or 20 euro bill.

We kept on track most of the time, but there were a few detours where Grace needs some "map updating" as she led us on a merry chase around some fields as you will see later.  Of course, not only this first day out from Paris, but many of the successive days would become much longer than I had planned for.  We seem to like a leisurely pace, probably the result of the being the age at which we have arrived.

Parking is tough in any French town or city (there is NO WAY I would drive in Paris) and Chartres was no exception.  We went around a few times (allowing for some photo ops out the window while I got ready for the next tour around the block).

To the left is one of the miniscule parking areas one must fit into or park on the street.  There are two rows in this parking lot and when backing out, there is little room to maneuver.  Joe read the instructions, kept putting in money, and the machine kept rejecting his offerings.  Finally a young man came along and gave us a hand.  It seems we couldn't put in more money than the peage permits one to stay.  Finally we were all set to climb up to visit the Cathedral.

Unfortunately, the stairs near the parking area seemed too numerous and steep to tackle so we went down the street to try to find a different entrance.  Here are a few of the sights on the way.

 Plan B - climb the stairs

View over the city not even halfway up (at least there is a bench).

At last the halfway mark (more or less)

Finally flat land

Side entrance

No picture can do justice to these magnificent stained glass windows!

There is a lot of renovation at many of the historic sights we are visiting.

A lovely layered garden near the information center

On the way to the Stained Glass Museum only a few minutes from the Cathedral.

Stained Glass Museum

A reproduction of one the windows at Chartres

Besides housing some examples of very old church windows, there are also reproductions of windows that one can appreciate more in this setting than in the churches themselves as they as so high up.  There is also a workshop here that gives week-long workshops for people who want to learn the techniques of stained glass making.  

Glass does not melt until a high rather high temperature.  So, one can glaze and cook, glaze and cook.  Below there are panels that illustrate the various steps to the finished product.

The examples below are plastic reproductions of the windows in Chartres, telling the many stories of the gospel for those who could not read.  This is a truly fascinating museum.

Workshop

As we left Chartres to head south, I reveled in the sight of the bright red poppies that grow wild all over France, like the ubiquitous impatiens in Mexico. 

The land in the center of France (Bauce) is dotted with farms in the middle of fields of grain.

Like other European countries, more and more energy is produced by windmills.  Barely visible in the distance the white windmills here in central France are a welcome sight after living in New England with Cape Wind's trials at starting up windmills on Cape Cod!  When will we Americans learn to invest more in this energy source?

Oops!  Grace had us going around these fields in a circle.  No doubt a problem with her maps!

These beautiful trees as well as many poplars used to line the main road leading to the south.  I guess about 20 years or more ago it was decided that having trees on both sides of the road was not good for drivers' vision and most of them were cut down.

 At this point in the trip, little did we know how late we would reach the next hotel.  Unfortunately, it was 10:15 in the evening when we stopped out in the middle of the countryside to ask for help in reaching our resting place.  Unfortunately, I was not carrying a cell phone, though I brought my old phone I bought in Mexico to see if I could change the chip and use it in France.  We had spent time going in Grace's circles.  She had us reaching our destination in a place with no lights out in front and no hotel in sight.

We stopped at someone's house who phoned the hotel for us. Apparently they had given away our room and had put us in a different hotel.  We finally got there and collapsed into slumber.