Issue No. 20

candle lit vigil with a guide
g through the underground
ral and crypt holding candles
cker in the slight draft,
ws moving across the ancient
ed walls and statues of Mary:
hartresenlumieres.com
The famous Labyrinth was built around the
year 1200 on the floor of the nave. It
attracts the esoteric, the curious and the
religious. It is a 261.5m long pilgrimage
walk and each Friday from 10am to 5pm,
from Lent until All Saints Day, the chairs
that normally cover it are moved off, leaving
it free for pilgrims and visitors to walk. Some
walk it slowly, others faster, some cross
themselves as they go, achieving a look of
beatification as they reach the centre. An
astounding 1.3 million pilgrims make their
way to Chartres each year.
The stained-glass windows are sparklingly
exceptional – 172 of them in total covering
an incredible 2,600sqm. Some of them date
back to the 12th century and you can’t help
but love the colours, especially “Chartres
blue” as it's known, a special blue used on
the oldest windows. For the people of that
day, this richness of colour and art must
have been one of the wonders of the world –
it still is. There’s even a tea named after it
“the Blue Tea of
Chartres”, a blend of
black and green tea,
citrus fruits and berries
in a specially designed
tea caddy – the perfect
souvenir! Find it at La
Brulerie Chartraine, tea
and coffee Shop: 5 rue
Noël Ballay. And while
you’re there, nip into the
Librairie L’Esperluette
bookshop at no 10,
where to your surprise
you’ll find the wall of a
Renaissance house hidden away at the
back of the shop, books piled around the
centuries old windows and door...