Intro
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Leaving Paris Chartres
Châteaudun/Vendôme Tours
Leaving Paris
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The next day, after pain au chocolate from a nearby boulangerie,
we set off on the subway with a subset of our luggage to Montparnasse, where we rented a car from
Easycar.com, a service Jan had found on the Web.
The car was a
clean, new Mercedes mini-sedan [left] with plenty of room for our luggage, and we
the four-day rental price was excellent. Jan
accidentally got a diesel by requesting “gas,” but the car would prove to get an
economical 55 miles to the gallon. |
Maneuvering the Périphérique
and finding the A10 southbound were tricky, but once we were out of the city,
driving was not difficult.
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Chartres
Our first stop was Chartres [right]. The history of the cathedral,
considered the greatest Gothic church in Europe, extends to the 4th century; the present cathedral was dedicated
in 1260, built after a devastating fire in an amazingly speedy 25 years.
Fortunately, it escaped the later Wars of Religion and French Revolution
unscathed.
We ate baguette
sandwiches in the cathedral’s quiet courtyard, then strolled around the
perimeter, admired the architecture from all angles, and looked out over
the distant valley.
Next we circled slowly
inside, appreciating the complexly carved choir screen and the 13th-century
labyrinth inlaid in the nave floor. As a penance, pilgrims would follow
the 851-foot path on their knees, which required at least an hour. |
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Of course, the most famous features of Chartres are the intricately
painted windows, which cover a surface area of over 32,300 square feet. They
tell stories of Christ's genealogy, the Glorification of the Virgin, the
Apocalypse, the conversion of water into wine at the marriage at Cana, the Last
Judgment, Christ's Passion and death on the cross, and more. Unfortunately, the
windows were so high that the details were
difficult to see. We noticed that
some visitors had field glasses, which probably helped quite a bit. [Left, the
windows viewed above the choir screen.]
We were also
disappointed that our timing
was wrong and we missed the guided English tour for the day, which had
been recommended to us by both articles and friends.
To compensate, we bought
a book detailing the cathedral’s history, architecture, and windows so that we could
carefully study them later.
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We walked briefly through the charming town, which contains
quirky half-timbered houses along cobbled streets, several other medieval
churches, and steep staircases leading to the Eure River, along which one can
view mills, medieval tanneries, hump-backed stone bridges, and wash-houses. But Jan was
worried about reaching Tours without having to drive in the dark, so,
regretfully, we moved on.
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Châteaudun/Vendôme
As we continued south, we stopped at Châteaudun [right] and
wandered through the village. We came upon the castle there but did not tour it. The
streets of the old town were a maze of narrow alleyways.
We also stopped in the
village of Vendôme, where we didn’t spy the local château but did step inside
the small, dark church of La Trinité, built in 1034. Its towers were decorated as if with gothic lace and
icing. In the village square stands a statue of Jean Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur,
comte de Rochambeau
(1725-1807), commander in chief of the French forces during the American
Revolution [below].
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Tours
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Finally we reached Tours, a major Loire city. It is built
on the site of a Roman town and became an important center of Christianity in
the 4th century. In 1462, Louis XI made Tours the French capital, and the city
prospered by producing arms and fabrics. However, during Henri IV's reign, the
city lost favor with the monarchy and the capital was moved to Paris. Tours also
suffered in 1870 at the hands of the Prussians and from heavy bombing during
WWII. Today, however, it is regenerated "university town."
Although Tours boasts many sights of its own, we did not seek
them out. Instead, we used it as a handy central point from which to visit the
Loire Valley castles.
Arriving at dusk, Jan quite
magically found his way right to the door of our hotel without a map. We stayed
at a Holiday Inn Express; no magic there, but it was clean, comfortable,
accommodating, and included delicious croissants and jam for breakfast. |
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