We arrived at Chartres around 2pm just in time to check in at Hotellerie Saint-Yves, which is a former monastery a mere stone's throw away from the Cathedral. We left Paris at 12:09pm from Gare Montparnasse and admired the countryside landscape from the TER train bound southeast of the capital. It was sunny when we left Paris but it was 4 below and cloudy when we got off the station at Chartres downtown. The wind was fiercely chilly when we took the fifteen minute walk to the hill where the Cathedral is. Instantly we felt "away" from the metropolis. Chartres with its 45,000 citizens living in very organized apartments and homes around the Eure River and the hill of the Cathedral is quite a picturesque small town. Marikina City is even more populous with its 300,000. Again this town, the capital of the Eure-et-Loir department reminds me of Laguna. Chartres is very, very quiet, even at daytime and the groups of tourists who come over are a handful. And they stay inside the Cathedral most of the time.
Back in Paris I've done a lot of background research on Chartres Cathedral, mostly videos and online documentaries. It was the idea of Sacred Geometry of Chartres and the sacred landscape that got me going to Normandy as well. One big challenge this edifice offers is its impressive power to overwhelm the hearts of nonbelievers. I am trying to put this to the test. Even Joseph Campbell wrote that Chartres brought him back to the religion of his childhood in a mystical experience.
We checked in the Hotel-Monastery and discovered that reviews of this place was true: it does look like a retreat house than a hotel. But the staff were nice and this with its superb location offsets the lack of TV, the slowness of its Wifi connection, the spartan and even corny design of the room (peach colored walls and floral red covers) and the 48€ a night charge.
Straightaway we went into town to buy some sandwiches which turned up cheaper by half the price in Paris. Service was friendlier too. We began our walk by entering Chartres and I was extremely disappointed to discover a whole system of scaffolding had blocked the high altar and worse, it had drawn a cordon off the Sancta Camisa, the tunic supposedly worn by the Virgin Mary at the time of Jesus' birth. That the whole church was in fact built around the Sancta Camisa made me want to see this first and foremost...but I hope tomorrow will be luckier. The labyrinth was also covered by chairs.
Instead I paid attention to the stained glass windows and immediately recognized the brilliance of its famous blue hues. The marble carving surrounding the main altar, occluded by the darkness, is nevertheless also superb in its execution. The portal sculptures of the West and South entrances I think have no comparison with the ones at St. Denis or Norte Dame de Paris. These Romanesque-Gothic figures are imbued with not only skill but utter faith! And to think all of these works are nameless, anonymous, forgotten. They are therefore made by now-invisible hands, their works testimonies to the belief that their names will be in the book of Judgment, on the side of the blessed. Tomorrow I have to explore the North portal and other sculptures for two things: The images of non-Christian philosophers like Aristotle, Pythagoras etc and the the vegetal design that some scholars say are a veritable botanical encyclopedia of the Medieval age. Chartres was once a Cathedral School and a center for learning, scientific, astronomical and theological - up until such time when the Church decided to shun scientific thinking as detrimental to faith. Smells like the theme of Dan Browns Angels and Demons...
After the church we explored the historical quarter of Chartres and reached the old Porte Guillaume where we chanced upon a small store and bought sandwiches and a Coke for dinner. The town featured several half-timbered houses which we saw in Rouen but their presence here bears a quainter, more authentic feel. The streets are definitely narrower and the small, slow, Eure River was not as imposing as the Seine. In fact Chartres was so charming we thought we could live here, sometime in the future.
Returning to the Cathedral by 6pm when the world suddenly became inky dark we chanced upon a very special mass, presided no less than a very manic bishop in his yellow cape and what appears to be the whole police force of the town and some other 100 people - which made Chartres Cathedral a better, more functional church than the ones we saw. They even played the pipe organs during Kyrie Eleison!
---
So the question is: did Chartres get to me?
Well...its too early to tell. But the town did make me wish I live here.
Back in Paris I've done a lot of background research on Chartres Cathedral, mostly videos and online documentaries. It was the idea of Sacred Geometry of Chartres and the sacred landscape that got me going to Normandy as well. One big challenge this edifice offers is its impressive power to overwhelm the hearts of nonbelievers. I am trying to put this to the test. Even Joseph Campbell wrote that Chartres brought him back to the religion of his childhood in a mystical experience.
We checked in the Hotel-Monastery and discovered that reviews of this place was true: it does look like a retreat house than a hotel. But the staff were nice and this with its superb location offsets the lack of TV, the slowness of its Wifi connection, the spartan and even corny design of the room (peach colored walls and floral red covers) and the 48€ a night charge.
Straightaway we went into town to buy some sandwiches which turned up cheaper by half the price in Paris. Service was friendlier too. We began our walk by entering Chartres and I was extremely disappointed to discover a whole system of scaffolding had blocked the high altar and worse, it had drawn a cordon off the Sancta Camisa, the tunic supposedly worn by the Virgin Mary at the time of Jesus' birth. That the whole church was in fact built around the Sancta Camisa made me want to see this first and foremost...but I hope tomorrow will be luckier. The labyrinth was also covered by chairs.
Instead I paid attention to the stained glass windows and immediately recognized the brilliance of its famous blue hues. The marble carving surrounding the main altar, occluded by the darkness, is nevertheless also superb in its execution. The portal sculptures of the West and South entrances I think have no comparison with the ones at St. Denis or Norte Dame de Paris. These Romanesque-Gothic figures are imbued with not only skill but utter faith! And to think all of these works are nameless, anonymous, forgotten. They are therefore made by now-invisible hands, their works testimonies to the belief that their names will be in the book of Judgment, on the side of the blessed. Tomorrow I have to explore the North portal and other sculptures for two things: The images of non-Christian philosophers like Aristotle, Pythagoras etc and the the vegetal design that some scholars say are a veritable botanical encyclopedia of the Medieval age. Chartres was once a Cathedral School and a center for learning, scientific, astronomical and theological - up until such time when the Church decided to shun scientific thinking as detrimental to faith. Smells like the theme of Dan Browns Angels and Demons...
After the church we explored the historical quarter of Chartres and reached the old Porte Guillaume where we chanced upon a small store and bought sandwiches and a Coke for dinner. The town featured several half-timbered houses which we saw in Rouen but their presence here bears a quainter, more authentic feel. The streets are definitely narrower and the small, slow, Eure River was not as imposing as the Seine. In fact Chartres was so charming we thought we could live here, sometime in the future.
Returning to the Cathedral by 6pm when the world suddenly became inky dark we chanced upon a very special mass, presided no less than a very manic bishop in his yellow cape and what appears to be the whole police force of the town and some other 100 people - which made Chartres Cathedral a better, more functional church than the ones we saw. They even played the pipe organs during Kyrie Eleison!
---
So the question is: did Chartres get to me?
Well...its too early to tell. But the town did make me wish I live here.
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