Wednesday, September 2, 2015

Ex-Cathedra..... Part 2 Chartres


After Troyes, we moved on to Chartres. Only a short drive that saw us arrive by lunchtime and settle in to an old style French campsite. (By old style, that means French bomb drop toilets and similar vintage plumbing). Beggars can’t be choosers though. The camp was by a small river that flows into the Seine and there was a pleasant stroll of about 20 minutes into the old town of Chartres.
 
 
Some people were feeding ducks in the river and this little fellow arrived to eat his or her share of the bread. We thought it was a giant water rat at first sight. It was about the size of a domestic cat and hails from the lower part of South America. It's a Coypu and these were imported to Europe to breed for the fur trade but are now considered a pest in most of Europe, where they've escaped and now roam wild. Not quite the moose of my dreams but a land-based, aquatic, browsing mammal all the same.
 
It was a blazing hot day as we walked into the town at about 3pm and were very happy when we reached the coolness of the cathedral after the walk along the river bank and through the dog-dung infested lower town - for some reason, France hasn't joined the trend in most other European countries, whereby people clear up their dog turds as they are deposited!

Chartres cathedral is set on a hill in the old town and can be seen for many miles. If you only ever visit one cathedral in France, make sure it is Chartres. It is impressive at a distance and this grows as you get nearer. The cathedral was sacked by Norsemen in the 9th century then rebuilt 2-3 times in the next 3 centuries before the current version was built from about 1195 to 1250 AD.

 
The view from the rear of the cathedral as we climbed the hill from the lower town.
 
The cathedral is quite stunning. It’s one of those buildings where everything is just right in its proportions, the light inside and out, its perspective and overall effect. There is a large square to the front of the building that has gardens and shade, and bars and restaurants on the south side.

There is major restoration work going on at present that involves cleaning 900 years of accumulated grime from candle smoke and general filth from the inside and outside of the building. Some critics claim that this is a form of vandalism comparitive to removing the patina from old metal but it’s happening despite their objections. The pro-cleaning camp say that it will be as the builders intended it to look.

The work is about 50 percent completed, so you can get before and after views at the moment. It's hard to tell which is the better in my opinion, but if repairs and maintenence don't happen there's only one ending.





This is one of the two main entrances. The amazing stone carvings are one of the features at Chartres both inside and outside and this doorway has already been cleaned and restored to show them off at their best.


The same side view as above but showing one of the two, asymmetric towers. The other main entrance is between the two towers.

Inside the cathedral, the nave is not continuous as at Troyes and Rouen but is interrupted by a carved stone choir that is about 5-6 metres tall and runs for about 55 metres on each side, (I paced it out).
The whole choir is in carved stone and is amazingly intricate. The stone hasn’t been cleaned yet so you only get a grimy picture with all the patina that results from 800 years of candle smoke and assorted grot.

 
 
As you can see from the scale provided by the 6 foot tall wooden doors this stone carving is amazing. As mentioned above, there is well over 100 metres of it. As an extra bonus while we were admiring the central aisle of the cathedral, a choir practice took place, so we had the fantastic acoustics to enjoy as well.





 Chartres has three of these beautiful rose windows, each over 10 metres in diameter and unlike most other cathedrals in France; Chartres’ windows are still mostly the original 13th century glass. The blue glass that is extensively used is unique to this area.
 

The reason for most of the glass being original is that Chartres has never been extensively damaged at any time since the present building was completed in the mid-13th century.

During the French revolution, the revolutionaries started to destroy the religious stonework and carvings, (Taliban or Islamic State springs to mind again) but the local townspeople stopped them, one of the few recorded occasions when this happened.

The local revolutionary committee was then given instructions from Paris to blow up the building to destroy it but they refused, saying that it would take 10 years to clear the rubble afterwards and make the town uninhabitable for this time.

 Finally in the Second World War, the American forces were besieging Chartres in 1944 and the local US commander was ordered to shell the cathedral to drive the Germans out. The commander refused to carry out this order and went undercover into the town personally to check whether the cathedral was occupied by German forces and found that it was not.

Now that’s what I call a war hero.

After viewing the cathedral we had a relaxing drink for an hour or so and then walked back to our campsite. There were a large number of old buildings again and this was the most impressive:
 
House and chateau with turret all in the same building!
 
We'd been told about the cathedral being lit up after dark from 9pm onwards so we decided to go along and have a look see at about this time. Imagine our surprise when we arrived to find a free concert had just begun in the cathedral square. We even managed to get seats when some kind people left early.

There was only one act, that consisted of 6 talented musicians, plus a vocalist who between them made up a Rolling Stones tribute band. The vocalist had all the Jagger moves off pat and apart from some strange pronunciation of certain English words, was pretty good. The only slightly contentious point for Iris was them doing "Sympathy for the Devil" on the cathedral steps. Despite this there were no bolts of lightning or gargoyles falling from the roof.
 
The band (with no name) played continuously for over two hours and as I said to Iris at the time, "I've paid good money to see a lot worse than them". A very good night was had by all.


 
The Rolling Pierres
 
After the concert finished at 1130pm we managed to see some of the town illuminations. The cathedral was not lit up but a nearby church at L'Ecole was lit inside and outside and looked quite stunning. We then picked our way through dog-dung alley in the lower town and back to the riverside walk. This path was fairly well lit, except for the last 300 yards through a forest. We shuffled through this gamely and without mishap 'til we reached the camp gates that fortunately were still open, (despite a noticed saying they would be locked at 10pm).
 
 
A good night's sleep was had by all and then on to Rouen, (well nearly, Pont de L'Arche actually). 


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