Chartres and Shakespeare and Co.

SO I’m learning never to skip a day with blogging, I forget key details and that means I have to spend my Saturday afternoons trying to remember all the fun and witty things I did two nights before. I lead a tough life.

Speaking of tough, school here is brutal! French from 9 – 12 where I sit there with my mouth open praying she won’t call on me. And she does. And I butcher the language and she wants to butcher me. I want so badly to learn French but my mouth just doesn’t want me to pronounce anything right. Even the stuff I used to know how to say comes out differently. Le sigh. I’m still absolutely obsessed with my history class (2-4 daily) and professor. Christina (yea, we’re on first name basis) is a baller. She knows everything about anything and all things regarding French history. I’m that annoying kid in class who always asks questions and stays in during break to chat it up. I actually want to do my homework and the reading. The fact that I love French history so much makes me actually want to learn the language more. It’s so exciting to know that the peasants’ cahiers de doléances at the Estates General pre-French Revolution means notebooks of grievances. Forget Dumbledore, call me Hermione!

Oh god that was a paragraph of nerd. I wish I had some sweet drunken story to balance that out. The latest adventure I’d had was a visit to Chartres Cathedral. Same difference, right?

WHEEE, Cathedrals!

My program took us on field trip (riding the big bordeaux bus) to Chartres. A quaint little medieval town complete with the greatest of all gothic Cathedrals. Really though, it’s a beast. And home to the shawl the Virgin Mary wore while birthing her famous son (Jesus). Yup, I saw that holy relic and while they were able to confirm it’s from about 2,000 years ago – I don’t buy it. No one in their right mind would save the shawl they were wearing while giving birth. That’d just be foul. I know she’s a Saint and all, but she had to get at least a little sweaty and messy during that process. Even baby Jesus was gooey coming out.

Annnyway, our guide was the most adorable little British man, Malcolm Miller, who knew almost too much about the Chartres cathedral. He too is skeptical about if that’s really Mary’s birthing shawl. And he reminded me of a prof from Harry Potter. So I liked him. PLUS we used these sick headsets so he could talk in the mic and we could hear him even over the organ player. Did you know they still use these ancient cathedrals for mass? I didn’t before I walked in on one. Oops.

actual sign we saw while perusing for lunch. desperate? we think so.

BRIEF HISTORY SIDE NOTE: Chartres Cathedral has the most stained glass windows in the world (over 176) I think. He name dropped Santa Ana (yup, Orange County all the way in a Paris Suburb) because it was named after a Saint. She’s probably rolling over in her grave knowing how her city turned out, More like santaana eh, esse?. Craziest of all the entire Cathedral used to be painted! YES, painted! Like Jesus had red lips and Paul had a red robe. Can you imagine how silly those giant Cathedrals would be with colored walls? Well, technology shows it happened and they are starting a cleaning process to hopefully unearth some of it.
The grandest of the windows
Saint Anna up close!
Contraption used to hear him with. And no, I'm not constipated.
home of the holy birthing shawl.
FRIEND! Christy from UCSB
Later that night…(see I told you I can’t skip anything, too much to say!)

SHAKESPEARE and Co. coolest bookstore. Ever. It’s chock full of every book you could ever imagine, in this crazy set up with nooks and crannies and ladders. Plus chairs everywhere so you can read whenever. Best feature: everyone there speaks English and all the books are in English! I didn’t realize how much of a toll the language barrier was taking on me until I walked in there and felt 50x more relaxed. It reminded me of a sweet bookstore you’d find in New York. I also read a children’s book entitled something like “The Mole Knew It Was None of His Business” and it’s an entire story on this mole who gets pooped on and tries to figure out who did the doo doo on his noggin by looking at different animals style of poops. And I thought “Everybody Poops” was pushing it, this is just plain weird. And they were pop out poo pictures. I don’t see any reason to teach my kids the difference in animal poops, I’m pretty sure they can figure it out on their own. Oh and for those of you who were wondering about the culprit. It was Basil the farmer’s dog! And the mole put the poop back on his head as payback.



books, books and more books.



….And they all lived hapooly every after.