Our hearts go out to the children and adults injured in yesterday’s thunderstorm in Paris.
Category / France
All about food
The notable moments of the day seem to have revolved around food and drink.
We met a beautiful dog at breakfast, picnicked at lunchtime by the Seine, imbibed Champagne on a cruise along the river and just made it for crêpes and tarte au pommes as an electric storm with crashing rain hit.
Wonder what dinner will bring?
Paris
We arrived in Paris today to meet up with friends. After a meal together we sauntered across the Pont d’Iéna in close view of the Eiffel Tower.
It feels strange being in a huge city with so many people everywhere. Very different from the villages we have driven through in the Centre region where you have to look really hard to see anybody at all.
Deux tours
The 12th century tower of the castle of Châteaudun is a hugely majestic defensive building. We were suitably impressed.
Even better is the water tower in Le Gault du Perche which is pretending to be a medieval, cluniesque tower. Parfait!
Wild life
We have enjoyed the flora and fauna of the Centre region. Mostly familiar to us, we are recognising a transition is taking place. We are almost on our way home.
Châteaudun
Not too far from where we are staying the imposing castle of Chateaudun stands high over the Loir river. Its four centuries of architecture span Medieval, Gothic and Renaissance building. We particularly liked the long 16th century hall with its two huge fireplaces and ‘resting stag’.
The grounds include a wonderful garden of box tree squares which separate the plants according to their use as food, medicine, and dye and textiles.
Chartres
We remembered our friends in Holy Trinity, Haddington as we shared in the celebration of Trinity Sunday in Chartres Cathedral this morning. An hour ahead of BST, we began our services at the same time. Synchronicity!
This afternoon we explored the huge crypt. After a devastating fire in 1194 only the crypt, the west facade and the North and South towers of the cathedral survived. The building we see today is the early 13th century reconstruction.
Templars d’Arville
A Commanderie for the recruitment and training of the Order of the Knights Templar was founded in the early 12th century on a woody estate of 2500 acres in Arville.
Here the monk soldiers would worship, practice their skills and farm whilst awaiting their departure to the Holy Land where their main task was to guard the safe passage of pilgrims.
The Templars lived here until their arrest, decided by Philippe IV le Bel, King of France, who accused them of heresy, on Friday 13 October 1307.
Glimpse of the path
We drove in early to Chartres to wander the streets of this wonderful medieval town and visit the Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Chartres.
In the west end of the nave we had a surprising glimpse of the 13th century pavement labyrinth set into the floor. We had not expected to see it as the cathedral building is undergoing restoration and the labyrinth has been covered by protective matting for about a year. There is still a lot of restoration work to be done before the labyrinth will be open again for pilgrims to walk it’s 800 year old stones.
Today, it was as though we just coincided with the labyrinth ‘coming up for air’. Within minutes it was covered over again but we had been graced by a moment with this beautiful path.
Brou
We are staying in a farm cottage near Arrou in the region of Eure-et-Loir. The land is flat. Everywhere you look are fields and water towers, wild flowers and birdlife, and the odd bat!
Visiting the nearby town of Brou we wandered through back streets and along the river bank with it’s magnificant trees, seeking out the medieval lavoirs public (wash houses) still visible along the water’s edge.
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