In Bruges.

My Friday in Paris was spent mostly out of Paris. I wanted another day trip so I could explore more of France. While I was researching day trips from Paris, I came across a bus trip to Bruges. Why not add another country to the list of ones that I have visited? Also, I remember Bruges mostly from the movie In Bruges, which I remember being rather amusing.

The bus left Paris at 7:15 am which meant that I had to be up quite early. Luckily, the place where I caught the bus was on the same Metro line as Becca's place so it wasn't a long trip.

I was surprised about how many other people went on the tour with me. There were English, Spanish, Portuguese, and French people, so the information was given in four languages. The drive to Bruges was about four hours. We had a rest stop at a service station on the way. Foreign service stations are always fun.

When we got to Bruges, we had about an hour walking tour, and then the rest of the time was free.

I enjoyed the walking tour. Thankfully, we broke up into language groups so it didn't take as long. Buses aren't allowed in the city centre of Bruges, so it was a short walk from the the coach park to the centre.

Here is the first picture I took as we walked into the city centre.


We walked through a beautiful park called Minnewaterpark. Then we entered a square of land with trees and daffodils surrounded by a convent called Le Beguinage. It was beautiful... I wish I could have really taken a picture that showed its beauty. It's one of the places in which I've felt the most peace.

The heart on this house made me smile.

Here's the belfry of Bruges. I learned that belfries were built in Northern France and Belgium as ways for cities to show off their wealth. Guess Bruges was doing OK.


We kept walking. Bruges is referred to as the Venice of the North, and has many canals. (Interestingly, I read the same of St. Petersburg in the novel on Catherine the Great that I just finished. Guess I'll have to go to the real Venice, and then St. Petersburg to make my own judgement.)

I took lots of canal pictures.

Here's a picture of the tower of the Eglise de Notre Dame. Hey - that's the third Notre Dame of the trip! Well done me.


Here's the square in the centre of the city.

This is where the walking tour ended, and I was keen for lunch. Bruges is seriously the most delicious-smelling city I've ever smelled. I was really hungry by this time, so I picked a modern looking cafe for mussels, frites, and beer.

This is probably the most delicious beer I've ever had in my life.

I enjoy mussels, and I've had some good ones in my day. I had some good ones when I traveled to the Maritimes. Let me tell you, those have NOTHING on Belgian mussels. These mussels were HUGE, and served in a delicious white wine sauce with celery and onions. SO YUMMY. There were seriously one of the best things I've ever eaten, and I couldn't finish them even though I tried my best.

Not pictured: delicious frites with mayonnaise.


I walked around a bit more, and even though I was stuffed, I really wanted to eat a waffle in Belgium. Oh, it was good.


I considered doing a canal tour, but they didn't really have a set time when the boats left, and I kept just missing them. I did some shopping instead. I bought some chocolates for some friends and my 'rents, and also a lace bookmark for my aunt. (Bruges is known for its lace, and we all know about Belgian chocolate.)

When I was done shopping, it was sunny out, so I took more pictures.


What a beautiful city. The swan is Bruges' symbol, and there were many of them there. Made a Stratford-born girl like myself feel quite at home. In the movie, Colin Farrell plays a hitman who made a mistake, so his boss (Ralph Fiennes) has to have him killed. The boss feels badly, so he decides to send the doomed hitman to the place where he would want to spend his last days: Bruges. Colin Farrell's character hates Bruges and keeps complaining about.

After my day trip to Bruges, I completely agree with the boss. Bruges is a great city.

Next vacay post: last day in Paris.

Chartres

On my Thursday in Paris, I took the first of two day trips out of Paris. The nice thing about one's third visit to a major city is that you can do things outside of the city. Since I feel that I'd already seen most of Paris' must-sees, I definitely wanted to take some day trips out of the city this time around.

For day trip #1, I headed to the Gare du Montparnasse to catch a train to Chartres. Chartres is a town that's located 96 km southwest of Paris. It's a pleasant approximately 1.5 hour train ride through French countryside, and a great thing to do on a sunny day.

I love the train stations in Paris. The reason why I love them is because they feel like real train stations. They have so many tracks and trains running that they put Toronto's little Union Station to shame. What's more impressive is that there is more than one major train station in Paris. It just makes me feel that trains are respected in Europe, whereas sometimes in North America, train travel feels likes it's an outdated dusty old mode of transportation from the past. Not in Europe.

Once I found the proper place to buy my ticket to Chartres, I snapped a quick picture of the Departures board. See, lots of trains!


The ride was very pleasant. I loved looking at the small towns as I passed by. I wish I could have snapped some pictures of the rolling countryside, but I was just too content to sit and watch to bother myself by trying to get a good shot.

When I arrived in Chartres, I thought to myself "now where to find the Cathedral?" It was pretty easy to spot as soon as I exited the train station.


This cathedral, Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Chartres, was mostly built between 1193 and 1250, and is apparently one of the finest examples of the French high Gothic style (thanks Wikipedia). It also houses a famous relic said to be the tunic that the Virgin Mary wore while giving birth to Jesus Christ. However, the tunic is not currently on display in order to preserve it.

No matter one's views on religion, I think cathedrals are such interesting displays of architecture and history, and that's why I enjoy visiting them. In addition, when I do visit one I do feel a sense of peace and thankfulness for life just because they are so beautiful.

At first, I walked around the grounds of the cathedral. At the back, you could look down upon the gardens, and there was this interesting pattern planted:

When I was hanging out with my friend Jane after the trip, she mentioned that she'd gone to Chartres when she visited Paris, and asked me if I saw the maze on the floors of the cathedral. I said, no, but I saw it outside. I guess next time I visit a cathedral, I will be sure to look down at the floor.

Here's another view from the gardens.


Then I went inside the cathedral. A lot of the stained glass survives from the 13th century, which is a bit insane, don't you think? No wonder I kept looking up instead of down at the floor!

After visiting inside, I spent some time admiring the crumbling facade of the cathedral. The number of statues and other details was amazing. Many of the statues had aged. There was one of Mary holding a headless baby Jesus. I should have taken a picture but I didn't, because I think it rather disturbed me.

I decided to spend some time wandering around the town a little bit, and getting myself lost along its narrow streets, and admiring some interesting looking houses.

Here's Chartres' Hôtel de Ville:


I decided to return to the cathedral, because at 2 pm, the North Tower re-opened from lunch break. For about €7.50, you could climb the North Tower of the cathedral. I figured it would be a nice view, so I sat on a bench in the square in front of the cathedral and relaxed until 2 pm.

I didn't ask how many stairs I would have to climb. At the end I found out it was a 300 stair climb. I worked up a bit of a sweat.

Totally worth it though. The view was magnificent.

Here's the view of the square where I hung out before my climb.

Goofy self-portrait to prove that I did it!


I love gargoyles.

When I returned back to the ground, I took a picture of the tower I climbed as a memento.

Then, I returned to the train station to catch the train back to Paris.

For a snack, I got a bottle of Orangina, and one of the most amazing granola bars that I discovered at Monoprix this trip. I don't know why I didn't stock up on them and bring them back home. So good. Macadamia nuts, coconut, and dark chocolate.

When I returned to Paris, I had some time to relax and read in the Jardin du Luxumbourg before meeting up with Becca T and accompanying her to a party. It was fun to meet some of her Paris colleagues and friends.

Next post - my day trip to Bruges. Yup, adding another country to my list!

Paris at Night by Bike

When I left you last post, I was chilling by the Eiffel Tower, and listening to Phoenix while waiting for my night time bike tour of Paris.

My blogging pal/traveler extraordinaire AlieMalie recommended that I do a bike tour of Paris using Fat Tire Bike Tours. Now, I have biked a bit in Paris on my own using the Velib' system, but biking any distance through Paris is a little bit intimidating for me because I'd have to spend a lot of time consulting a bike map, and the terrifying traffic (despite the excellent system of bike paths). So, I decided that a tour would be the perfect for me to feel safe biking through Paris, and to leave the planning up to someone else. I opted for the night tour, since it covered a longer distance, and included a cruise on the Seine complete with wine.

It worked out perfectly since Becca had work commitments on Wednesday night, and the bike tour would give me something fun to do.

All of the other people on that night's tour were American other than me. There was a family with three teenage boys from Florida, a trio of Texan teachers, two students from NYC, a Texan studying in Barcelona on a mini-trip to Paris, and a couple from Boston. As we started off, past the Eiffel Tour, one girl's chain fell off her bike, but that left time for an excellent photo op. Here is me and my bike. I bought my new coat especially for Paris. I should have taken off my reflective vest for the photo... you'll see I got better at that as the tour progressed.


We biked past this building at dusk. I think it's Les Invalides, which now houses the Army Museum and Napoleon's tomb, but I could be wrong. Either way it was beautiful.


We biked for a good distance through some traffic all the way to Notre Dame. I was so glad I was doing this as part of a group... It would take some real balls for me to do this on my own. I'm way too timid to even bike in Toronto traffic. During some left turns, all I could do was mutter "holy shit" under my breath. It was exhilarating.

When we got to Notre Dame we stopped on one of the bridges, and our guide explained to us the locks on the bridge. I'd never noticed them before during my other visits to Paris, but maybe I was just crossing the wrong bridges. Anyway, couples in love place the locks on the bridge, then throw the keys into the Seine as a sign of their commitment. There were a few combination locks on the bridge too. People, a combination lock is a deal-breaker, no?


The back of Notre Dame at night. Note the flying buttresses.


The Hôtel de Ville (city hall).


We then stopped for some ice cream at a really yummy place by Notre Dame. I had left my money in my bag at the office, but the nice couple from Boston were nice enough to lend me some. Yay for tour camaraderie.

We headed in the direction of the Louvre. We crossed the pedestrian bridge, the Pont des Arts, that links the Institut de France to the central square of the Louvre.

Here's the gorgeous Institut de France.


Here's a view of the Louvre from the Pont des Arts. It's such a massive building.


From there, we biked to the Pyramid at the entrance of the Louvre.


From there, we biked along streets by the Seine to the docks where we'd meet our boat for our cruise of the Seine. I snapped this picture of my fellow bikers ahead of me, just to capture the sense of what it was like to be following them along the night time streets of Paris.


As we waited for our boat to leave the harbour, I snapped this picture, which I think is my favourite of the entire trip.


The cruise along the Seine was cold, but lots of fun. The boat was fairly large and rather full that evening. There were lots of loud teenagers on the boat (spring break tours, perhaps?) but they just hooted and hollered as we passed underneath bridges. This just made me laugh, because we went under lots of bridges, and you'd think they'd get bored of it, but nope. In addition, I loved watching Parisians along the Seine. There were lots of groups of people sitting by the river drinking wine, which naturally gave me an idea for something to do on my last night in Paris.

I only took a few pictures during the cruise. I think it's because I was relaxing, drinking wine, and chatting with my fellow bikers. I was flattered because one of the Floridian teenagers in my group asked me if I was a student, and I had to admit that no, I was a teacher.

Here's the clock of the Musee de Orsay. The building used to be a train station, but now is a great Art Gallery with lots of Impressionist art work. I visited there my first time in Paris, and it's excellent.


Here's a fuzzy picture of Notre Dame taken from the boat.


After the cruise, we biked back to our starting point but took some time to take some last pictures of the Eiffel Tower at night.




And that was my night bike tour of Paris. It was a great time. I told Becca T that she must do it when her sister visits her. If you ever visit Paris, I suggest you do this tour if you enjoy biking. Thanks for the tip AlieMalie!

My next Paris post will be of my little train trip out of Paris to see the Gothic cathedral at Chartres.