Chartres Travel Blogs | Travelogues | Travel Journals

Chartres is famous. World famous. It is one of the most exceptional cathedrals ever build. It hides a thousand of mysteries, legends and unravelled secrets. It shows the most beautiful architecture, statues and craftwork. It has supreme acoustics. It is pure magic. The first time I saw it's towers rising up on the horizon, was when our bus stopped in the middle of flowery fields. Yellow blossoms waved in the wind and far, far from us laid our destiny: Chartres. The last 20 kilometres...

Our second day trip out of Paris was Cathedrale Notre Dame de Chartres--regarded by most to be the penultimate French Gothic cathedral.  It is easy to understand the effect it must have had on the medieval eye-- even with modern buildings rivalling its height, Chartres dominates the landscape.  Up close, it is even more impressive.  Its mismatched spires are misleading-- this is actually one of the more cohesive cathedrals in Europe, built in 26 years, after a fire destroyed mo...

Leaving Paris behind, we drove south to Chartres to see its gothic cathedral, considered the greatest of its kind in France.  The spires are two different styles, which seemed unusual, and the stained glass appeared particularly vivid, especially the blue colors.

My senior year Spring break. I went to Paris with three friends. Jane, Natalie, and I met with our friend Keren who lives in the city. She showed us around when she had the time and we got lost when she didn't.

Weekend trips around Europe

Because passport checks are sort of *non-existent* between Ireland and the UK, I had to make a pit-stop to the continent when I moved from Galway to London to ensure that my working papers got stamped properly. I decided that that pit-stop should be in Paris. :] It was a bit of a lonely week all on my own, but I did meet some fun people.

In the fall semester of 2005 I had the chance to live in Valbonne, France while I was studying. It was this that gave me my jumpstart in travelling. The chance to have a place I could come back to while I was in Europe made much easier for me to travel the continent pretty much every weeked. Not only did I visit some cities outside France, but I also got the chance to visit some nice French cities and towns along the way. Evidently Paris was at the top ofthe list.

Get your church on!

A few days drive around Northern France

au fil des années...

Another day trip was scheduled to visit the famed Notre Dame de Chartres cathedral.  I'm a big fan of religious architecture, and Chartres definitely did not disappoint.  Notre Dame de Paris is an impressive church, but Chartres is amazing.  It's huge, and everywhere you look there's something carved into the stone.  What more can I say?  I loved it.

While visiting the website of author William Blum we noted that he was attending 2 conferences in Paris in September. One conference examined The Role of Scientists in developing new weapons and tactics of warfare" and the second "Impunity from International Humanitarian Law, the case of the United States" Between sessions we toured various sites in Paris & Ile de France

My Spring Break consisted of revisiting France...my home from 2004-2005! I wanted to see my old haunts as well as catch up with friends and my former students. I spent time in Paris, the small town of Nogent-le-Rotrou, Chartres, and several other small towns in the area.