Chartres

On Fridays, we don't have class here. It's pretty awesome to always have a three day weekend. Anyway, some girls and I decided to go on a day trip to Chartres. Chartres is a little town that is about an hour outside of Paris. It's big claim to fame is its cathedral (Notre Dame de Chartres), which is one of the best preserved cathedrals from medieval times. It also holds an ancient cloth that is, supposedly, a veil that the Virgin Mary wore. It was a pretty cool trip. We took two tours: one of the crypt (in the basement of the cathedral) and one of the cathedral itself. Both tours were completely in French and, while they were a little hard to understand at times, they were very informative and interesting. The cathedral is most well known for its stained glass windows; many of which are more than 500 years old. In the middle ages, very few people were literate. So, the stories of the Bible were made into scenes in stained glass. There are about 175 stained glass windows in the cathedral and each one told one or more stories. Perhaps the most interesting thing about these windows is that during World War II, they were all taken down and stored in the crypt so that they wouldn't be damaged. Personally, my favorite thing about the cathedral were the two towers. In most French cathedrals, symmetry is very important and the towers at the front are almost always identical. As you can see in the picture, Chartres's towers aren't alike at all, not even their heights! I think the asymmetry of it just adds to the beauty of the building as a whole.
I was very awestruck by the cathedral. The whole thing took about 30 years to build, which is not long at all for a cathedral! It was so magnificent and every detail was perfectly planned. It amazed me that such artistry went into a place of worship like that! I feel that a lot of our modern churches in the USA are just buildings thrown together. None of them are as detailed and perfect as Chartres and the other cathedrals here. It was a very humbling and wonderful experience.
We also spent a little time walking around the town. I had to buy a sweater because the wind was so strong and cold. We did a little bit of shopping and we ate lunch. For lunch, we all had galettes, which are basically crepes but for the meal instead of just for desert. For example, my galette had ham and swiss cheese and an egg in it. It was so good and so filling that I wasn't hungry again until we got back to Paris that night. The one thing that we didn't get to do was to climb the 300 steps to the top of the North Tower. We really wanted to, but our tour of the cathedral lasted longer than it was supposed to and by the time it was over, the tower was closed for the day. It kind of sucked but the whole day was pretty cool and really fun.

More Later!
French Amy