This weekend I went on a class trip to Bordeaux and Saint-Émilion. I realize it probably doesn't seem like this to the outside observer, but I'm an introvert. Long amounts of time spent around other people exhausts me. So while this overnight trip was awesome, now I'm ready to be back by myself.
So on Friday we met at the train station at 8am to catch the 8:43 train. Don't ask me why we needed to be there almost an hour early - I would've preferred to sleep! The train ride was about 3.5 hours but it was scenic and I'd brought a new book with me so I was happy. Once we arrived we checked into our hotel and had a bit of free time. Everyone else went to lunch but I decided this was my chance to taste a real canelé bordellos.
I had to wander a bit to find the place I was looking for, but Bordeaux is pretty so I didn't mind:
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| Center of town. |
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| Isn't this clock neat? |
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| There is a weird head statue in the middle of Bordeaux. |
Anyway, a while ago in the states I took a cannelé-making class from a very friendly French pastry chef. That was when I learned the incredibly interesting, dramatic, and somewhat ridiculous history of cannelés in France. So now I'm going to give you a history lesson...
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| Yum! |
Basically cannelés have been made and sold in Bordeaux since at least the 18th century. The artisans who made them were known as canauliers and in 1663 they registred a guild with the Parliament of Bordeaux. This allowed them to make cannelés. But there was a (kind of ridiculous) problem. The canauliers were not a part of the Pastry Guild and the Pastry Guild held a legal monopoly over the use of milk and sugar in baking. Soneven though they had the right to make cannelés, the canauliers did not have the right to use milk or sugar in them. This was a ginormous peoblem since back then there were only five ingredients in cannelés: flour, milk, sugar, butter, and salt. The canauliers contined using sugar and milk in their recipes illegally and in 1755 they took their dispute to the Counsil of State in Versailles and were able to break the Pastry Guild's monopoly.
New drama emerged, however, as cannelés became more popular. The original canauliers tried to limit competition. In 1767 an edict was passed limiting the number of cannelé shops per city. Eventually the French Revolution abolished all the guilds. And eventually cannelés waned in popularity until they were almost forgotten.
Then in the 20th century they resurfaced when an unknown French pastry chef made the recipe in its current iteration with rum and vanilla. Cannelés were back. In 1985 a group of pastry chefs created the Confrerie du Canelé du Bordeaux (aka Brotherhood of the Canelé of Bordeaux). They changed the spelling and registered it with the National Institute of Industrial Property - so now technically they are the only ones allowed to use the spelling "canelé" for their pastry. The rest of us have to spell it "cannelé" because we've not been inducted into the brotherhood.
Ok. Now that you've learned way too much about canelés, here's a picture of the one I ate:
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| Isn't it lovely? |
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| Mmmmmmmmm... |
After everyone ate and we regrouped, we were off for a historical guided walking tour of the city center (in English, which was sad because I wanted it to be in French).
Our first stop was the Statue Place de Quinconces in memory of the Girondins. Nazis actually stole the statue during the occupation on August 14, 1943 to make bullets, but it was intercepted and brought back. Here it is:
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| Statue. |
After that we visited a courtyard which was actually cloisters for Dominican monks until the French Revolution, when it was given to the city and it became a public library. Now it belongs to the auditors of the city and is used for public events, concerts, and the like. I love how even random courtyards here have a rich history.
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| Courtyard buildings. |
From that courtyard we headed over to a statue of Francisco Goya, who apparently lived and died in Bordeaux. After he died the Spanish took his body back to Spain to be buried again but his head was missing. To this day nobody knows what happened to it. Weird, right?
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| Our tour guide with the Goya statue. |
The Goya statue was next to
Église Notre-Dame, which featured a bird in an interesting resting place...
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| Me in front of Église Notre-Dame. |
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| Hehehe. |
Next on the tour we wandered down Rue Sainte-Catherine, which is the longest (and probably most crowded) shopping street in Europe:
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| So. Crowded. |
We also peeked into an alleyway which contained an old Roman guard tower from the former walls around the city:
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| Old guard tower. |
We meandered about from there and saw some cute buildings:
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| Bicycles on the walls? |
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| Pretty flower pots. |
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| Fountain. |
We also saw Bordeaux Cathedral but I failed to take photos of it because my phone died and I needed to recharge it. I did learn, however, that the bell tower stands separately from the cathedral because the land there is marshy and the builders worried that the weight of the bell tower might make it fall and kill the congregation. Scary.
At any rate, our tour ended at Napoleon's bridge. Apparently Napoleon had a tough time crossing the river when he was conquering this area so he ordered that a bridge be built. This bridge has 17 arches - one for each letter in his name. He never came back so he never saw or used it. I did come back, however, and took a picture of it once my phone was charged again.
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| Me in front of Napoleon's bridge. |
We had a few hours hours of free time after the tour and once I'd recharged my phone and photographed the bridge, I decided to spend my free time wandering about town. I started by splashing in the wading pool near Napoleon's bridge.
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| Me by the wading pool. |
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| Everyone splashing about. |
After that I made my way over to the Moroccan Festival where I had some delicious tea and cookies.
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| The Moroccan Festival. |
From there I made my way into town via the waterfront. They had pretty plantings all along the waterfront and I tried to snap a decent photo of the.
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Look at the pretty plants by the waterfront!
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I went back into the city via Porte Cailhau. I met a friendly tourist from the Ivory Coast who told me that his guide book said Porte Cailhau is a medieval gate commemorating the French victory in the battle of Fornovo in Italy. It does look medieval...
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| Me in front of Porte Caihau. |
From there I went off in search of gelato, because it was hot. I found some amazing organic gelato right near a church called Sainte-Pierre so I admired the view while I cooled off.
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| Mmmmmm gelato. |
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| Église Saint-Pierre! Isn't it pretty? |
From there I wandered about and eventually wound up back at Place de la Bourse, which has a really pretty fountain. I decided to rest my feet a bit and watch the kids near me chase pigeons.
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This angle makes it look like they're peeing.
I promise they aren't! |
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| Kids chasing pigeons in the square. |
Then we gathered again for a group dinner. By this time I was entirely grouped out so I escaped to the hotel for an hour of reading by myself before bed. But I did take a picture of the tasty dessert:
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| Mmmmm… Paris Brest. |
On Saturday I woke up bright and early for a hotel breakfast that was surprisingly good. Then everyone boarded the bus at for Saint-Émilion. It was about an hour away.
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| Me on the bus. |
The first thing you see when you arrive is the old city walls. Very pretty…
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| Walls. |
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| Me in front of the walls. |
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| Walls looking pretty. |
We had about fifteen minutes free when we got there so I took the moment to savor the view of the city next to the Bistrot du Clocher. I learned from another tourist that the cobblestones in the city were used as ballast by English ships and then left here.
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| Me in front of the pretty view. |
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| Pretty view. |
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| Pretty view. |
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| Pretty view. |
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| Pretty view along the wall. |
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| Me in front of the pretty view. |
From there we were whisked off on a guided walking tour of the Saint-Émilion underground monuments. They were super cool! Unfortunately no photos were allowed.
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| Me in front of a huge tower above the underground church. |
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| Tower. |
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| You can see where it's situated in this picture. |
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| There is a fancy doorway in front of the church. |
Anyway, the church is the largest of its kind in Europe. It's a monolithic church which means it was carved out of one gigantic piece of limestone. You go into the church in the market square. Holy Trinity Chapel - the only aboveground part - was built by Benedictine monks. It sits on top of the hermitage to protect it and it contains gorgeous 13th century frescoes. The hermitage is where the monk Émelion lived after he left Brittany because his miracles became too popular. There is a small spring flowing through the cave that is said to have magical powers. The catacombs are across from the hermitage and they were an interesting sight as well. My Catholic school teachers would have been proud of me because I managed to identify the statue of Saint Nicholas without labels.
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| Actual entrance to the church. |
Then we walked about looking at all the pretty buildings…
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| Cobblestone streets. |
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| Pretty doors. |
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| More buildings. |
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| This building is old and cute. |
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| The streets were all hilly and narrow. |
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| One of the many wine stores in the town. |
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| Ivy hanging from an arch. |
After the tour we hopped back in the bus and went to a wine tasting and vineyard tour. The winery was really interesting. I learned a lot about the process of making wine. For example, all of the vines in France are now planted on American "feet" because of a plant disease epidemic that the American vines are immune against. I also found out that in France you're not allowed to water grape vines over three years old, and that poor soil is actually better for making wine because it forces the vines to make grapes. Neat, huh?
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| Grapes growing... |
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| More grapes growing... |
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| Grape field. |
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| Me in the grape field. |
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| Grapes! |
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| Mixing room explanations. |
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| Aging the wine. |
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| Wine tasting crowd. |
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| Wine tasting pouring the wine. |
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| Me and my wine. |
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| Me and more wine. |
Next, we all went to check out a Grand Cru winery called Maison Galhaud. They had lots of wine of course but they also had some interesting fashion displays by Martine Chardon that were made entirely out of trash.
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| Winery. |
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| Ivy-covered arch. |
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| Artful wagon wheel. |
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| Wine. |
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| Wine caves. |
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| Wine aging in barrels. |
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| Dress made from wrappers. |
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| Dress made from old netting. |
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| Dress made from tinfoil bits. |
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| Dress made from labels. |
After that I wandered about a bit and had lunch. Saint-Emilion is so pretty! I also managed to get a gift for Dolphin and Feather's home: a grape plant!
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| Stairway. |
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| Windows. |
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| Flowers and buildings. |
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| More flowers and buildings. |
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| Me eating an apple. |
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| Vines on a building. |
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| Big staircase. |
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| Square - the tents on the right are where I ate lunch. |
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| Grapes for sale! |
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| My lunch was fancy and delicious. |
I had one important quest in my Saint-Emilion wanderings: eating a macaron! Why, you ask? Because they were supposedly invented in Saint-Emilion by Ursuline nuns. These macarons were simple, chewy, and almond-flavored. I got them a Ferlion Macarons on Rue Gaudet because I'd heard that it was the best sweet shop in town and they said their macarons used the real 1620 recipe. I can't vouch for their authenticity but I can vouch for their taste. They were delicious!
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| The awning at the store. |
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| My macaron. |
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| Mmmmm….. |
After lunch we hopped back on the bus to visit Montaigne tower and castle. The tower is the only part left of the original 16th century castle (the rest was rebuilt after a fire). In 1571, the tower was renovated to Michel de Montaigne's specifications and he spent most of his later days there in the study. It's in that study that he wrote his famous Essays.
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| Castle in the distance. |
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| Castle closer up. |
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| Door to the castle. |
Montaigne's family actually built a fortress around the castle because they're Catholic and the area was Protestant. Of course, they didn't actually bother to close the gates. The one time they were attacked the doors were wide open and when the attackers stormed in they just invited the attackers to dinner, which ended the attack.
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| Castle walls. |
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| Fortress around the castle. |
Another fun castle fact: there was a big ball at the castle and someone knocked over a candle which burned the entire place down. I also found out that Montaigne only spoke Latin as a child per the order of his father. And that there is a cool little tunnel between the chapel and Montaigne's room so that he could listen to mass in his room when he was sick.
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| Chapel. |
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| Stairs. |
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| Bedroom. |
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| Ceiling of the study has writing on it. |
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| Me in the study. |
After that, we returned to Bordeaux and had the rest of the evening to ourselves. I had a nice dinner and wandered about some more. I wound up talking to some locals and was excited to learn that during the summer they hold nightly
free dances at Quay Louis XVIII so that's what I did. Saturdays are their latinx dance nights and I LOVE to salsa so I felt right at home. Of course I forgot to take pictures of the dance because I was dancing. Oh well.
Today, aka Sunday, I ate breakfast at the hotel. We had the whole day free after checkout since the train didn't leave until 2:24pm. I took this as my opportunity to go to church and do some solo sightseeing along the way. Here's my walk to church:
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| Me with some lilacs. |
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| These smelled amazing. |
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| Pretty view of a boulevard. |
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| Rather large arch. |
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| House with pretty flower box. |
I can't remember the name of the church I went to, but I took some pictures before the service…
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| Outside of the church. |
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| More outside of the church. |
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| Brightly lit outside of the church. |
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| View when you enter the church. |
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| The organ. |
After that I meandered about town looking at all the cool graffiti:
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| Sugar skull graffiti on a brick wall. |
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| Pretty flowers. |
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| Bizarre four-legged creature in black and white. |
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| Tiny squid-like graffiti. |
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| Tiny owl-like graffiti. |
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| Graffiti of a brown person's tattooed arm holding a drink. |
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| Who is this? |
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| Bizarre face with lumps. |
I eventually meandered all the way to Cathédrale Saint Andre, where there was a huge flea market going on. So I checked out the flea market first:
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| Flea market with the church in the background. |
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| More flea market. |
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| Random African wares. |
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| Taxidermy fox? |
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| Vases and pots. |
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| An entire cart full of delicious oranges! |
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| Dolls in a trunk and bicycle wheels. |
After that I went into the cathedral and lit a candle. It was gorgeous.
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| Side view. |
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| Front view with my head. |
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| Front view without me. |
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| Me in front of the tower (not attached). |
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| Back view. |
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| Front. |
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| Organ. |
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| Stained glass window. |
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| Statue. |
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| Candles. |
After that I met up with the group and we headed for the train. We finally arrived back in Paris at 6pm and I made it home just in time for dinner with Dolphin.
