Chartres: A wonderful Cathedral

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Today we visited Chartres, a city about 20 kilometres from where we are staying. Our hotel is in Illiers-Combray a small rural town that has become quite famous thanks to the writings of the French essayist, Marcel Proust. The town, Illiers, was the setting for the town Combray in Proust’s book “À la recherche du temps perdu” (Remembrance of Things Past) and so the locals added Combray to the name Illiers, so we have the name Illiers-Combray.
Our drive into Chartres took us to the town centre and we disappeared underground into an enormous car park that seemed to run the length of the boulevard above and two levels deep. Emerging into the square, it was quite enjoyable to sit and be entertained by two children frolicking in the fountain sculpture while we indulged in pastries.
As we wandered along the pedestrian friendly streets enjoying some window shopping we came across a shop selling New Zealand goods, especially sportswear. The owner appeared and in a perfect French accent confessed he was not a Kiwi but an enthusiastic rugby player. After a brief discussion on the recent All Blacks result we continued browsing before reaching the cathedral.
The cathedral is the main draw card for tourists visiting Chartres. It is truly magnificent. The stained glass windows have survived two world wars thanks to the locals removing them and placing them in safe storage. At present the cathedral is undergoing a massive cleaning and restoration project costing 5,190,000,000€ and taking several years. The interior is full of scaffolding but the section that has been finished has brought the windows and surrounding walls to life. Lightness and rich colour are the result in these parts. The cathedral dominates the city and can be seen from several kilometres away.
As we spent time walking around the outside of the cathedral we noticed signs that have become familiar to us on our travels through France, Spain and Portugal. Chartres is on the pilgrim route to Santiago de Compostela and embedded in the pavement was the sign showing the way and the length of the journey - 1645 kilometres. And so another link has been made with the places and sights we have seen on our adventure.
Tomorrow we hand over the car so tonight we have the task of de-cluttering. Four months of stuff has to be packed into two bags and two back packs, a seemingly impossible task. The house maids in Paris are likely to be the beneficiaries of some interesting travelling necessities all packed away in a cheap chilly bin.

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