Chartres

I apologize in advance, this post is super long! Tuesday we took an hour-long train ride (my very first time on a real train! It was like the Hogwarts Express. Only not.) through this beautiful French countryside.




Our destination was Chartres, a cathedral recognized for its two very different spires. Also, it is said to house the clothes Mary wore when she gave birth to Jesus. The relic has been examined by experts and does date to the first century (although whether they are Mary’s clothes are not remains to be seen). Anyway, it has two different spires because half of it burned down in 1194, and when they rebuilt it, the architect decided he was sick of the Roman style and went with the Flamboyant Gothic style. Guess which one is which.

By the way, flamboyant in this sense means, “like flames” and not, “over the top,” although I think both work in this case.

This cathedral is also known for its stained glass windows, especially one depicting the fall of Adam and Eve and the parable of the Good Samaritan. There was a really good article written by a church member in the Liahona about this window. I would recommend checking it out here.

Although you can’t really tell from these pictures, each pane of glass is four feet square. Which is really big, and which makes the 30 years seem like a miracle (30 years was lightning fast for back then—our guide thought it was built so quickly because the relic is real, or was at least perceived to be).

This was our guide, a British gentleman.

I took a ton of pictures, because it was gorgeous, although it was FREEZING cold, and I even went to the back where I found out later I was not supposed to go. Oops. But aren't these cool? And by the way, huge shout out of thanks to Will and Summer for letting me borrow their camera. Rechargeable batteries are the bees knees and I’m grateful that I’m not spending all of my money on new batteries (I literally have to recharge these batteries every night).





Also, like a lot of cathedrals, they had these candles that you can light (I think they’re a prayer, right? Someone correct me if I’m wrong), and I thought they were really cool. So I took way too many pictures of them. Seriously. More pictures than I want to admit.




It was awesome and made me feel like I really was in France, complete with castles and thatched roofs (which I saw but was not able to catch a picture of).