Chartres

I want to go to Italy. I want to hop on a train right now and head to Milan or Sicily, because I'm on the European continent and I can. Also because Paris is freezing cold today.

What made me think that? We got out of the (magnificent) confines of Paris today and travelled to Chartres by train. It's only an hour outside of Paris but it's a whole different world. It has that smaller-town feel. As we passed by places on the train, I saw fields and agricultural towns.
It was S's father who suggested we go to Chartres as it houses an exemplary Gothic-style cathedral. The cathedral towers above any other building in town and of course it's beautiful. The stained-glass windows are numerous and intricately detailed. After visiting that main sight, we headed downtown, passing by so many boulangeries and patisseries and whatnot. I can't even count how many I walked into just to look around. But they really remind me of Chinese bakeries. I wonder if one copied the other or did this style of bakery display evolve parallely in two different cultures? It's a cute town with lots of shopping! and a nice breather break.

Speaking of travel, ever since my arrival in London until a couple of days ago, it didn't hit me that I was travelling at all. London could've been any other place in Iceland - just with a huge population and English-speaking, etc. Even as I was visiting Stonehenge and Nottinghill, places I could only dream of visiting a few years ago, it couldn't sink in that I was really there. "Wow," I think, "I'm taking pictures, my look through the lens could be me watching a film."
I guess this is because I didn't travel directly from Canada to London or Paris; I was already in 'travel mode' and 'out of my environment' before I got going.
So am I in Paris? Other than the parlance de francais, maybe. Only maybe. "Wherever you go, there you are." who said that?