St Malo to Chartres to Paris to Reims and back to Paris

A lot to catch up!  About a week's worth of France travels ...

Thursday was our last full day in St Malo.  We did a few errands (last visit to our favourite boulangerie) and then walked to the Jacques Cartier museum for a visit.  Of course Jacques Cartier "discovered" Canada, and made three trips there from St Malo (exploring the St Lawrence up to what is now Montreal) but of course without help from the native population would never have survived the winter.  His home in St Malo was bought by a couple of Canadians awhile ago and converted into a museum.  The visit was very informative and gave a good impression of how people lived back then.

Here is a model of his ship (he made the journey each time with 3 ships, although after the last trip where they had to spend the winter they only returned with two).

Here is the kitchen/dining area.  People had to share a cup/mug between two people but everyone had their own spoon!  The heating was from the fireplace and the light from burning whale or cod oil (which stank apparently, wealthy people used candles).

Other than this room there was a living room and a bedroom.  (There were actually more rooms in the museum, but the building had been expanded after Cartier's time.)

Friday we drove to Chartres (3.5 hours).  (We split the St Malo-to-Paris drive into two days.)

Of course the highlight in Chartres was the big church.  Every church/cathedral we visit in France we swear is the largest and we'll never see another larger and the Notre Dame de Chartres was no exception, the largest and most impressive yet.  Interesting was the difference between the two steeples, one of which was destroyed at some point and then rebuilt.

Also was the impressive stone carving inside, completely encircling the choir, hundreds of feet long.

We stopped for a glass of wine and a charcuterie board at the local wine bar.  We had to leave by 8pm at the proprietor was getting ready for a wedding reception with 100 people!

Some ancient ruins of the old Roman gate.  Most of France was occupied during Roman times (except of course for the one Gaulish village who managed hold out) and Chartres was no exception.

Here's an artsy picture of us (our shadows anyways) in the main square with Notre-Dame in the background.

The public library, more impressive on the outside than inside.

We drove to Paris Saturday (actually Nogent-sur-Marne, which is just outside Paris, although just inside the "clean air" zone where you need to register your car and can only drive (during certain hours) if your car meets certain emissions levels).

You can *just* make out the Eiffel Tower from our flat, can you see it?  Just poking up to the right of the building on the far left.

Saturday and Sunday we just lay low, and wandered about our neighbourhood (which includes the gigantic park which actually includes about 6 parks and stretches about halfway from our apartment to the Eiffel Tower - the park is 6km across the we are 13km from the Eiffel Tower).  Here we are exploring the Parc Floral, which is a small part of the overall park.

Rhubarb big enough for a dinosaur to eat.

Nothing special just some flowers I liked.

Sonya admiring one of three (!) large dahlia gardens.

Another famous (in my own mind) vertical panorama - just outside the Parc Floral, with the Chateau de Vincennes in the background (yes the park has its own castle - Sonya figures the whole park was the private hunting grounds for the king back in the day).

Monday - Exploring Paris - we took a walk on the Paris "High Line" (actually known as the Promenade Plantee, and actually pre-dates the NYC High Line, who knew).

Paris is getting setup for Haloween and in typically French fashion this include Madame Guillatine.

The Paris Notre Dame, still not open!  Last year when we were here they were promising to have it open for the olympics, and last I read the plan is to open it in December, although from the looks of the work still ongoing I have my doubts.

The highlight of the whole trip so far, we met up with some of my swim buddies who just happened to be visiting Paris at the exact same time as us.

While we still had a rental car, we decided to visit Reims (not to be confused with Rennes) in the Champagne region.  We spent 2 nights at an AirBnb in Reims, and did a tour of the region, including visits to a couple of champagneries and tastings!

Of course the highlight in Reims was the big church.  Every church/cathedral we visit in France we swear is the largest and we'll never see another larger and the Cathedrale Notre Dame de Reims was no exception, the largest and most impressive yet.  Of course Reims is also known as "Coronation City", as this is where all the French kings are coronated, so they had to make this church the largest and most impressive yet.  (I think until Notre Dame de Paris is re-opened this is going to be the winner.)

"Ho hum another big church."

Lots of impressive stained glass (in Reims as in Chartres you really need to bring binoculars to appreciate everything!) including a set by Marc Chagall (we saw some of his stained glass last year in Zurich unless my memory is starting to fail me).

Wednesday we went on a tour in Champagne country!  First stop is the old church (dating from about 700AD) where Dom Perignon is buried.  (The father of bubbly wine from the region.  The first fizzy wine was actually an accident, and then they decided that people liked it.  I don't remember all the details :-P)

Visiting the Champagne vineyards.  There are 35,000 acres (or hectares, I forget) owned by 16,000 individuals (and/or companies).  The grapes are all sold to a smaller number of producers who squeeze out the juice, and then on to the Champagne houses who make the champagne.  Some houses own their own vineyards and/or presses and some just buy their product, it's all very confusing (and very very heavily regulated by the Champagne gestappo).

"Strike a pose!"  (Sonya's retirement project is to become an influencer.)

Champagne aging in the cellar.  Most bottles age for at least 2 or 3 years before the sediment is "popped out" and they are officially corked and sold.

A tasting!!!

Back in Reims, we did a self-guided "art deco" walking tour.  Most buildings were (I thought) kind of boring, but we liked this old theatre (now turned into shops and apartments).

Another library!  Sadly is wasn't open during our visit :-(

Back in Paris, we decided to return the rental car Thursday evening.  Our drop-off point was the Gare Nord train station right in the heart of Paris!  (I clearly wasn't thinking when I booked the car.)  We figured the traffic would be lighter Thursday evening than Friday morning (rush hour!) so we left our place around 8pm to do the drop-off (about 50 minutes drive, including a stop for gas).  Lots of adventures!  Including having to make a second gas stop (the first station only had diesel)  and almost running over a pedestrian and cyclist (also figuring out the giant Paris roundabouts with their built-in traffic lights - I only knew when to go when people started honking at me) but eventually we ditched the car and could relax.

Friday we booked into the Surrealist Exhibition and the Centre Pompidou (which is a really cool building, however I didn't take any pictures because I took a bunch of pictures last year when I visited).

One of my favourites from the exhibition:

Afterwards we wandered around Paris some more, we're into our final week and just taking it easy.

The Bastille with the Paris Opera in the background.

The Paris Opera (we have tickets for a show next Wednesday).

For our final week we're planning to visit around the Ile de France (the area around Paris) anywhere we can easily get to by train.  And visit out local markets of course!