Day One - Ashford - Chartres - Tours

An early 6.25 am start from Ashford, we boarded the Eurotunnel at 7.49, it wasn't long before we were in France travelling through rain soaked countryside and little villages, stopping for our picnic, which we ate in the car as weather was bad! By the afternoon it had stopped raining and we parked our car in the Cathedral car park at Chartres, to visit the  enormous Cathedral which dominates the town.  Long before we got to Chartres the Cathedral could be seen from the road! We speculated how the ancient pilgrims would be heartened to see such a sight, Chartres Cathedral being part of the Pilgrim Route.  If the outside was impressive so too was the vast interior.  There is currently a cleaning process going on, but it seems they are doing this in stages as the scaffolding had all been taken down, and the difference was clearly visible between the parts that had been cleaned and the main part of the church yet to be cleaned!  A huge job!!     

So many jewel like stained glass windows depicting nearly 1200 scenes, including St. Jacques and a life cycle of Mary Magdalen.

On the floor an 861 and a half foot long Labyrinth, created during the dangerous times of the crusades when Pilgrims could not safely visit Jerusalem.  Instead this labyrinth acted as the same number of days journey to Jerusalem.

A little gem before we left!  David was in the Cathedral shop talking to the shop assistant, who fetched a large postcard of the statue of St. Jacques for a euro, with the instruction to go and see the person on the desk who would stamp the card with a Compostela stamp!  So we've started our 'passport' collection of Pilgrim stamps today!  :)

Back in the car and another journey to Tours, a lovely town!  Hoping for a good sleep!  Tomorrow another long journey to St. Jean Pied de Port. 

Will add some photos when I get a chance!