Chartres and the Cimetiere de Montparnasse

Yesterday I went to Chartres with three other girls: Callie, Sarah, Amy, and Julia. I got up early to take the metro to the Gare Montparnasse, which is the train station that has the SNCF, the train that would take me to Chartres. Lionel is quite the jokester, and when I told him where I was going, he said it was very complicated, but he could give me directions. So he says in all seriousness, I should get on the metro, go four stops, then get off and I would be right there. The only danger was if I were to accidentally fall asleep on the metro, then maybe I would have a problem.

However, I must have gone through the wrong tunnel when I got off the metro because I ended up in some square and I had no idea which building was the actual Gare Montparnasse. Eventually I found it, and later when we took the metro back home, it turns out the metro is located directly below the Gare, so I must have walked through the wrong tunnel or something. The myriad metro signs and tunnels go everywhere, so I'm not surprised.

Anyway, we made it to the train and no one ever checked our tickets, either on the way there or the way back, so we technically could have ridden for free, so I have no idea how they check to make sure people have paid, especially since the man who gave us the tickets said we could get on any time train we wanted. Callie figured there would be a huge penalty if someone was riding the train for free and somebody found out, which made sense to me.

The cathedral in Chartres is beautiful! However, it must be perpetually under reconstruction because when I was here three years ago it was, and it still is. Since we spoke English on the hour and a half train ride, we decided to speak only French until lunch. We took a tour of the crypt and of the cathedral itself, which were both in French. We wanted to climb the tower, but our cathedral tour guide kept us too long and the tower closed. But it was okay, it was the end of about six hours of sightseeing and climbing 300 steps might have been a bit much. The tour was good, but sometimes I stopped paying attention because it was a lot to take in. I'm not sure, but I think the guide said Chartres has the most stained glass in a cathedral. Either way, it has a lot. She talked a lot about the different styles and colors, and she said this window was the "Mona Lisa of stained glass featuring Mary." In French they call the Mona Lisa "la Jaconde."

Chartres also has a reliquary that has a veil worn by Mary and is the centerpiece of the cathedral. It was the imperial treasure of Constantinople and was given to Charlemagne by the empress Irene and has been in Chartres since 876. At least, that's what the sign next to it said.

There was also a sculpture of Abraham and Isaac outside one of the cathedral's entrances. You can see the goat underneath their feet and the bonds around Isaac's hands and ankles.

So today the Pope held mass at Les Invalides, which is where Napoleon's tomb is located. It was originally built as a hospital for the war wounded, but now is a memorial. I wanted to go to try and see the Pope, but I was really tired from going to Chartres yesterday and decided to take everyone's advice and rest, so I slept in late. I told my host parents last night at dinner that I was going to see the Pope and the catacombs today, and so when I went downstairs this morning Lionel said, "I heard a phone call for you this morning." I was confused and said "What, for me?" and he said, "Yeah, it was the Pope! He wanted to know where you were, he was holding up mass!" Funny guy, Lionel.

French people eat weird things. I usually wait for everyone else to start eating so I can figure out how I'm supposed to eat stuff, and they're always all, "Theresa, you can start eating, you don't need to wait for us." But I kind of need to. For example, for lunch we had a bowl of cucumbers that were sliced up into little pieces, and Aurelie just took a scoop and put some ranch on it and ate it with bread. Plain cucumbers that were like a little salad unto themselves. Then we had some kind of spinach puree that you were supposed to eat with sunnyside up eggs or hardboiled eggs. Lionel and I both had the hardboiled eggs, and so I saw that he just sliced his up and would spear a piece of egg and then scoop up some spinach and eat it like that. It was good, but weird. Lionel sang the little Popeye song too! He's like, "Do you know who that is?" and I said I did.

Catherine and I had a nice talk this morning over coffee. It's much easier for me to communicate with just one person, and she's very easy to talk to. She was telling me that if I was missing anything or wanted to eat something that they didn't have or whatever, just to tell her. She said that their family is very tolerant and not much will bother them, but I told her if I do anything that bothers her that she should just say so, and she said she will. But I think basically we both are easy to get along with so hopefully there won't be any problems.

Lionel and Catherine are going to the US in the beginning of October for vacation. They'll be going to Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and San Fransisco, I think, and Catherine wanted to make sure I knew. I doubt it will be a problem though; if I need anything, there's always Aurelie and Mathilde. Plus I'll be in school so I'll be busy. I asked Lionel and Catherine if they were ready, English-wise, for the States, and Lionel said he was. He said he can't conjugate verbs, so he'll just have to use indicators. For example, he says, "Today I want a coffee. Yesterday I want a coffee. Tomorrow I want a coffee." I told him this should work, but they should be prepared because there are significantly fewer Americans who speak French than French who speak English. Lionel also asked me if Americans say we speak American or English, and I told him we speak English and that "American" isn't a language, but American-English and British-English are very different.

Today Callie, Sarah, Amy and I tried to go to the catacombs but the line was too long and it closed at four, and a guy who worked there told us we probably wouldn't get in, so we decided to go to the Montparnasse cemetary instead. It was very close, and there's famous people buried there like Sartre and Baudelaire and Simone de Beauvoir. For those of you who know he's buried somewhere in France, Jim Morrison's grave is in the Pere Lachaise, which is a different cemetary.