Germany/France — July 29, 2012

As mentioned in my previous post, Sunday became my day to go to Chartres. But first I went to Mass at Notre Dame Cathedral. It turned out to be a Mass with  Latin Gregorian Chant. Much of the congregational part was familiar to me from when I was a boy, so I was able to join in readily.

At Gare Montparnasse, I just missed the 12:09 train, so I had to wait for the 1:06, which was scheduled to arrive at 2:07. Malcolm Miller doesn't give tours on Sundays, so I bought a copy of a guidebook he had written and followed it around. The cathedral

 is fascinating, and the book explained it well. When a 4:00 organ concert was about to begin, I decided to head out for lunch

 at a restaurant (center left, with white placard in front) across the plaza from the south side of the cathedral.

After lunch, I took

 a picture of the St. Thomas Becket window in the martyrs' chapel in the southeast corner of the apse. The tower closes at 6:00, with no admission after 5:30, and at about 5:25 I started up.

 Altogether I went up about 400 steps, getting to the level of the bells. There was a good breeze with some drizzle and, given my fear of heights, I decided not to go any higher. When I got back down, I decided I'd better get back to the station to catch the 6:30 train back to Paris (which was actually scheduled for 6:52, to arrive at 7:53), rather than stay and take the 7:34 and get back at 8:50. Through general inadvertence, the distraction of the organ concert, and concern to get a timely train back to Paris, I missed getting to the crypt, which would have been interesting, and I didn't go to see the robe of the Virgin Mary in the northwest apse.

Strolling around in the area east of Rue St. Jacques, I got disoriented. Thinking I was headed southwest, back toward my hotel, I actually walked about 15 or 20 minutes easterly parallel to the Seine. When I got to the Place d'Austerlitz, I consulted my map, realized my mistake, and retraced my steps. For dinner I went to another restaurant in the Latin Quarter and had one of the "menus." The restaurant had lots of exposed wood and stuffed animal heads. Three young men came and sat at a table in view of mine. I noticed that they seemed to be economizing, including drinking only water. Belatedly, it occurred to me that I could have bought them a drink — beer or wine — but by the time I thought of it it was too late: they were finishing their meal. I enjoyed everything, although reviews are decidedly mixed. The whole meal cost me 37.10€ which came out as $45.70 — again, less than I'd probably pay in a restaurant hereabouts.

Click on pics to enlarge.