Today we had a tour of the Chartres Cathedral scheduled. The cathedral was really nice. Their stained glass was amazing!! So beautiful & so much of it! The lady who did our tour really knew a lot of the church's history and each statue's significance. She was very informative, only if I could remember more of what she said. There was a case with what is believed to be a cloth of Mary's!! I couldn't even grasp how old that is!! I was really glad Dirk (our program leader) scheduled that tour for us.
We wandered around the town for awhile. It was an old town. To me everything looked amazing! The church was the center of town. When driving to the Cathedral, it rose above all else in the town. Dirk commented that's how all towns used to be. Eventually we stopped at a restaurant, because I wanted something hot to eat and drink to hopefully help my throat.
The restaurant was cozy. The hostess spoke English when he told us about the specials. He talked of steak in a wine sauce. Since the menu was in French, I chose to go with the steak. The waitress came and didn't speak a lick of English. She asked me a ton of questions to which I stared blankly or ventured a yes. I tried to tell her that I wanted my steak medium well. I also got a hot chocolate, which tasted amazing! It was made with real cream. I know what you're thinking...hot chocolate and steak...not the best combo.
When the food came, it looked so good. There was some sort of vegetable cakes on my plate, a green and orange one each. They tasted fairly good, but were unidentifiable as to what they were made out of. Now, the steak was a whole other story. I cut into it, and it was quite red with blood coming out. I took a bite...yep it was quite raw still. EWW!! It was bad enough having to look at it much less feel how chewy it was. It seems they only seared the outside of the steak. When I got to the middle, it was unbearable bloody. I couldn't bring myself to eat it. I learned my lesson, no more beef in France - with Malia's raw meat & my steak.
When we got back to the hostel, Lisa, Keith, Chris, & I decided to buy food and have a picnic by the Eiffel Tower, while watching the lights show. Once it is dark, the Eiffel Tower is lit up and the 1st 10 minutes of every hour there is a lights show. We went to a grocery store and bought 3 loaves of bread, 2 wheels of cheese, apples, Haribo, and 2 bottles of wine. It was amazing....all that was around 10€ for 4 people. My favorite thing about France was the cheap wines! Each bottles was around 2€. Wine literally was cheaper than water at restaurants. We even found a pack of knives and wine glasses at a store on the way. Saved us from being super classy, passing the bottle around haha.
When we got to the Eiffel Tower dusk was approaching. It looked so PRETTY all lit up!!! I think I like it better at dusk than at night. We started our picnic. We were in true French fashion with our bread, cheese, and wine dinner. We couldn't have a better sight to enjoy it to. It was such a fun night!! Initially we were worried about drinking in the park, but it became apparent everyone drinks in public.
Even though France's public transportation was dirty, smelled like pee, and seemed much more sketch, I still loved having the ease of getting back to the hostel. I'm really going to miss Europe's fantastic transportation system when I get back to the US.
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