different names for the same thing: Tren Al Sur

Today, we decided to get on a train and head out of the city to Chartes. It is a little over an hour train ride to the south west of Paris. The ride out was GORGEOUS! The landscape was so pretty and riding the train was actually a lot of fun.
Chartes is a lovely little town. There is a HUGE cathedral there called Notre Dame. We got to town and grabbed some lunch, then walked through town until we reached the cathedral. The gardens out front were beautiful themselves.
Since Dave is better at describing what we saw today, I will turn the computer over to him for a bit:
The cathedral is really dark inside (gothic architecture) with two really unique features. First, it has one of the few labyrinths remaining. The distance around it is supposed to be the distance Jesus walked while carrying the cross. Pilgrims would walk around the labyrinths doing prayers. They’ve been removed from a lot of cathedrals.
Second, it’s famous for the blue in the stained glass. It’s absolutely stunning. There’s a blue Madonna that has all kinds of shades of blue. A number of the windows go back to the 11th and 12th century. It was really fun to see all that amazing glass.
The cathedral is massive and fun to explore. At the end, Wendy and Mali decided to go back while Hayley, Dillon, and David climbed up the bell tower. It was quite a climb up some narrow steps. All three made it up, but Hayley and Dillon definitely showed more courage at the top than their father did. To his defense, it was really high up there and the wind was blowing.
After looking at the cathedral a bit more, the three of them headed to the train station. The tickets were good until 5, and their was a train leaving at 4:55, so they went back and had crepes in the town. Dave asked for banana but got M&M’s. Don’t know how those got confused.
On their way home, the train stopped in Versailles. There were a ton of people waiting at the platform. After sitting there for 10 minutes, there was an announcement and all the folks got on. Unfortunately, the announcement was in French, so the three of them stayed on the train. Fortunately for them, a nice man turned to them and asked in English ‘Are you going to Paris?’ They said yes, and he said that there was a change and this train was headed back. They bolted and went to another train and asked a nice lady if it was headed for Paris and she said yes. Immediately afterwards, there was an announcement, everyone sighed, and then got off. She said that it wasn’t going to Paris any more.
Hayley talked her proud father into asking for help, and the train employee said we had to take an RER line. It took them to a closer stop to home, but it stopped at every station (and didn’t leave for 20 min). Then they had to metro home. So, the 1 1/2 hour train ride tuned into 3 1/2 hours. Everyone made it home fine after the challenging train adventure.
As for Mali and I, we arrived in Paris without incident. It was POURING rain on the train ride home, as well as in town. So, we quickly bought an umbrella off the street before running errands. We were happy to be home and dry. I took care of some business at home while Mali relaxed. The others got home FAR later than expected, so we had a very late dinner. Dave and I did some more laundry at the Laundromat (looks like this will be the case until we leave Paris, unfortunately).
After we got the kids in bed, Dave and I went out for an evening walk. It was a really nice night. We walked around and ended up getting some gelato. We have really fallen for this city and are getting a bit sentimental as we come to the end of our stay!