I Had the Town To Myself

I set off for the village of Chartres this week to see the famous Cathedrale Notre Dame de Chartres and get out of Paris for a little while.  The cathedral was the only thing on my agenda, so I headed directly there from the train station.  On the way I got a warm welcome from this guy.

Towering above the rest of the village, the Cathedral is pretty impressive.  The stained glass is quite famous, especially the "Blue Virgin" window, which survived a massive fire that devastated the town in 1194.  As you can see from the picture below, there were not a lot of people at this famous monument that day.

I was quite surprised to find plants growing on the walls of the church.

The gardens behind the cathedral and the view of the town were spectacular.  The landscaped labyrinth mimicked the one on the floor of the church.

As I climbed my way back out of the gardens, I realized that I had no idea what to do next.  Then it started to rain.  Feeling somewhat depressed that I was just going to turn around and head back to Paris after such a short, disappointing visit, I decided instead to take a walk in the rain.

And was I ever glad I did!  I discovered so many charming things about this little village and because it was raining, there was almost nobody else around.  That hasn't happened much since I've been in France.  One of the first things I found on my walk was that there are more churches in Chartres.  I walked into this one, Saint Aignan, and found myself completely alone.  The church was beautiful and I particularly admired this nice set of pipes.

A little farther along, I found this old fashioned water well.  The person who lived in this building walked by as I snapped this shot, probably thinking I was weird walking around in the rain taking pictures of such mundane things.

Some of the houses were really cool too.

Another thing I discovered about Chartres was that it's on a river, which I later learned was the Eure.  After dark, this river is a main feature of Chartres en Lumières, a light show highlighting the village's interesting architecture and geography.  Unfortunately, I couldn't stay for the show because the last train back to Paris left at 10:30 and it doesn't get dark until 10:00 here.

After a long, wet afternoon I stopped in a local bar for a beer before getting back on the train.  I just loved the gigantic bottles of liquor on the top shelf, the house-flavored vodkas on the bottom, and the sausages hanging on the end.

From another of Saint Pierre's churches, peace out.