On my last full day in Paris, before G returned from the UK, I caught the train to Chartres. The main drawcard is the Chartres Cathedral, and its architecture, sculptures, stained glass and labyrinth provide enough reason to make the trip from Paris. The first Cathedral on the site was probably built in the 4th century. Over the next few centuries, the church was destroyed and rebuilt multiple times. In 876, King Charles the Bald gave the church the ‘Veil of the Virgin’, which cemented it as a place of pilgrimage. In 1020, the Romanesque Cathedral was built, one of the largest in Europe. The current Gothic cathedral was constructed in 1194 – c.1230 after another fire. The monument is a UNESCO World Heritage site.

I caught the train from Paris Montparnasse at 9:06 am, arriving in Chartres at 10:06 am. It is a short walk from the train station to the cathedral. The cathedral is open from 8:30 am to 7:00 pm every day and is free to enter. The excellent visioguides are available for rent for 10€ between 10:30 am and 3:30 pm. The guide lasts about two hours, and I highly recommend it if you want to find out what you are looking at. I prefer having detailed explanations. I mean, I enjoy the beauty of art and architecture, but I also want to know what it means and its significance. Otherwise, I feel like I come out without really knowing what it is that I’ve seen. The Cathedral website also has detailed information.

The portals of the Cathedral are decorated by an amazing collection of statues. This is one of the largest collections of sculptures from the Gothic period, dating from the beginning of the Gothic period to its heights. As you move from the Royal portal (sculpted around 1150) to the North Portal (1210-1225) the sculptures become more animated.

Flying buttresses were an innovation that allowed Gothic Cathedrals to have much larger windows. The stained glass windows of the Chartres Cathedral are magnificent. The upper-floor windows depict the great figures of the Christian faith. The upper windows also feature rose windows. Larger rose windows are also featured on each facade. The lower windows tell the stories of the Christian faith and are read from bottom to top, from left to right. The windows are famous for their “Chartres Blue.” The window “Notre-Dame de la Belle Verrière” is famous for this blue.

The labyrinth at Chartres Cathedral is open on Fridays from 10:30 am to 5:00 pm, so I chose to do this day trip on Friday. At other times, it is covered with chairs. The labyrinth is set into the cathedral floor with a diameter of just under 13 m and a path that winds back and forth for 261.5 m. The path invites you to take a ‘pilgrimage,’ engaging in meditative prayer as you walk. It took me about 20 minutes. It is a good way to relax in the moment and engage in prayer. The labyrinth had large queues when it first opened, but these reduced and almost disappeared once I was getting almost to the end of the visioguide, so if you want to do this, maybe don’t plan to do it first thing.

Finally, I can’t finish without mentioning the choir screen. Begun in 1516 and finished in 1714. It is almost 100 m long and 6 m high sculptured stone in the flamboyant style. The sculpted scenes tell the story of Mary and Jesus.

I finished at the Cathedral at about 1 pm and decided to get a baguette and explore the town. I wandered through the narrow streets and down toward the river, which was in the opposite direction of the train station. The town has a few old cobbled streets with half-timbered houses. The Cathedral looms over the top of it all.

As I was walking back past the south portal of the cathedral, I saw a little girl by herself looking very upset. Everyone walking past ignored her, so I approached her with my meagre French. Luckily, I managed to get her to come with me so I could grab some people who were passing by. They couldn’t speak English, but I managed to use a few words and gestures to indicate what was wrong (pardon, fille, perdu). I managed to pick up from the subsequent conversation in French that she was visiting with a class from school. They took the situation in hand, and I continued heading to the station to catch my train back to Paris at 2:52 pm arriving back at Paris Montparnasse at 3:53 pm.

Have you ever been to Chartres? Have you been in a situation overseas where you really needed a bit more of the language?