Chartres Cathedral

Friday morning began with a text message from one of the students saying that she had a fever and a bad sore throat.  And they had only been here for one week!  We were sad to have to leave Paola behind.  

We took a 9 am train to Chartres from the Gare Montparnasse on Friday morning.  We had everyone meet us under the big Departure Board at 8:30 am and everyone was on time.  What a great group.

Kelly and Kate wait under the Board

Our Students Waiting for the Track Number to Post

We had a fast, one-hour train ride to Chartres in a car that was air conditioned rather than heated.  It was a beautiful, cold sunny day so it didn't help to arrive in Chartres chilled to the bone.

Madeleine, Phoebe and Mary Claire on the train.

We arrived and walked the 10 minutes up to the Cathedral--it was as beautiful as ever.  They are in the process of cleaning the windows and the stone inside and out.  It was a lot whiter inside and out.  We learned that during the middle ages until the 18th Century, the statues and columns and ribs were painted.  In fact, the Gothic Cathedrals were quite gaudy inside and out.  We could see some traces of paint in certain spots.  Chartres was a stop in the pilgrimage to St. Jacques of Compostella in Spain so it has always been a "tourist" destination.  We had two one-hour tours with the famous Malcolm Miller.  He came to Chartres in 1958 from England to study the Cathedral and he never left. Kelly and I first saw Chartres Cathedral in 1980 when we were on Study Abroad in Paris and had a tour with Malcolm Miller.  We have enjoyed bringing students back in 2005, 2009 and now 2012 to hear his tours again.  We always learn something new.

Chartres has two steeples, one early Gothic and the other built much later in the flamboyant Gothic style.  Many Gothic cathedrals only had one steeple.  Chartres is the best preserved Gothic Cathedral with more original windows than any other.  It is famous for the Chartres blue in the stained glass.  There were no standardized measurements during the Middle Ages so all the artisans lived and worked right around the Cathedral.  During the World Wars, the stained glass was removed and packed away and hidden elsewhere in France for safe keeping.  Each of the squares in the Stem of Jesse window below is 4 ft by 4 ft.  Can you imagine packing that all up?

Stem of Jesse Window-From 1150

North Rose Window

Chartres Cathedral barely escaped the Allied bombing of an airfield across the river near the end of WW II.  When Malcolm Miller first came to Chartres, there were still bomb craters around Chartres Cathedral.  Chartres Cathedral also escaped most of the destruction during the French Revolution when the Cathedrals were taken away from the Catholic Church and many destroyed or damaged.  In fact, the French government owns Chartres Cathedral, like the other cathedrals in France, and lets the Catholic Church use it.

South Side of the Cathedral

We read many windows with Mr. Miller--you read them like a book--right to left, bottom to top.  The stories and symbolism all seem so clear when he explains it.  The cost of the many windows was paid for by different guilds or royalty from all over Europe.  The pictures and symbols of Blanche of Castille are in the North Windows, and figures of different guilds are at the bottom of windows such as the carpenters, shoemakers and money changers.

South Rose Window

We also saw how the statues and stories on the outside echo the windows on the other side of the wall on the inside.  For example, the first and fourth statue above are of Melchezidek and Aaron and they are also the first and fifth figures in the stained glass of the North Window.  The North Window is the Old Testament window and the statues outside relate to that and tie the New Testament into the Old Testament.   The South Window is the New Testament window--New Testament figures are on the shoulders of Old Testament figures in the windows.  We also learned how to recognize Christ in the statues and stained glass--his halo always has a cross in it.

Statues on the North Side of the Cathedral

Our Students Listening to Malcolm Miller at the North Portal

Chartres, like Notre Dame in Paris, is dedicated to Mary.  It is Notre Dame de Chartres.  Its relic that the pilgrims came to see is the clothing that Mary supposedly wore when she gave birth to the Christ child.  It was actually a very long piece of silk cloth.  It has been dated to the First Century, but who knows if it actually belonged to Mary. I don't remember noticing this Black Madonna there before.

13th Century Notre Dame of the Pillar

In between our two tours we had a couple of hours for lunch.  Kate quickly took off with some of the students, leaving Kelly and me in the dust.  Mr. Miller recommended La Reine de Saba (Queen of Sheba) right across the street from the Cathedral for some good, typical French cuisine. So Kelly and I headed over there along with eight other students.

We had a great lunch and enjoyed talking to the owner and his wife.  Kelly ordered some kind of steak of the day.  He asked for it bien cuit--well done.  The woman said he could order it how he wanted, but it would not taste as good bien cuit.  When he got it, it was just how Mike Krieger would like it-not just pink but red--very rare!  

Some of the students tried escargot!  They all thought those snails were really good.

Les Escargot

Trying those Snails

Sydney, Brooke, Ashlie and McCall

There was a cute old local man at the table next to us eating his lunch alone.  As he left, he said "À Demain" to the owners  We wondered if he ate lunch there every day.

One of the highlights of the lunch experience was Phoebe's drink.  Everyone was cold and ordering hot chocolate, so Phoebe thought some hot cider would taste good.  When it came, it was cold, not warm, and it was hard cider!  Kelly went over to help them and asked the owner about it.  He said of course it had a little alcohol in it--only about 2% or 3% was all.  That's beer in Utah and Kelly said it smelled like beer!  The owner walked away shaking his head and couldn't believe they didn't drink any alcohol at all.  Another French experience to remember.

Phoebe and her Cider

We went back to the Cathedral for our second tour after lunch and then had to hurry to the train station to make our train.  We really didn't have time to explore the city--although Mary Claire managed to find time at lunch to buy a new warmer coat at les Soldes.  We all felt a bit rushed and many of the students commented that they would like to return--maybe when it gets a little warmer.  Chartres and its Cathedral is a place I never tire of visiting.