Hello, luv!
Hi there!
My name is Martha and I am a single, retired woman from the Denver area who is a big fan of Rick Steves tours. Since my first trip to France in 2012 I have been hooked! I am in love with England and decided to take the Villages of Southern England tour in the fall of 2018.
CHARTRES
Tour day 1: A colorful beginning
As we all gathered for our initial tour meeting the first order of business was to verify Covid requirements. Immunization? Check! Negative test? Check! Mask? Check! There were 22 of us ready to go, all excited to see France.
After the normal introductions, information, and buddy choosing we took a walk to a restaurant right by the cathedral for a lovely dinner. We were curious about our fellow travelers and dinner conversation was lively.
The evening was time on our own but Patrick had encouraged us to stick around town and watch the light show. Those of us who did were treated to something special.
As a way to get visitors to stay the night, Chartres projects beautiful images on the town buildings. I hung around and watched the lights on the cathedral.
The show on the front of the cathedral had lovely designs and bits of the history of Chartres. The real jewel for me was on the side of the building. I had always heard that in medieval times the churches were painted bold colors but that through the centuries the paint had worn off, leaving the beige or grey of the stone. The lights on the side of the building were designed to show what the colors would have looked like and they were stunning! A real visualization for me of what the peasants would see as religious inspiration. I am very glad I stuck around to see the display!
Day 2: Getting to know Chartres
Our first full day was the chilliest of the trip. Not a problem, I added a jacket, scarf and gloves to my attire and was warm for the day.
Patrick gave us a lovely trip around the tangled streets of Chartres, talking about history. pointing out interesting places and details as we went. While Chartre's main attraction is certainly the cathedral, it clings to the River Eure and has many interesting medieval buildings along the streets.
As we finished our walking tour at the cathedral we met up with our esteemed local guide. Malcolm Miller is in his 80s and has been studying the windows of the cathedral for most of those years. We only got an hour's worth of information from him but it is clear he could go on for days about the Bible stories in the beautiful stained glass. I was thrilled that he was able to help us understand the church and its symbolism.
We had a couple hours of free time to have lunch before we met at Centre International Du Vitrail for a visit. Here we learned all about making and restoring old stained glass. A fascinating discussion, made me wonder how the medieval people ever came up with this skill. But so glad they did! In addition to many old windows there was a display of modern pieces in the lower level. I found the abstract works particularly interesting and a great comparison to the ones in the cathedral.
With our scheduled activities done, I spent a fair amount of time just saying goodbye to the cathedral and taking pictures of the inside and outside details.
