The Cathedral of Notre Dame de Chartres

The Cathedral of Notre Dame de Chartres is the largest building in all of Chartres, France. It is also the center of the town and for good reason. Known for its asymmetrical bell towers and particular blue stained glass, Notre Dame de Chartres is easily one the most iconic French Gothic cathedrals of France. As the only student that opted to go on that trip, during our time in Paris, I was happy to have the whole building to myself as you would say. However it was also difficult since I didn't have a tripod for the interior of the structure, so again I found myself tucking the camera under my chin and hoping for the best. Luckily with such a beautiful structure its hard to take a bad shot, though many were blurry.

In the interior of the cathedral, I was especially drawn to the stained glass windows as I imagine most other people were too. Unfortunately, nothing can really recreate that specific blue in the glass, so my photographs do it no justice, the windows are definitely something only the human eye can see. At history goes, the master glass maker (I don't know the proper term) died with the secret chemical mixture to make that blue in the glass. The blue of the glass is most amazing when light is shining through it as it is the most luminous, richest blue I have ever seen in my life.

Another interesting part of the cathedral is the restoration work being done on it. As you can see in the photography of the choir, the white of lime stone just radiates in the interior of the building. 800 years of soot and build up has been removed to show the brightness the structure would of originally been seen in. It will be a worth while trip to visit Chartres again after the cleaning has been finished.

The exterior of the building as equally as interesting as the interior. The play of the light falling in and out of the recesses of the walls and sculptures, gives the building an odd feeling of lightness despite it being so incredibly large. The buttresses were rather eye catching in the afternoon, as the sun was at an angle and caught the high lights of the roof and casted shadows onto the walls. Notre Dame de Chartres is definitely one of my favorite churches in France.