Day 10

The weather is so sporadic here, I've never experienced anything like this. Yesterday was hot and disgustingly humid and today was rainy and cold. It was a nice change from the heat though, so I'm not complaining too much. The only thing that is a bummer is that my umbrella broke in the wind. It was awful and like the movies when it gets blown inside out and then when you fix it its limp and you're stuck getting rained on... Anyways we went to Chartres, pronounced like shart, and yes I laughed a bit to myself every time someone said it. It's a small little town about an hour and half out of Paris on the country side. I would love to live in this town! It was adorable. I also just learned it is where stage 19 of the Tour de France will start this year, so if you want to see just how cute it is watch the Tour on the 21st. The Chartres Cathedral is absolutely humungous! Way bigger than Notre Dame and you can see the spires from 15 miles away on the freeway. We were there when a funeral was in session and it was a little sad because I felt our group was being disrespectful by taking photos with the flash on all while the priest was talking. But I guess they should've expected that since they held the funeral in a legendary cathedral. 

After walking through the church and walking the labyrinth in the floor we were released to roam the town and find some lunch. Some friends and I went shopping and then stopped and got chorizo pizza. It was dang good! And I snapped a few photos around town of things that caught my eye. Most of the buildings here were built in the 17th century, but there have also been a lot of additions since then.

After our lunch break we took a walk to the back of the cathedral to see the view of both it and the city.

This is a replica of the labyrinth inside the cathedral. I don't know why there is one outside, but if I had to guess it's so more people can walk it while in prayer.

We got back to our hotel around 5 and I went to grocery store with a few people and we bought ingredients to make chicken minestrone soup because we were all feeling vegetable deprived. Pam, the girl in blue above, is a phenomenal chef so she did most of the work, but our soup was a major success!