Chartres cathedral and environs
Dec 1, 2010 21:03:10 GMT
Post by Deleted on Dec 1, 2010 21:03:10 GMT
After a couple days of pretending that I was free to travel around at will, I headed back to Paris where my presence was required, but I saw that Chartres was in my path.
I spent quite a bit of time in Chartres about 25 years ago, because my grandmother spent two summers at the SNCF holiday retirement residence not too far from there. The second year, it was because she was waiting for a permanent space at the SNCF retirement home in the suburbs of Paris. I looked after her for the next 8 years. (Are we beginning to see a pattern here?)
Anyway, sometimes I just took the train from Montparnasse station in Paris and connected to the little train that went to Illiers-Combray to have lunch with her, visit the Saturday market, and then I would take the train back to Paris. Other times, I would rent a car, and then I would take her to one of the nearby châteaux (the Loire valley is not far) or else to Chartres. She enjoyed going to the cathedral, and it is one of the places where she taught me that it is just fine to pay just half the amount it says on the candle rack.
Okay, this post is not about my grandmother or it would go on for about 50 pages, but the point is that I had not been back to Chartres since I went there with her. I'm not the only person with this problem, but I sometimes have difficulty returning to places where I spent time with deceased loved ones.
This day, however, I decided that I wanted to see the cathedral of Chartres again. 25 years is a long time.
I parked on one of the streets alongside the cathedral. I wondered what it was like to live in an ordinary house next door to one of the major monuments of world heritage. Plenty of people do it, but does it have any effect on them?
The post box told me that Chartres had had a chilly night.
There was a little passage to get to the side of the cathedral, which was next to the old bishop's residence.
Okay, time to go around to the front, which is being renovated. This old stuff requires regular upkeep for some reason.
Oh, what was wrong with these stupid medieval people? Didn't they know that a cathedral with matching towers would look much nicer?
They've finished cleaning the top row of statues.
I just want to look at a few other things outside. Twice with my grandmother, we ate at a combined Italian/Chinese restaurant. One time we ate on the Italian side of the room and the other time we ate on the Chinese side. Could it possibly still exist? Apparently not....
Okay, time to go inside.
They've been renovating some of the inside of the cathedral also. Looks pretty nice. Even in the 21st century, you have to plan on 30 or more years of work to renovate and clean the whole thing.
Chartres is more famous for its stained glass than its architecture. There is supposedly a 'Chartres blue' that has never been reproduced elsewhere. Unfortunately, the rods and cones in my eyes are insufficiently sophisticated.
Yes, of course the windows are nice, but I like the candles, the carvings, the well worn flagstones, all of that stuff. My half price candle is the one on the right that has just been lit.
I spent quite a bit of time in Chartres about 25 years ago, because my grandmother spent two summers at the SNCF holiday retirement residence not too far from there. The second year, it was because she was waiting for a permanent space at the SNCF retirement home in the suburbs of Paris. I looked after her for the next 8 years. (Are we beginning to see a pattern here?)
Anyway, sometimes I just took the train from Montparnasse station in Paris and connected to the little train that went to Illiers-Combray to have lunch with her, visit the Saturday market, and then I would take the train back to Paris. Other times, I would rent a car, and then I would take her to one of the nearby châteaux (the Loire valley is not far) or else to Chartres. She enjoyed going to the cathedral, and it is one of the places where she taught me that it is just fine to pay just half the amount it says on the candle rack.
Okay, this post is not about my grandmother or it would go on for about 50 pages, but the point is that I had not been back to Chartres since I went there with her. I'm not the only person with this problem, but I sometimes have difficulty returning to places where I spent time with deceased loved ones.
This day, however, I decided that I wanted to see the cathedral of Chartres again. 25 years is a long time.
I parked on one of the streets alongside the cathedral. I wondered what it was like to live in an ordinary house next door to one of the major monuments of world heritage. Plenty of people do it, but does it have any effect on them?
The post box told me that Chartres had had a chilly night.
There was a little passage to get to the side of the cathedral, which was next to the old bishop's residence.
Okay, time to go around to the front, which is being renovated. This old stuff requires regular upkeep for some reason.
Oh, what was wrong with these stupid medieval people? Didn't they know that a cathedral with matching towers would look much nicer?
They've finished cleaning the top row of statues.
I just want to look at a few other things outside. Twice with my grandmother, we ate at a combined Italian/Chinese restaurant. One time we ate on the Italian side of the room and the other time we ate on the Chinese side. Could it possibly still exist? Apparently not....
Okay, time to go inside.
They've been renovating some of the inside of the cathedral also. Looks pretty nice. Even in the 21st century, you have to plan on 30 or more years of work to renovate and clean the whole thing.
Chartres is more famous for its stained glass than its architecture. There is supposedly a 'Chartres blue' that has never been reproduced elsewhere. Unfortunately, the rods and cones in my eyes are insufficiently sophisticated.
Yes, of course the windows are nice, but I like the candles, the carvings, the well worn flagstones, all of that stuff. My half price candle is the one on the right that has just been lit.