We had two things we wanted to do today: visit the cathedral and go to the International Stained Glass Center. But first we needed caffeine and food. I had made a spreadsheet of restaurants close to each place we were staying. My spreadsheet promised a boulangerie just around the corner. It no longer existed. We walked down to Place Billard and found one. I asked the woman if she would heat up my pain aux raisin. She gave me a look of utter disbelief that I would want something so uncouth. When Gayle chose her pastry she knew better than to ask for it heated. We sat on a bench outside the cathedral and ate our delicious pastries. I read to Gayle out of Rick Steves’ guide book on what to look for inside the cathedral.
Rick Steves says you can visit the cathedral anytime within its posted hours. If there is a service happening, be quiet and respectful. It was Sunday morning and we arrived just as the processional up the center aisle began. There were signs posted everywhere that we thought said you shouldn’t tour the cathedral during worship.
So we left. We went to the south portal, which we had visited the night before for the lumiere. There is no way to photograph this whole building unless you are flying overhead. It is massive.
The artwork over the central south door depicts the Last Judgment. Jesus is on his throne. John and Mary are begging him to be loving in his judgement of humankind. Under his feet he has divided the righteous and the damned. In the column, Jesus is standing on evil symbolized by the head of a dragon and the head of a lion.
An unsheltered person slept in the next door way.
As we were coming down the steps from the south portal a 80 year old woman yelled up to Gayle in French. Gayle said she didn’t speak French. The woman rushed up the steps and very carefully aided Gayle in coming down the stairs. I wish I would have taken a picture of the woman, who was older than Gayle, guiding her down the stairs. I asked Gayle what she would have done if I tried to help her. “Make you stop,” she said.
We decided to go find an outdoor cafe and get some espresso. We would return to the church in an hour when the service was over. One of the things we talked about when planning this trip was that we wanted time to sit in an outdoor cafe in France and watch the world go by. Gayle spent the time taking photos of dogs and their owners. She wants to do a blog about French dogs. After an hour of drinking espresso and looking for dogs, we headed back into the cathedral. Worship was not over so we sat down and joined the worshippers. The acoustics are incredible and the singing was divine. It felt good to be in worship.
The cathedral (a UNESCO World Heritage Site) is beyond description and you can’t capture its beauty or immensity in a photo. There have been people venerating Mary here for over 1700 years.
The scaffolding along the side of the sanctuary is for renovation they are doing to the pillars. It appears that they are covering them with plaster to smooth them out and then they are going to cover the pillars in marble. At least that is what we decided after staring at the process. The cathedral is very well preserved. Most of the stained glass and architecture have remained intact since the 13th century.
A labyrinth is built into the floor. Here you can see it, as well as the rose window at the back of the sanctuary.
There is so much stained glass in this building…so much. There is stained glass along both sides of the sanctuary and stained glass above the walkway above with small rose windows above them.
Behind the main altar is another chapel in honor of Mary, for whom this cathedral is named. The pillars in this area have recently been covered in marble.
Stone carvings along the walls of this chapel depict different moments in Mary’s life. Here she is presenting the newborn Jesus to Simeon in the temple.
Around the outside wall of this chapel, which is called the choir screen, are dozens of stone carvings telling the story of Jesus’ life. There is everything from his circumcision…
…to doubting Thomas putting his finger in Jesus’ side.
Along the east side of the cathedral are a series of small chapels. This one includes a glass case holding the silk birthing veil, which they believe Mary was wearing when she gave birth to Jesus. Having this relic has made this cathedral a pilgrimage site for hundreds of years. It is hard to photograph because it is behind an iron gate.
The stained glass window on the left is the referred to as the Blue Virgin. The blue gown Mary is wearing was made with Chartres glass, achieved by mixing cobalt oxide into the glass.
We could have spent hours inside the cathedral studying the stone carvings, statues, pulpit and windows. But we decided we needed to sit in a cafe and restore ourselves. There are several cafes around the cathedral and we sat and enjoyed the lunch, the day, the people and their dogs and the cathedral.
Next on our list was the International Stained Glass Center. Large pieces of art glass let us know we had arrived.
The center was different than we both expected. The stained glass displayed was from the windows of the St. Pierre church in Chartres. It gives you the history of the glass and shows you how it has been restored. It is a history lesson in stained glass. A confirmation class was taking a tour with a tour guide and they were bored silly. So were we. We didn’t stay long.
On the way back to our rental we stopped in a store selling works of art in stained glass. We wished it was easy to transport home. By then Gayle had a hitch in her giddy-up. She started walking home and I made a quick at the north portal of the cathedral. I was in search of the stone carvings of the zodiac symbols. I found them.
As I caught up with her I noticed that the man hole covers around the cathedral are decorated with labyrinths.
We rested for the remainder of the afternoon. Gayle was worn out and decided she didn’t want to go out for supper. I found a place that would serve me some French onion soup. Do you have to call it French onion soup if you are eating it in France? It is probably just onion soup in France. I brought back a couple crepes for Gayle and I to share. By then it was 10 p.m. I headed down to St. Pierre Church. It is an impressive church but it pales in comparison to the cathedral.
St. Pierre is the sight of one of the 20 lumieres in Chartres and I wanted to experience more of them. I was there all by myself. I began to think I was in the wrong place when a two story structure near me began to hum.
The church lit up with color…just for me.
It was incredible but I began to be a bit creeped out standing all alone in the dark in an unfamiliar city. So I headed back up the hill and went back to watch the lumiere on the front of the cathedral. (Notice how the cathedral’s spires are different.) I just can’t get enough of these light shows. If I lived in Chartres would this become commonplace?
Back in our apartment I fell asleep immediately. I have been gone from home for over three week and my body is beginning to feel the exhaustion of constant adventure.
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