Spring 2022

Saint-Lubin-des-Joncherets - 16 May 2022

Bike ride into Chartres to view the impressive cathedral. A funeral was held during part of our visit, quite strange. Kay took us out of Chartres and to a grassy pitch by a lake for a relaxing afternoon.

Monday, 16 May 2022 - Saint-Lublin-des-Joncherets (lake)

Last night it didn’t rain for long, all threats and didn’t really deliver, tried raining again about 11.30pm, but not for long.

Ended up with cheese and crackers again as it was just too hot to cook - well - that’s my excuse anyway!

This morning it was bikes out for a quick ride into Chartres. Not quite the straight path as it was yesterday into Orleans! Thank goodness for Google maps!

Chartres has a population of around 38,000. Wow! The cathedral is very impressive. We thought Orleans was huge, well this one is the third highest in France at 115m (heights vary depending on source!)

There was a French tour guide speaking in English about paying to visit the toilet, and Tintin asked about an entrance fee for the cathedral - typical shrug of the shoulders - the government pays for everything - no fees! It’s very different in Spain, Portugal and Italy!

The cathedral is undergoing renovation - the difference in the stone is astonishing. We saw the same when we visited the Leaning Tower of Pisa in Italy. The parts that hadn’t been ‘cleaned’ just looked grubby, but come to life when cleaned up!

Some of the following bits taken from Francethisway - “The cathedral was built from 1194-1260. Several other churches and an earlier cathedral had already stood in the same location when work on the current cathedral started, including an impressive roman style cathedral which stood for almost 200 years until it was destroyed by fire in 1194.

From the outset it was intended that Chartres cathedral should be one of the finest churches in the Christian world, in part because of a miracle that took place here: a sacred relic in the church had survived the fire, which was taken as a sign that the virgin Mary herself had intervened during the fire to save the relic.

Using the attractive local white stone for the building, the main body of the new cathedral was completed in about 25 years and incorporates the original crypt from the earlier cathedral. The entire cathedral was completed about forty years later.

Approaching the cathedral from the outside, you will first see the decorative carved entrance with a large 'rose' window above that stands between the two towers of the west facade. The north and south facades are also very impressive, and you will see the substantial flying buttresses around the outside of the cathedral body.

A characteristic of gothic churches, flying buttresses were used to add the strength to a church that enabled it to be built much higher than earlier cathedrals. As a side effect this arrangement also relieves the cathedral walls of much of their support function, allowing large stained glass windows to be added.

Inside the substantial east-west nave is about 130 metres long and 36 metres high.

Many of the stained glass windows are part of the original 13th century construction - remarkably having survived the rigours of the Wars of Religion, the French revolution and the second World War, although some were lost in the 18th century during modernisation works at Chartres cathedral.

The cathedral contains the largest collection of medieval glass in the world and relate nearly 13000 scenes.”

What we found quite strange, was that there was a funeral taking place, with lots of visitors looking around too. Tour guides were just asked not to speak loudly! The acoustics are fantastic, and the music played was strangely very moving.

The bells peeled for ages around 11.30 - the service must have been around an hour long. Wonder if it was 90+ tolls for the age of the lady, which is what St Peter’s church did for my aunt Norma - which was a very special way to remember her 85 years on earth.

Afterwards, out into the sunshine for a walk around the town. Being Monday, most shops were closed, and opening at 2pm. We bought yet another baguette - and yes Caroline - some apple doughnuts - which in fact weren’t worth getting fat for!

I then drove for about an hour. We really didn’t know - and don’t know where to go this final week. Tintin wanted to drive around ‘Swiss Normandy’ - but the guidebook was talking about cars, and we’re not sure Dave would like the small roads. We’re still dithering about going to Giverny to see Monet’s gardens - but the thought of buying tickets in advance, having an allotted time to visit and lots of people is putting us off. Also, when we look on park4night we have to be a little careful where we go, as we don’t want to have to drive for miles and miles out of our way in order to find services for Dave - which look a little sparse in some areas!

So, we took the easy route - another quiet lake to sit around and read again - defer the decision for another day!