Ducks on a Haloween swim in Chartres
After visiting the cathedral, we took a break for lunch -- not much was open on a Sunday but we were able to get into the casual dining room of the Le Grand Monarque -- a restaurant that was in both the Michelin and Eyewitness guide books. (We'd recommend it.) It fortified us for an afternoon walk through the town. The weather was gorgeous and we enjoyed the kind of fall day that 17 years of living in the South had deprived us of for a long time.
On the way, we noticed that the town seemed rightly proud of its connection with Jean Moulin, a very major figure in the French resistance who was De Gaulle's personal representative. Before the Germans came, Moulin was the Prefect of Chartres. The square and street with his name on it though were too non-descript to photograph.
Next we passed the post office. Although it was built in 1922, it shows the townpeople still took pride in building. This is an art deco structure complete with clock:
On the way back from lunch, Pietrina found this (closed) flower shop that had painted its shutters. We couldn't resist the picture:
Our next major stop was to the 17th century Fine Arts Museum in the former Bishop's palace:
The Musee des Beaux-Arts holds a variety of objects such as a ceramic set of the 12 apostles and some very large collections of early 20th century French artists. We were the first ones in after lunch. The town was not very crowded and I think we had more museum guards than visitors during our tour.
The entrance way is beautiful. Here's a picture of the first room to its left with the chapel in the adjoining room. The women in red is an angel left over from the renaissance.
Afterwards we trod some of the old mediaeval streets north of the cathedral, trying to get into the other churches which we found to be closed. Here's a couple pictures of a pond with the Minimes Bridge. (I have idea why it's called that.)
And the same pond seen from the bridge:
On the steep road back up to the cathedral, we passed some old half timbered houses including this one:
Near the cathedral, we poked our noses through a gate to photograph this well tended rose garden. It still looked good for being a day shy of November in a northern clime:
Next we went to some of the stain glass galleries (Chartres continues to be a leader in stained glass including an international stain glass center). We picked up a few lamps before realizing that there were quite bulky for the train. (It's hard to get out of that American mind set that you can get anything home in your car).
Then it was back to Paris on the 6PM train.
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