Cathedral of Notre Dame de Chartres

I have waited years to come to Chartres and somehow I made it happen. Because of a lack of time and poor planning on my part, I had to scratch off Chartres. This time, I left Paris early and I got to Chartres ahead of schedule. I don’t think I would be spending too much time here in Chartres so I head straight to the cathedral. I know it was my first time in Chartres but the cathedral can be easily seen from the railway station so it was easy to find. The Cathedral of Notre Dame de Chartres or Our Lady of Chartres is a UNESCO World Heritage listed site. You can see how large the cathedral is from far away. It is a slightly elevated area so you can see it from anywhere within the town.

The cathedral has a square in front of it. Curiously, the place didn’t seem to be that busy. I would have imagine that a place as significant ad the Notre Dame de Chartres would be busy with tourists but that didn’t seem to be the case. The cathedral feels like it is two churches put on top of each other. The main entrance is decorated with various carvings as it typical of these types of cathedral. While the upper half of the cathedral is dominated by the oculus which is the rose window that is common in romanesque type churches. From the outside, it seems that it is a combination of architectural styles. The window means it is a romanesque church but the hight of the church and pointed towers tell me that it is also gothic. It is not uncommon to see these types of hybrid architecture as I have seen them on various occasions during this trip.

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