Chartres V: Outside

Yeah, I really do love that cathedral.

The second to last photo is of the evening light show. Much of the sculpture was originally painted and restorers are working on figuring out what the colors would have been and whether to replicate them. In the meantime, the lights might give us an idea. Malcolm Miller says that the light designers have it all wrong, and maybe they do, but I think it's terribly difficult to imagine the sculptures in a variety of hues, and the lights do help at least to provide an idea of what they might have looked like.

The last photo is of a "pretend" labyrinth (as you can see, you can't really walk it) way down below the cathedral. I went there early both mornings for some time alone. The first morning there was a man there MOWING and, believe me, he was in no hurry to finish. I was so disappointed. But the next morning I was able to sit there in peace for awhile.

The real labyrinth, inside, is covered with chairs except on Fridays, and we weren't there on a Friday. So I "walked" it insofar as you can walk a labyrinth by taking a few steps, then trying to outline with your finger in the air and one eye closed where the path goes next until you can pick it up an aisle or two of chairs away, then walk a few more steps, and continue the process until you land in the middle. I'm sure anyone watching me thought that I was nuts. Or maybe they just wished that they had the nerve to stand in the middle of a cathedral drawing half-circles in the air!