Chartres

      I had been looking forward to our trip to Chartres for quite some time, and I am happy to report that it met and surpassed my expectations.  After a short drive, we got our first glimpses of the cathedral and it, like Mont. St. Michel, loomed over the flat countryside.  For some reason, at a distance it seemed huge, standing outside it seemed small, inside it felt huge again, and from the very top it was ginormous!  Goes to show you that perspective is everything.  We started out with a tour from this little old lady who was intent on describing in detail what felt like every single piece of stained glass, but she was quite intelligent so that made up for what otherwise would have been a long-winded monologue.

      The intricacy of each little facet was just amazing.  For something so big and built so fast, there is so much detail and attention payed to each statue and carving.  They are currently doing a renovation in which they are cleaning every surface to reveal the original plaster and stone underneath.  Despite rumors, they are not actually repainting the surface but simply cleaning it, and the windows, whose detail had been obscured nearly completely, are being restored as well.  The parts that they have completed are a completely different color and light is actually allowed to pass through the windows.  The effect was quite astonishing as I have always seen these cathedrals after centuries of smoke and dirt had blackened them, and it was interesting to get to see the church as the original makers had intended.  It was not longer a dark, old cathedral, but a place of light and color.  Purists have made many complaints that the restoration is taking away from the feel of age and history, but from an art historical viewpoint it is a treat to get to see cathedral as it was intended to be seen.  The Mona Lisa wasn't supposed to be yellowish and was originally praised for its vibrant colors and realism.  It is only because of layers of lacquer that have damaged it to this point, and it will continue to become more obscured with time.  

It is so hard to photograph the detail while retaining the great sense of scale.

That main cross is about 20' above where I'm taking the picture.

      After a wonderful lunch spent laughing and talking together over goat cheese burgers and fries, we decided to hike up the 320 steps to the top of the cathedral to see the view.  I would highly suggest not eating a burger and fries before taking on such a challenge, but I would suggest the trip up as one of the best ways to experience the cathedral.  The view was amazing and it was pretty darn cool to get to see all of those gargoyles and other Gothic fanciness up close.

      After we hurried down the dizzying, tight spiral staircase to meet the bus, we drove over to the Ateliers Loire which is a famous stained glass making workshop that has done commissioned work all over the world for three generations.  The nice guy there gave us a tour of the workshops and told us about the entire process from start to finish of making a stained glass window.  Each room had a specific place in the process and at each phase he did a little demonstration to show us how he used the tools, chose the colors, decided which type of glass to use, and the various ways of putting the glass together.  By the end I think we all wanted to become glass workers and move to Chartres to work in his shop.

This is the window where they have samples of all the glass they have in stock.

His house, workshops on right, and a yard full of his family's creations.

      After a tour of the workshops in which our jaws just hung down the entire time, he showed us the little little winding path around his yard that is lined with works of glass instead of flowers.  With the sun low in the sky, the light was perfect for hitting each piece that had been strategically placed to let the sun shine through it.  It was pretty cool, and yet again I failed to get adequate photos of his amazing works.  I definitely wouldn't mind learning how to work with glass or even getting a job sweeping floors at a glass makers.  And thus our day-cation ended with a relaxing bus ride back to the city.