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Today I gasped.
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Much to my surprise, I gasped today.
The day pretty much started out like this...he was up first showered and humming while I overslept. Then there were metro changes, my pass didn't work, hard to find the train but we did, then a long line for tickets, then on the train and it was so crowded we couldn't sit together. Things started looking up a bit when we got to Chartres and found a little pub with a nice salad, a cold beer and a pretty cool view, check it out!
Outside it is a huge grey old flying buttressed imposing melting from age looking building. My cranky old self followed him inside and.......
I GASPED!
Darnedest thing how sometimes moments just come out of the blue and grab ya. The Cathedral at Chartres took my breath away.
We walked in and the organ was pounding and pumping and the arches are up in the heavens and the stained glass is a wonder to behold. There are 90, count them, 90 stained glass windows in the Cathedral. Those windows cover 9,000 square feet of stained glass mostly made in the 12th and 13th centuries. Three panels remain from before the fire in 1194.
There are 40 niches and a nave that still has its ancient floor and a choir screen that is spectacular and took over a hundred years to carve.
But who can see any of that? All one can see is the beloved glass.
During both World Wars, each and every piece of glass was removed, wrapped, labeled and put away for protection. Beloved glass. Chartres Blue is coined color from the glass.
I took 173 pictures. Don't worry. I won't post but a few. The interior glass ones didn't turn out well. I needed a tripod. (Note to family, take your tripod when you visit.) But the exterior ones are fabulous and I will share with you what I think are the best shots.
I kept repeating myself, "I just wasn't expecting this!" He replied that he already knew that some considered this cathedral the most beautiful in the world.
So now a slideshow, please view as a slideshow and I will try to write a little bit about each picture that I post.
What a spectacle and what a spectacular day!!
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