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Since I’ve told you all about my summer trip to England, I thought I would follow through with some tales of my fall trip to France. (It’s rough when you have a job that expects you to attend conferences in foreign lands!). France is a wonderful country, full of great food and history. It is however, difficult to navigate through if you don’t speak French, especially if you get off the beaten trail. I grew up in Montreal, so I speak French fluently. I would advise others to learn at least the basics before you go, and expect to have language difficulties. Another thing that you must get used to in France is the way they eat, dinner starts much later than in North America, the earliest is 9pm. They also don’t rush through meals, lunches tend to be at least an hour and a half, and dinner was at least 3 hours. I flew in and out of Paris, but did not spend much time there. I met up with some friends (other geneticists) who had been there for several weeks, and were eager to ‘get on the road’. So we rented a mini van and headed out into the French countryside.

Our first stop was the city of Chartres, pronounced ‘charters’ by the English. Though Chartres is a beautiful medieval town with interesting little nocks and crannies, I was particularly interested in the cathedral. It was built between 1194 and 1260 in the style of Gothic exemplar. The cathedral was an original, its builders introduced new principles that would inspire all the great architects of the 13th century. The elevation was in three tiers as it had no gallery (the relationship between the three levels should be noted), and the vaulting was quadripartite, which eliminated the need for alternating supports. Externally, an important change was introduced by abandoning the five towers initially planned over the transepts. Like many medieval cathedrals, there were also statues of people dressed in contemporary garb (for the time). I was most interested in these (for costuming reasons) and took many pictures and sketches. These are the best sources for this period (which happens to be near mine).

Rowanna’s Travels Part 6: Chartres