Chartres Off The Beaten Path

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This 15C Church is an example of a double nave hall church. It ha a fine wooden pulpit and a ship-keel wooden roof which is inscribed with coats-of arms of nearby ancient aristocracy. The walls are covered by two levels of primitive murals of the late 15C. The upper level contains the Passion and the legend of the the Encounter between the Three Knights and the Three Dead Men (The Triumph of Death). The lower level is the depiction of the Danse Macabre. Only a few examples of this unusual memento mori reain in Europe and ths may be the best. (The light is not ideal ).

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Just 15 km from the center of Chartres is this town of 160 persons. In the "town" is a 15C wooden church whose walls are decorated with finely drawn figures illustrating that nobody can escape the Black Death or extrapolated that we all must die sometime. This visit is only possible for independent travellers who have their own vehicle (owned or rented) and was a dividend for us from carefully planning our trips back in the old days before the Internet and by looking at every guidebook we could find, etc. This remarkable place showed up in a Michelin guide. It is a must see for anyone driving South to or from Chartres. The illustration of the Danse Macabre is found very infrequently, many have been destroyed by war and time. We add under Chartres>Customs what we know about the Danse and also information on the Encounter of the 3 Living with the 3 Dead, also illustrated on the church walls (in the same place)

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Down the stairs of the very steep slope behind the Cathedral is the River Eure. Just above its bank is the decayed Romanesque Abbey Church of St. Andre (12C). The large nave is intact and has thick local stone columns with Corinthian capitals and a flat wooden roof. A fine chapel has ribbed vaulting with central bossing(16C) and stone tracery large windows. The church has fallen away, from the choir onward, and has been walled off at this point. The defect can be studied from outside by crossing the Eure (see our Walk Travelog). It only takes a few minutes

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This relatively wide walking street meets at a left angle the Pl. Monceau creating an open space only a few blocks from the Cathedral. It was also a short distance to our hotel and since there were several eateries here, it was the best place to come for relxation and food.There is a severe monument on a planted flower platform in the Place to (I feel sure) Monceau, a 27 yr. old Chartrain general killed in battle in 1796. His funeral urn is under the statue I described in the weirdly named Pl. des Epars.(I wish I knew the whole story). Several mornings a week a flower market occurs here, hence the stalls that we picture. There are several eateries within a few yards. When we were here, many years ago, we had a ten yr. old grandson in tow for his first trip to France and his diet consisted of "steack et frites et salade verte", ideal for a brasserie which it then was. Today it is a Pizzeria which would have suited him even better.(See Roma Nostra Tip).

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The Museum occupies the Bishop's Palace at the NE corner of the Garden behind the Cathedral. Photography is not allowed and I do not think there was a catalog. I am not sure if there was a fee. If you have lots of time and your eyes and mind are not tired , there a number of interesting 17 & 18C French paintings (Teniers and Champaigne) and a fine Zurbarin and some by Vlaminck! There are excellent tapestries and a special set of enamels by L. Limousin and the building is a delight in itself.

How can the center of a city of 40K+ population be "off the beaten Path"? Only if 99.9% of visitors are day-trippers from Paris intent on only "seeing" the most famous Gothic Cathedral in the world. But given the lack of subcategories for Chartres, we must put our other Chartres experiences here or they will be lost with time. Our Intro explains why we stay in Chartres and our pictures illustrate why we like it. This is where we parked our car (just opposite the Hotel Grand Monarque, where we stayed-See Tip), in the Pl. des Epars. The G.M. Hotel show its 18C facade in the background. (I have lost my notes and do not know to whom this statue is dedicated.). It is an easy walk from here to the Cathedral. In fact, other than the pronounced ups and downs in places, Chartres is an easy walk , being about 3km in circumference and about 1 km in diameter.

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MAISON PICASSIETTE
This amazing house and garden is literally covered with excellent and beautiful mosaics done by a local man who collected shards of glass and colored crockery and did this in his spare time. In some ways it is even more remarkable than the famous cathedral in Chartres. It is on the opposite side of town from the train station and is about a 20 minute walk from the cathedral. Coupled with a visit to the cathedral, seeing Maison Picassiette will leave you thinking Chartres has special inspiration for artists.

The main photo is a panoramic so click it to see the full expanse of the garden wall and walkway.

Just outside the cathedral is this clown as I call him..He has a pigeon, a rooster and a hen that are well programmed. These birds seems to know exacly what to do and you pay only 2 euros to have his picture taken.