This past Saturday, a friend from the embassy and I decided
to visit Chartres for the day. Located just an hour south of Paris,
Chartres is world famous for its Gothic Cathedral, as it is
considered to be the finest in France: its 150 stain glass windows
are incredibly well preserved, its relics have attracted pilgrims
for hundreds of years,and its contents offer much insight not only into the
town's history, but also into medieval Christianity's philosophy and teachings.
Fortunately, we were able to learn quite a bit about the Cathedral's
history and significance from the renowned expert, Malcolm Miller.
Mr. Miller has been giving tours at the Cathedral for the last 59 years
and has traveled all around the world lecturing about this Cathedral
and French medieval history. In fact, his tour brought the Cathedral to life,
and we were so fortunate to have had him as a guide.
In addition to the Cathedral, Chartres also has many other sites to offer, such as
many other small churches, a beautiful, little river that cuts through the city,
and little museums.
In all, Chartres is a well-worth day trip from Paris as all of its sites
can be seen and enjoyed at a leisurely place.
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| The view from the Cathedral from the train station |
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| The front entrance |
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| The south entrance and rose window |
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| Inside the Cathedral just before our tour with Malcolm Miller |
At 12:00, our tour with Malcolm Miller commenced, and he first began by giving
us some historical content on the Cathedral. Put briefly, the Cathedral was built in the 11th
century and has been a pilgrimage site since then because many come to venerate
its famous relic, the Sancta Camisa, the alleged tunic worn by the Virgin Mary at Christ's birth.
However, Malcolm did not to spend too much time explaining the Cathedral's
construction, as one can find that in a book, but instead wanted to focus
on the Cathedral's contents, namely its stained class windows.
Malcolm spent a quite a bit of time explaining the
Incarnation Windows, which are the windows that one
sees at the front entrance of the Cathedral, but paid particular attention
to the window found on the left.
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As Malcolm explained, each stain glass windows depicts a Biblical passage and
was designed so that the illiterate laymen of Medieval Times could visualize and
better understand the Priest's teachings. One begins by starting at the left bottom panel, move from left to right,
and then up to the left panel on the second row, and so on and so forth.
Malcolm explained to us this window in particular (center in the photo above); can you guess the story it tells?
It is about the birth of Jesus, but notice that in the right panel on the bottom row,
Mary gives birth to Jesus on an altar, which runs contrary to where we Christians
believe Jesus to be born. It turns out that that was what medieval theologians believed at the time. |
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Another window he discussed at length was the window detailing
the Story of Creation and the Good Samaritan Parable. Why, you may
asked, were they paired together? Because Jesus, during medieval times,
was believed to be the Samaritan and helping the Samaritan and ensuring his safety
served as a reminder to humans that He is there to help and aid humans, despite the betrayal
of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. |
A close-up of window panes 4-9
A phrase that Malcolm often repeated is that the Cathedral is like
a "book," as there is much to learn, understand, and interpret. And, since
he focuses only on a select few windows each time, one would have to take his tour
every day over the course of a month to truly learn the significance of each stained glass window.
One of the most impressive parts of the tour was that Malcolm would sit facing us and recount the
details of each window pane behind us without every looking backwards: "On your bottom left,
you see X, the color green represents Y, on your bottom right, you see Z, etc, etc."
It was an amazing tour, and I (and thousands of others) definitely
have more of an appreciation of the
Cathedral grâce à lui.
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Parts of the Cathedral are undergoing cleaning, and here
is a good example of the before and after. |
Malcolm ended the tour with an explanation of the south portal.
To the left and right of the wooden doors are Christian martyrs, who are
all carrying the weapon/device of their deaths with their killers at their feet.
Christ is found both in the center of the wooden doors and two rows above.
In the row directly above, those to his left (as his left, raised hand is a symbol of dishonor)
are being sent to Hell and thus, their hands are facing downwards; those to his right,
however, are being spent to Heaven and thus, their hands are facing up.
The Cathedral has over 4000 statues on its facades, further adding to its awe.
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| Exiting the Cathedral |
After our tour, we decided to find a place to eat
and ended up choosing at eat at a restaurant at Place
Marceau, since it was a little bit removed from the
Cathedral and thus, less crowded.
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| Place Marceau, the square at which we ate lunch |
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| Saint Aignan |
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Gothic Churches were often painted, and this Church, unlike
any other Church that I have come across, has kept its paint.
Now, to the extent that this paint is original is highly doubtful,
but it does give more of a sense of what they used to look like way back then. |
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| Walking along Rue Saint Pierre |
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| In front of Saint Pierre |
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| A reflective Sterling |
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| This church had a much somber feel than the previous ones |
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| The Cathedral and the River Eure |
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| Rue de la Grenouillière |
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| The houses along the River Eure |
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| The one photo that Sterling posed for me!! |
Since we are tired from our long weeks at work,
we headed to the Parc des Bords de l'Eure to take
a nap in the shade. Before doing so, however,
we stopped by the park's small petting zoo!
After our nap, we walked along the Eure on Rue de la Foulerie and
after Rue de la Tannerie, which offered very charming views of Chartres.
The last church we visited that day was Saint André, and it was
not only very different from the other three churches, but it was
unlike anything that I had seen! The church was, in fact,
filled only with modern sculptures by a contemporary
French artist. I was able to take two, quick pics before being
asked to put my phone away!
From there, we climbed up the Tertre St. Nicolas and paid a visit to the
Jardins de l'Evêché, which are situated right behind the Cathedral
(Fun fact: Cathedral, in Latin, means "Seat of the Bishop")
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| The above-mentioned gardens |
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| The Cathedral's North Portal |
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| Yours truly |
We left Chartres around 7:00 and were back in Paris by 8:00. Since
we arrived the Gare de Montparnasse, we decided
to go to the top of the Tour (or Tower) of Montparnasse
to have the best view of Paris. And boy was it beautiful from up there!
The Tower from a Distance
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Jardin de Luxembourg (far right)/ Saint Supplice (just behind the garden)/Latin Quarter
(behind the Garden and Church)/ Louvre (to the left)/ Sacré Coeur (in the distance) |
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| A close-up of the Louvre and Sacré Coeur |
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| The Eiffel Tower |
