Nice Monday 8th Sept

 Saturday back to Paris & Sunday 16th June to London.

Only one stop on our journey back to Paris to see the cathedral at Chartres. Just a small cathedral, on the journey in Truda told us a bit about the history, a soldier who was an architect also, stopped it being destroyed during the revolution, Then the stained glass windows, the biggest collection of medieval stained glass (and huge windows at that!) were taken out as war enveloped Europe, WWII, and as German forces got closer they were hauled across country and hidden in a disused quarry. Then there is a story about the cathedral being saved by an American soldier when the allies were going to destroy the cathedral as the German army was suspected of being installed there, but this American took it upon him self to go and check and found they weren’t so it wasn’t bombed but Wellborn Barton Griffith Junior was aopparently killed shortly afterwards 

See the little people

Inside ther is a bit of scaffolding as they have been cleaning the inside , you can see a the difference tween the clean and the still dirty in the following photos, apparently the cathedral was really dark before, which was a good setting for stained glass, but is now looking more light and airy. they used the woad flower to make the cobalt blue, this is the first stained glass to have Mary in cobalt blue, A pity it wasn’t a sunny day but glass was still beautiful. Those squares in the windows are a metre x a metre.

The choir and one of the rose windows, 

They have this carved frieze around the outside of the choir something like a hundred metres long that was completed over the centuries, you can see the different styles of carving as you go around , it is incredibly intricate, some of the heads have been looted which was quite common as often you see newer heads on carvings.Also includes a clock with astrological signs.

There is also a mural on the way to the cathedral of Jean Moulin, one of the main heroes of the French Resistance, and his efforts to unigy the resistance under Charles de Gaulle. He and other resistance members were betrayed and captured in Lyon. He was tortured by the Gestapo and died whilst in their custody. There is a description of his torture in Wikipedia, I couldn’t read it all. But he has since been buried in the Pantheon in Paris. He was a very handsome man as the mural shows.

Goodbye from our driver, Denis from Latvia and she arcade where my second hotel was in Paris as I was waiting for my taxi, earlyish hence no people!

It was raining when I left Paris, managed to negotiate Gare du Nord, bought a sandwich and drink for the train, only to be served breakfast of yoghurt, some fresh cherries, pain au chocolat, juice and water which was nice. Journey was quick just over two hours, most of it in France, so green and so pretty, then it was into the dark and came out the other side it was sunny and partly cloudy. I had decided to take the Tube to the hotel as was given simple instructions, so bought a Oyster card on the Eurostar, although you can use payWave I wanted to make sure there were no fees attached. So I had to take the yellow circle line to Paddington, but a few of the lines had closures, got new directions from an info person, sounded simple - take the Victoria line South to Oxford circus and then the Bakerloo line to Paddington - only thing missing  was whether aI should go north or South on the Bakerloo line, so it was a bit of a challenge to find that out

But I made it to Paddington which is a short walk to my hotel. Settled in ate my sandwich and went for a walk to Hyde Park a bit of a walk around there.

Not sure what monument that is with lots of scaffolding??

The Henry Moore Arch, there was a lot of re wilding going on there too, but some nice fountains, bit of a posh area I’m staying in saw 6 Porsches within a block, peppered with Mercedes, Audis and BMWs, also a modern rolls almost like they stuck a rolls grill on a Range Rover SUV. Found an ATM and a Cornish pasty made in Cornwall - maybe I should have waited, but such a lovely change after ham and cheese sandwiches. Back to the hotel to rest up, watch some TV in English and go to sleep early!!