Chartres

A couple weekends ago, I went on a day trip to see the cathedral at Chartres.  The trip was with some of my friends, other assistants, named Breanna, Niamh and Emily. We got up early and headed out in very sleety conditions. After an hour of driving, we stopped to get gas and found that the day had brightened up considerably. 

When we got out of the car, Niamh and Emily decided to practice being models. (Don't models hang out at gas stations?) 

"Okay so how are we going to coordinate this?" 

"Well you see, we have to flip our hair. I'll go in one direction and you in the other."

I think Niamh and Emily should stick with being teachers...!

Then we got back in the car and drove another hour south to Chartres. 

The cathedral was beautiful, but I just can't seem to get over these asymmetric churches here. They're disturbing to my aesthetic sense.  

This is the labyrinth that is on the floor of the cathedral. Emily and I looked up the meaning of it the night before the trip. What we found out is that people in the middle ages who didn't have enough money would walk the labyrinth instead of going on pilgrimage to the Holy Land.

The cathedral was gorgeous and bright. That white stone is a recent development for it.  For many years, the stone has been dirty and black, but recently it has been cleaned with a laser to return it to its original white color.

This picture isn't very clear, but it shows the difference between the stone that has been cleaned and the old, dirty stone. 

The whole cathedral is filled with beautiful stained glass. 

Since so many of the cathedrals here in France have had windows destroyed by the war, it's always amazing to me to see a cathedral that is completely intact.

This structure still exists due to the valor of one man, Welborn Barton Griffith, Jr., during WWII. After the Normandy landings, the battles between the Allies and the Germans caused much destruction since it would be a huge loss to the Allies if they did not succeed in reclaiming France. Many historic landmarks were in danger since the Germans could use them to their advantage in the war. Some places during the war, such as the famous Monte Cassino abbey in Italy, were bombed because the Allies believed that there were Germans hiding within. As it turned out, there hadn't been any Germans in Monte Cassino and it had been destroyed for no reason.

When the orders came for Chartres to be bombed, Griffith realized the importance of the old cathedral and offered to sneak behind enemy lines to check out the structure. Once he got there, he found that there were no Germans inside and he rang the cathedral bells to warn the Allies not to destroy it. He died shortly after in a fight north of Chartres and was awarded the Silver Star, Distinguished Service Cross and the French Croix de Guerre posthumously.

Breanna, who had taken a class in college about castles and cathedrals, explained to us that the Belle Verrière is a very important stained glass window. I don't know much about this art form, but apparently it is very unusual for stained glass windows to have such large images covering several panels. The brilliant blue color of the stained glass is supposed to be very important too. Breanna said that nobody knows how they achieved that hue with their technology at the time. (12th century) This is an oversimplified explanation, so if you want to learn more about this window (and other Belle Verrières) click here.  The link has detailed pictures of all stained glass windows in the Chartres cathedral.

We also headed out for a little walk around the town.  It's amazing to me that I can drive two hours here in France and find a place with architecture that is strikingly different from the architecture in my own city!

Emily made it her job to ruin all of Niamh's photos....

What concentration!

This is a view of the cathedral from the back.

This is directly behind Chartres. The "C" in the middle stands for Chartres and the labyrinth is meant to be symbolic of the one in the nave of the church.

Turning around from the labyrinth garden you can see the very back of the cathedral. This would be so pretty in the springtime!

I think Emily is still photo-bombing Niamh's pictures....

We also stopped in the church of Saint Aignan. We all agreed that we liked this one possibly even better than Chartres.

My favorite part was the intricate painting and the wood work on the ceiling.

Some of the paint was peeling off the walls. It would be beautiful restored.

We then stopped by the stained glass studio, museum and shop.  Though we didn't have time to look at the studio and museum, we did take a look at the shop.  I think we were mostly glad to have a place to sit in the warmth though!

Our last stop in Chartres was to see the crypt of the cathedral.

This is supposed to be the veil of the Virgin Mary. It seems a little doubtful...but there it is. I've also seen the skull of Mary Magdalen and the skull of the blind man cured by Jesus here in France. All of those things seem like a stretch that anyone would still have them, but it's interesting anyway.

This was my favorite stained glass window in the cathedral. Look at all that beautiful blue!

...and that's it! Thanks for coming along to Chartres with me!