Paris Highlights: The City

Paris is so beautiful. Now that I've seen most of what there is to see in Paris, I often just want to walk the streets and explore. I took a ton of photos trying to capture the architecture and feel of Parisian streets. In particular, I would have loved to find a way to recreate these photos, but no.

Paris Highlights: Chartres

We took the one and half hour train journey to Chartres one Saturday. What a lovely trip it was.

It's truly a magnificent cathedral.

Chartres is currently undergoing a restoration. The French Ministry of Culture’s Monuments Historiques is repainting the interior to reflect what they imagine the cathedral looked like in its glory days. You can read this scathing critique of the project. 

Whatever your feeling on the project, it does make for an interesting visit. It's a before and after--but which is before and which is after?



Personally, I love the old, dark, crumbling moodiness of Gothic cathedrals. So I'm glad I got to visit while some of the old is still there. But I wasn't as horrified by the black Madonna who's no longer black as Martin Filler was.

The city of Chartres itself was lovely.

A historical medieval town center with lots of old, crooked buildings, half timbered houses, and alley-like streets, not to mention lots of stairs and steep inclines.

Does it get more French than this?

We even saw some local wildlife.

Churches abound in France, and the home of such a grand cathedral is no exception

Eglise St Pierre

Eglise St Pierre

Eglise St Pierre

Chartres is on the Eure River. One the river was lined with mills. Now many of them have been converted to homes.