Chartres November 9th

This was a day trip out to a little town outside of Paris. It boasts of a very beautiful church, Notre Dame (and no, not the Notre Dame de Paris). I must say, it is one of my favorites. Top five. And I’m not going to bother ordering them, because that’s gonna be too hard.

Madame had found us this splendid tour guide, who was very old and very, very intimate with this specific church. He told us how to read stained glass windows (bottom to top, left to right). After he told us that, I must confess, they did make a whole lot more sense. The cathedral was Gothic architecture, and apparently it was built in a contest with another city. They were aiming for the tallest cathedral. I don’t remember who won, but it doesn’t matter anymore because the other one collapsed because the roof was too tall and the engineering not good enough.

We finished the tour with our guide telling us to come back to Chartres in two years (perfect! Because I’ll be finishing my mission in two years!) because they are currently restoring the church to its former glory. From what I had seen so far, it was incredibly gorgeous. Stunning. The stone was a whole lot brighter, and you could actually see how the light came in so brightly. Smoke has really ruined a lot of it.

Oh, and I think that this cathedral was nearly bombed to the ground during one of the world wars.  It’s lucky we even have it today. Also, this church houses the shawl that Mary wore when she gave birth to Jesus. I don’t know how it would be in such good condition to even resemble a white shawl, but then, there are 4 other churches that claim they have Mary’s shawl, so you have to wonder… Madame explained to me why the Catholics even have relics (like the head of John the Baptist) but it’s long and complicated (at least for me) so I won’t go into it.

After that, I hung out with Hannah and Michel. We went into the crypts where there was a small chapel with original paintings, I believe. They were very original, since they hadn’t been restored at all, so you could just barely see them. Then we went shopping, had lunch, then met at the train station to head back to Paris. Voilà.