The famous Labyrinth was built around the year 1200 on the floor of the nave. It attracts the esoteric, the curious and the religious. It is a 261.5m long pilgrimage walk and each Friday from 10am to 5pm, from Lent until All Saints Day, the chairs that normally cover it are moved off, leaving it free for pilgrims and visitors to walk. Some walk it slowly, others faster, some cross themselves as they go, achieving a look of beatification as they reach the centre. An astounding 1.3 million pilgrims make their way to Chartres each year.
The stained-glass windows are sparklingly exceptional – 172 of them in total covering an incredible 2,600sqm. Some of them date back to the 12th century and you can’t help but love the colours, especially “Chartres blue” as it's known, a special blue used on the oldest windows. For the people of that day, this richness of colour and art must have been one of the wonders of the world – it still is. There’s even a tea named after it “the Blue Tea of
Chartres”, a blend of
black and green tea,
citrus fruits and berries
in a specially designed
tea caddy – the perfect
souvenir! Find it at La
Brulerie Chartraine, tea
and coffee Shop: 5 rue
Noël Ballay. And while
you’re there, nip into the
Librairie L’Esperluette
bookshop at no 10,
where to your surprise
you’ll find the wall of a
Renaissance house hidden away at the back of the shop, books piled around the centuries old windows and door...
Take a candle lit vigil with a guide
walking through the underground cathedral and crypt holding candles that flicker in the slight draft, shadows moving across the ancient frescoed walls and statues of Mary: