Day 3: Chantilly

After another yummy Hotel Ibis breakfast, on Wednesday we headed home. Our only stop was the Château de Chantilly in Chantilly, France. It's comprised of two adjacent buildings. The Grand Château was destroyed in the Revolution and rebuilt in the 1870s, and the Petit Château was built around 1560. It was very charming--we liked it even more than Versailles because it wasn't nearly as touristy. There was hardly anyone there that day besides our group.
Despite the looming clouds, it was actually a beautiful day.

The separate stables, home to hundreds of horses and even a horse museum!
This is a mosaic from Pompeii, 1st century AD. It's very rare because most of them aren't in color. Cool, huh? Some of this stuff they lend out to museums, but the Duke that lived here brought all kinds of stuff here and requested that none of it leave after he died.
The chandeliers were gorgeous.
The "singerie," or monkey room, one of only five such rooms left in the world. Apparently they were all the rage back in the day when people loved anything exotic. Like the Lady and the Unicorn tapestry that we saw at the Cluny Museum, it portrays the five senses. Our tour guide was super nice...he pretty much risked his job by letting us chill in this room. They usually don't let people stop here. And he didn't speak English, so I felt important translating for people who couldn't understand.
More of the monkey room.
A beautiful bedroom with beautiful chairs.

This harp is "very precious," our tour guide told us. You can say that again! Not only is it b's old, it's covered in real gold leaf!
A big hall with paintings of military victories, similar to the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles, but with paintings instead of mirrors...and smaller.
We spent quite a while walking around the gardens and grounds. They're beautiful, and huge!
The Island of Love...there was also a cute gazebo with a statue in the middle but it was covered.

With Sarah and Rochelle, Emma's roommate. I felt very tall in this picture. :)
Looking out over the gardens.
Yay for horse statues!

Yay for dog statues! There were lots of those, and paintings of hunting dogs attacking, too. And of guys with their dogs. I thought of you, Dad. But it is a hunting lodge, after all. There's a room called the stag room that puts Gaston to shame. They use antlers in all of their decorating!
I know this is like the 50th picture of the outside, but I saw this one that someone else took on Facebook and had to include it. I also distinctly remember taking pictures of the library but they disappeared. It was really cool...two levels with chairs up top, coats of arms all around the ceiling...more Beauty and the Beast flashbacks. :) I spent a while in there drooling over the 13,000 books and 700 manuscripts, including a copy of the Duke of Berry's Book of Hours, and listening to Dr. Welch expound on the teachings of St. Augustine and Thomas Aquinas, whose works were featured prominently. Very cool castle! It was my favorite stop on our trip.
I added some pictures to the last two posts if you're interested. Also happy birthday to Robby and welcome home, Doris!

Day 2: Mardi Gras, Belgium-style

On Monday night we enjoyed a hotel room with real beds, a real bathroom and a blow dryer, unlike our first hotel in Paris. We also enjoyed a fabulous all-you-can-eat breakfast, complete with pain au chocolat (bread with chocolate chunks in it--I'd like to shake the hand of the fellow who came up with that novelty), croissants, fruit, cocoa, cereal...thank you, Ibis Hotel! Oh, how I took advantage of that. Then we drove to Ghent to pay a visit to Saint Bavo Cathedral. (Anyone ever heard of Saint Bavo? I sure hadn't.) The church was based on an old wooden chapel dating back to the 10th century and finally completed in 1569. But what we really went to see is the famous Ghent altarpiece kept there. It's a polyptych painting (like a triptych but with more panels) by Jan van Eyck and his brother Hubert. I learned all about van Eyck last semester in Music Civ 201 (and about Gothic cathedrals, of course) so it was very cool seeing this work with my prior knowledge. The colors are beautiful and the detail absolutely amazing. The original work is in its own room behind glass, but there's also a reproduction that you can get closer to.
Then it was off to a town called Binche for the Mardi Gras parade because apparently it's a big deal there. These guys called gilles dress up in these elaborate costumes that take months to make just for today's parade.
Unfortunately, it was cold and off-and-on raining. Not the most flattering picture of me, but you get the idea. We were huddled under the umbrellas for quite a while because we got there 4 hours before the parade started. (I would've liked to have spent more time at breakfast...) So needless to say (as Dr. Brookmole would say), we had plenty of time to walk up and down the main street--several times--and observe the pre-parade festivities...basically, drinking.
This little girl was unfazed by the weather. She happily threw confetti on the ground for hours.
The parade is finally underway! There are separate groups of gilles who each have their own drummer, without whom they can't go anywhere, and little bands who compete during the parade to see who can be the loudest and most obnoxious. (There was a guy playing an E-flat clarinet...shudder shudder.) The gilles also carry little baskets of oranges, which the little ones hand out and the teenagers chuck as hard as they can. We had several casualties in our group, including a busted lip! Oh, and those huge feathered hats they wear? Sis. Welch told us they cost 500 euros to rent. $750. To rent. For one day. These people are crazy.
Different costumes...I don't really know the story there. Looked like a drum major gone wrong.
And finally, the little kids dressed up in "harlequin" costumes. There also seemed to be a general Halloween mentality...many of the spectator children were wearing costumes. There were also lots of temporary party-supplyish stores and of course, food stands selling everything from bratwurst to pizza and hamburgers to crepes and waffles. It was fun (except for the cold and wet part) but I was a little underwhelmed. There were lots more ordinary people in the parade than costumed people, and they just kept going around and around the block! And we were all barricaded in. When we decided we couldn't stand it anymore, we hopped over the barricade during a lull and ran for it. The police standing guard didn't seem to mind. So really, the only thing I learned is that the Belgians don't understand the concept of a parade. And I think I smoked the equivalent of ten cigarettes. Prepare for my premature departure by lung cancer. On a happier note, I was quoted in the Daily Universe. My roommates were thrilled. :)

Day 1: More cathedral, more chocolate

This week we took a 3-day trip to Belgium! First stop, Amiens (France), to visit the incredible Notre Dame d'Amiens cathedral, home of the head of John the Baptist, complete with silver platter.


It's even taller than Notre Dame de Paris.
Six of the apostles. I can now tell most of them apart in paintings, sculpture, stained glass, etc.


Not a very good picture, but this was my favorite stained glass. Most of the glass actually wasn't colored.
Looking down the nave.
A much better picture of the stained glass, taken by someone else. Thank you!
When the sun came out of the clouds, we saw this reflection on the pillars behind the windows.
Us inside the church...
No, I didn't take these either. Cool, huh?
Diane under another amazingly high organ.
The whole group.
Next stop, Bruges, aka Disneyland Belgium. It's so cute! This is the town hall (so I hear) in the main square. Could double as Cinderella's castle, right?

A big tower in the marketplace.
I thought it was funny that this (in Dutch)
and this (in French) were right next to each other. I didn't know until I looked at Wikipedia that Bruges is the capital of West Flanders. There you go.

We went to a chocolate museum that was not nearly as cool as the Lindt place in Cologne, but still fun (not to mention the people working there didn't seem too thrilled about 25 people coming in an hour before closing time). Reason #1 right here. Is that a gross visual or what?
Reason #2: we were too late to see a demo from this guy, and there was no mini-factory a la Willy Wonka.
But speaking of Johnny Depp, there were lots of amazing chocolate sculptures and figures, including Jack Sparrow and Davey Jones...
And several of these ladies.
And this huge egg made of...you guessed it, solid chocolate...with a picture of their "chocolate fairy." Forget a fairy godmother, I could use a chocolate fairy.
Apparently this was the Spaniards' secret recipe back in the day. Secret's out.
We finished the day with real Belgian waffles and fries (yes, they were created in Belgium). Mmm! Actually, I have to say I prefer American waffles, although it was delicious. (Shout-out to Doris!) We felt guilty speaking English all the time, but surprisingly, we saw almost no French and heard none at all. Also saw lots of adorable shops while trying to find our way to the hotel...chocolate and lace seemed to dominate. Unfortunately, they were closed, but the lace and the chocolate were both beautiful!