Wandering Around the World-Famous Chartres Cathedral in France

This post is a companion to the previous Blog Post about walking from Paris to Chartres Cathedral on one of the several Camino de Santiago routes that cross France – the Via Turonensis. For me getting to Chartres was an itch that I had wanted to scratch for over 60 years, and I finally scratched it in October 2024 when I walked to Chartres.

I have to say, Chartres Cathedral exceeded all of my expectations, and stepping into it was one of the most wonderful experiences that I have ever had. In fact, I visited the cathedral multiple times and even attended one of the Masses during the day and a half that I spent in the town of Chartres.

The Cathedral itself is massive, and with the town of Chartres almost built up to its doorstep, you have to just keep walking around to take in all of its details. And the incredible details are everywhere.

When you enter, you can just enter. You don’t need a timed ticket. You don’t even have to pay. Just walk in and wander around! There are no ropes or guards forcing you to go in only one direction. You can drift back and forth almost in any way you want to check out all of the details. It couldn’t be better!

You can take a tour or rent a headset to guide you around if you choose. But for me, I just like to wander around and let the wonders of the place sink in. Rather than having a docent give me details that I don’t care about and will quickly forget, I prefer to observe and just let the details themselves speak to me.

When I walked in, I was immediately overwhelmed by the number, complexity, and the amazing brilliant blues of the stained-glass windows. There were several levels of windows that wrapped around the entire massive interior of the cathedral. Considering that portions of the building go back to around thousand years, you just wonder how they did it and what inspired them. And how lucky we are that they did create this incredible achievement.

You can certainly see the windows from outside of the cathedral, but it is only when you step inside and see the windows lit up by sunlight that you can actually take in the magnificence of the glass. Each window tells a story, but I was content just to appreciate each window simply for being an extraordinary and beautiful achievement.

As an extra bonus you can catch glimpses of the cathedral’s world-famous labyrinth embedded in the floor as you walk around the interior. Chairs were covering the labyrinth on the day I was there, but there are days when the chairs are set aside and you are welcome to walk it.

And finally, if you walk by the Cathedral at night, you can see an amazing and continuously moving light show projected on the outside walls of the cathedral. When I was there, at least 200 people or more had set up chairs and wrapped themselves in blankets on a cool Tuesday evening just to watch the show of changing colors, characters from French history popping in and out, and swirling shapes and colors. The show never stopped moving.

For me, the entire experience of visiting Chartres Cathedral exceeded all of my expectations. And the itch that I had had has now been properly scratched.