Up...

Au revoir à la Loire. Even with four cases of wine in the back of the car we managed to fit everything in again (hah! who said there was no space in a MINI?) for our run north - not actually to Versailles itself, but the small village of Montfort l'Amaury about 20km away. But before that a run to Chartres to see the Cathedral. I may not be someone who has much sympathy with any religious beliefs, but most of them don't half produce some nice architecture and art. Chartres is no exception.

And the view from the Bell Tower was simply stunning - with the height doing funny things to my insides. I'll have been far higher on various structures, but on a jutting out walkway with a simple stone balustrade that only came up to my waist the effect was... startling. But in a good way (if that makes sense).

To get to the tower there was first a wait for the guy manning the entrance to return from his two hour lunch (a wonderful national institution - even the reception desk for our hotel in Montfort closes for two hours over lunch), and be gruffly told that he didn't have any change for the steep ?7 per person charge (I had handed over ?15 in notes). The change drawer was even removed and shown to me to confirm why he couldn't let us up the tower. A rattle about in the pockets, however, retrieved the necessary coinage and the long ascent could begin.

Arriving in Montfort an hour or so later we found a beautiful little village, which like many similar villages in the south of England appears to have become something of an affluent commuter centre for the nation's capital. The numbers of SUVs and MPVs has multiplied; the cost of houses in the estate agents windows has risen; and the feeling of a lack of humanity has returned. But. The receptionist in the hotel was lovely (and clearly didn't speak much English when she enquired, with a slight worry in her voice, if we understood French to get directions to the separate residence in which our room was located), and the room we're in is fantastic.

A wander round the village has been had, and the French version of 'Come Dine With Me' (Un Dîner Presque Parfait) has been watched, and in about 20 minutes we'll be heading out for dinner. Tomorrow is Versailles in all its grandeur, which should be rather spectacular. My natural leftist non-religious tendencies are taking a battering on this trip as I find myself oohing and aahing over monuments to moneyed-excess and elaborate-god-glorying, but whisper it, I've really enjoyed all of this...

Some other rather random shots...

Les Poissons-Poulets
Sideshow KeyBob
City of Gargoyles