Day Trip to Chartres

I woke up super early in time to catch the train to Chartres, France this morning with Cathie.  This was a last minute decision to go...but I wanted to get out of Paris at least once over my vacation time and this was a perfect option.  Chartres is a town of about 40,000 people and located an hour's train ride southwest of Paris.  The Chartres Cathedral is famous for its "Chartres blue" stained glass....hence where the color name was coined.  The original structure burned in 1194, but the church standing now has been there ever since.  We got off at the Gare de Chartres and immediately saw the direction we should be heading in.  The spires stood high over the town.  

Unfortunately they are doing a bit of restoration so there is a bunch of scaffolding in the front facade.  

Pictures don't do this stained glass justice...its absolutely beautiful.  

We climbed one of the spires to the top-excellent views!

View from the back.  

Musée des Beaux-Arts de Chartres

Walk along the riverside.

Cute street sign! 

It was a nice day, but fairly chilly.  The church was obviously cold, and a bit windy outside.  After we did our once over of the church, we contemplated doing the tour of the crypt but decided to wait and see if we had time later on.  We wandered around the narrow streets to try and find some lunch.  Grabbed a quick sandwich, then we continued on down the hill from the church and found a small river running through the "old town."  Discovered a couple of other old churches, bridges, and buildings that were quite interesting and beautiful!  It was a perfect walking town so that's what we accomplished!  I was impressed with the restoration of old buildings, and how the town has kept its "old charm."  It was quiet and peaceful, much unlike the streets of Paris and the people were very friendly.  

We had time to take the tour of the crypt, unfortunately, I didn't get any fabulous photos because they're taken with my Iphone.  The tour was in French, which I am slowly beginning to get use to, but of course we grabbed an English leaflet just in case.

And also in the church, this is a fragment of the sancta camisia (tunic of the Virgin Mary) that was sent as a gift from the Empress Irene of Byzantium to Charlemagne in 876.  It was then given to the church by his grand-son where it remains still today.  Although this is a rumored story and there are no absolute facts...it was examined in 1927 and experts claimed that it does date from the 1st century.   Only two relics survived the French Revolution and both are in Chartres Cathedral.  

Our train was a little delayed heading home, but still only lasted an hour...arrived in Paris around 8 this evening.  Am planning to spend the day with Gaspard tomorrow, haven't seen him in almost 3 weeks!! Franck phoned today and asked if I wanted to go to a museum or a movie with him and of course I jumped at the chance!