During a cold, damp week in late January, I joined Pat on his regular business trip to France. While he met with the Coty Directors for their bi-monthly meetings at the Chartres plant, I took advantage of my being there to check out the very pretty town and the famous 13th century Cathedral. An incredibly imposing structure, with two very different spires (one Gothic, the other Romanesque) it looms over everything in the town and can be seen from almost every angle. We arrived early Monday morning from Paris and checked into our hotel, Le Grand Monarque, on a square close to the centre of town. I first went to visit the Cathedral and learned there would be a guided tour at noon given by an English guide, provided there were at least 12 visitors. Being a Monday and given the sombre weather, there were only three of us, so no tour! A little ridiculous since the guide came all the way over to the Cathedral just to tell us that, however he suggested we rent the audioguides because all the information contained therein was written and read by him! I nearly froze to death following his commentary in and out of all the portals, however I felt I may never be in Chartres again, so might as well make the best of it! The cathedral is known as one of the crowning architectural achievements of Western civilization. It was built in the Gothic style during the first quarter of the 13th century to replace a Romanesque cathedral that had been destroyed by fire, along with much of the town, on June 10, 1194. The new construction took only thirty years to complete, apparently due to some effective fund-raising and donated labour. While on my tour, I couldn't help but recall Ken Follett's fabulous books about building the cathedral in England (Pillars of the Earth and World without End)...the former is to be released this summer as an eight-hour TV series, with (among others) Canadian actors Donald Sutherland and Gordon Pinsent. Check out his official website: http://www.ken-follett.com/news/index.html
The Cathedral- due to the two different spires, it has a rather lop-sided look to it!
Inside the great Church-the altar and nave.
The famous blue stained-glass windows of Chartres-172 in all, donated by the various guilds in the town at the time, most of them dating back to the 13th century and which survived the fire of 1194. The gray skies outside meant that the true "Chartres blue" inside was not as intense as it should have been. We'll just have to return on a sunny day!
I found it interesting, that a month after Christmas and three weeks after Epiphany, the creche was still on display at the back of the Church.
View of the Cathedral from outside in the back garden.
Below are various views of my walks around the town with its medieval feel in the "Old City" and along the River Eure.
On my second day, I visited the renovated Maison du Saumon which now serves as a town museum. There was a wonderful collection of photos of Old Chartres vs scenes of today. Near the Cathedral, there is an interesting stained glass centre with various exhibitions of glass and where one can take lessons in the art of stained glass and where pictures of all the Cathedral's windows are explained in great detail.
Great food in Chartres: fresh croissants, chausson de pommes, Paleron de boeuf (a sort of pot roast with veggies), mousse au chocolat and espresso coffee served with a biscuit and a truffle!
It was a short and very cold but lovely side trip from Paris, about one hour away by train to Gare Montparnasse.
Christmas now seems like a very long time ago, given that we have just celebrated Easter and Spring has definitely "sprung" here on the shores of the Med (given that it has been many years since my seasonal allergies have been THIS bad!). As we quickly unpacked our shipment from Canada and settled into our new home, we found some Christmas decorations and tried to make things cozy and homey inside. Steph arrived two days late due to delays in both Houston and London but once here, she helped pick out a live potted tree and decorated it in the living room. We spent a rainy day in Barcelona visiting the Christmas market to buy our "caganer" for our nativity scene and a small replicate "Tio". Now the Catalans have some rather peculiar Christmas traditions: in each nativity scene, either in the family home, the Church or in a public square, you will find a "caganer" (literally "crapper", s character who has dropped his pants and is doing "number two", a symbol of fertility for the coming year). We chose one for our house and found ones to present to Lou and Ben as well! Football players, castellaners, even famous people all become "caganers"! The second tradition here is to have the "caga tio" (or poop log) in the home. It is a wooden "beast" (a decorated log) that lives in the kitchen or dining room in the days leading to Christmas and has to be "fed" (dry bread and water) so that on Christmas Day, after hitting it with a stick, it will "poop" the gifts for the children, which are traditionally sweets. The current tradition developed from a country tradition of placing a tree trunk (tio) in the fireplace. The tio gave the gifts of heat and light. In time, the story became more sophisticated, and likely children thought heat and light weren't terribly exciting as presents! Further below you will see a large tio in the village square of Cornudella. I guess you had to be here...
The giant Nativity Scene in Placa de Sant Jaume in the Barri Gotico, Barcelona
Many days during the holidays we were awakened by the sunrise over the Med and the village below.
Our little potted Christmas Tree from the local garden centre (30 Euros) and it has already died!
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care...
Fresh potted plants abound at Christmas-poinsettia, amaryllis, lily and cyclomen, which lasts throughout the winter outside.
Lou and Steph celebrated Christmas upon his arrival on Boxing Day. Does he look just a tad jet-lagged?
The village Church in Cornudella where we celebrated Pat's birthday on December 27th
The "caga tio" in the village square
Birthday dinner at the Hotel Siurana above Cornudella (see blog dated January 14, 2010): Steph, Lou, Pat and Kathie
A day-trip for lunch at Claude's in Banyuls-sur-Mer then a visit to Salvadore Dali's home in Port Lligat on the Costa Brava
View of the little cove outside Dali's house
Inside the home-you can take a self-guided tour at a pre-set time...just be sure you are not late in picking up your tickets and that you have the printed receipt! (We didn't have our printer working at that time, so thought the receipt number from the website purchase would be sufficient...NOT! Pat and Lou were subject to the wrath of the lady behind the wicket who felt compelled to explain just how wrong we were!)
Outside the gardens were also full of art, particularly Dali's signature egg motif
A scarecrow-like work of art (made out of recycled materials) viewed at some distance from a stage. Note the ribcage made out of the bow of a rowboat!
Steph and Lou in a giant egg...the Easter Bunny got ahead of himself this season!
Pat and Kathie
New Year's Day in a local bar by the Med: Pat, Lou and Steph
The road along the beach in Caldes d'Estrac: Lou and Steph soaking up some rays but the air was still chilly! (Lou did regret his choice of shorts later on!)
Beautiful homes and apartments line the street opposite the sea, making for a nice 2 km walk to Port Balis and the marina.
Bringing in the New Year with a paella lunch from Roseta's in Sant Andreu, a take-out kitchen preparing delicious Catalan and Spanish meals.
Our first long weekend in Spain, just before we moved into our new house, found us travelling into Southern France to the area of Languedoc-Roussillon. We headed to the town of Carcassonne with its walled "La Cite" overlooking the newer town (La Basse Ville from the 13th century-reminiscent of Quebec City) and the Canal du Midi below. It looked like something out of a fairy tale! The hill on which La Cite now stands has been fortified over the centuries by a plethora of peoples: Gauls, Romans, Visigoths, Moors and Franks, just to name a few! When Roussillon to the south was incorporated into the French Kingdom in 1659, La Cite was no longer so important as a frontier bastion. The walled city entered into decline and was only rescued by Viollet-le-Duc in the 19th century. We stayed three nights within the walls, keeping to a rigorous schedule of cars in/cars out as no traffic was allowed during much of the daytime!
The first weekend of December began the Christmas season of lights in La Basse Ville.
Our hotel room overlooked the main square where Les Geants and men on stilts were dancing to a crowd of tourists, despite the cold, damp day.
A small boy with his bow and arrow...like something out of the Middle Ages!
Note the man on stilts balancing on one (stilted) leg!
Front entrance of our hotel.
Looking back to where our room was located above the arched doorway.
Inside it was rather posh...a member of the Eastern & Oriental Chain of Hotels
A Nativity Scene in the village Church.
A square in La Cite
We couldn't tour the castle as the employees were on strike...all over France at that time, apparently!
Note the narrow street-yes, we drove down it!
We went to the annual Foire au gras in nearby Castelnaudary where the main street was lined with stalls selling homemade goodies such as jams, fresh almonds, cheese, foie gras, wines, etc. On the second day, we drove to Aragon and Brousses where we found an old paper mill by a pretty stream in the woods.
Later in the afternoon we climbed to four ruined castles at Lastours, part of the Cathars Castles situated between Carcassonne and Perpignan on the coast.
On our drive home, we ventured along the coast to Cap Leucate north of the Etang de Leucate, where there is a row of little restaurants by the fishing village selling fresh raw oysters, clams, mussels and sea urchins ("oursins" in French!). It was a very windy day with many kite surfers out on the lagoon. Pat enjoyed 6 "Belles Moyennes" oysters with bread and wine! I had bread and wine...
Note the beautiful sunny day on the Med and on the other side of the Pyrenees towards Spain! To the north, the Atlantic winds bring cold and damp weather to the Carcassonne area. Even a cup of coffee didn't do it for us...possibly the worst we have ever tasted was found in and around Carcassonne! Despite the bad java, we did like the food and found some wonderful wines at some pretty wineries! More to explore in the area at another time...
