Chartres Again

Saturday, December 21, 1991

Our plans were to take the overnight train to Rome on the 23rd, so we had a couple days before leaving. Also, when we returned from Italy, we would be staying in Paris, not Versailles. I had really enjoyed our class trip to Chartres and thought that my father and sister would enjoy it also. So we made a day trip to Chartres since it’s a shorter trip from Versailles and we wouldn’t waste any time in Paris to go elsewhere. So we made French toast for breakfast and caught the train to Chartres.

There are essentially three things of interest in the town. The cathedral, the lectures by Malcolm Miller, and the old winding streets of the town. We managed to see all of them and get in a bit of shopping. As my sister writes: “Malcolm Miller was amazing that he could remember and spout all those details and symbolic references. Glad that he was speaking English too. They were doing an archeological dig outside in front.

We ate at some quaint place on one of those narrow cavernous streets and the restaurant was on the 2nd floor. It was my first taste of flan and I remember that I didn’t like it. Dad bought me a coat there and I could put away the Bulls jacket that I had been wearing and do better not to stand out like a dumb American tourist.”

It was my second time seeing the lecture by Malcolm Miller and it was as good as the first time. I bought a sweater and we all bought scarves while we were shopping. We picked up a roasted chicken on the way home and made stroganoff with it. The next day I would take them on what would become my whirlwind tour of Paris.