Friday, January 24, 2014

the nice city Chartres

Today we went to Chartres. Nadia stopped to show us the view of the cathedral above the town center. The cathedral is built on the "top" of the town, then it can be seen from kilometers around with sometimes an visual effect (postcards often show the cathedral in the middle of fields, the town being unseen ....) 
We went out from the underground parking in front of the Theater .
On the Place Des Epars (Epars' square), the main building is the old Post Office, now it is the town's Media Library .... a nice place to find old movies DVDs and comic strips says Nadia ... and it's free for children and students to come ... 
the right part of the square is dedicated to a large pedestrian zone with lots of shops, cafes and restaurants ... Well, it's the main place of the town with lot of people usually. In summer, the fountains are on, and children come to play with water and refresh  and for Chrismas there are a small Christmas market (really small...) and a ice rink.
Then let's go to the cathedral! When we arrived, the bells were pealing hard! ... See us into the floral decoration?
"Our Lady of Chartres" cathedral is part of the UNESCO World Heritage List since 1979. The actual cathedral was built from 1194 to 1260.  It's one of the most visited religious monument in France. But today it was really quiet and just a few tourists inside.
But the view inside you will get tomorrow!
 We went to the back of the cathedral, where the old episcopal palace is now the Museum of Arts and took some rest on the bench in the garden
 Behind is a small park with a labyrinthe .... We can't see it because of the chairs, but on the floor of the cathedral is engraved a labyrinthe ! The garden one remains it !
 It's a nice place to picnic in summer but today it was raining ... From there, we can see a part of the town down ...
 We went back through the small streets ...
It was a nice morning and we were really pleased to visit such a monument!
 
See you soon !
 
And tomorrow the view in to the  cathedral

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