Chartres Festival of Light

I'm back in Paris and staying in Passage d'Enfer again. I solved the plumbing problem by finding a plumber just down the street who was able to come over and unplug the drains. Whew. Now maybe I can get caught up on my blog posts. I have many more stories and photos for you. After all, I never finished telling you about my trip to Italy and Germany.

Just to conclude the Chartres weekend, here are a couple more pics. I was intrigued when I happened upon this scene - people seemed to be playing in the snow:



I went back to the same place the following morning:


And the next evening before people started "playing" again.


The party is over. Time to clean up for the last time.


The grand finale of the light show was Saturday night. The live entertainment consisted of more aerial dancers suspended from a giant crane over the town square. Not quite as dramatic as dancing on the cathedral face, but captivating nonetheless.

Chartres Fête de la Lumière

I returned to Paris from Italy to find that my normal interim hangout at Passage d'Enfer is not really habitable right now due to a plumbing problem. What to do? Where to stay for a couple of weeks until I can move into my new apartment on October 1st? I don't have a solution yet, but my first impulse was to take a short trip to the countryside. It was Friday, and I knew the Chartres labyrinth is only open on Fridays. Why not go back there for the weekend?

I didn't realize that this was one of the busiest weekends of the year, the grand finale of the Festival of Light, and most places in town had been booked months in advance. I lucked out, however, and managed to find a place to stay.

I've taken pictures of the cathedral before, but it never occurred to me to take a ferris wheel ride


to get an even better vantage point:


Here's the south facade of the cathedral during the day. Remember this image - you'll see it again later.


After darkness fell, I wandered through town taking photos of some of the 28 illuminated sites. Imagine my surprise when this nondescript building:


was transformed into this after dark:


or the mediatheque (public library) which looks like this during the day:


was repainted in several different motifs, all accompanied by music:


Later, I heard applause coming from near the cathedral. I saw a spotlight illuminating the rose window in the south facade:


It wasn't until I drew nearer that I could discern an ethereal aerial dancer walking up the face of the rose window and then plunging into space as she wove a web of magic in the spotlight.

It took my breath away.


And that was just Friday. There were different events on Saturday night, but the image of the celestial dancer on the cathedral was the most stunning of all.

Chartres labyrinth

When I return to Chartres cathedral on Friday, the atmosphere seems different. No Gregorian chant, no organ, no incense. Catholicism has retreated for the day. There are still tourists about; guidebooks in hand, peering up at the stained glass windows and gothic arches, often oblivious to the designs in the stone floor. But the change is unmistakeable. The chairs have been moved apart and the full labyrinth revealed. There's nothing magic or esoteric here, just the squeak of rubber soles on the stones unperturbed by 800 years of footsteps. The labyrinth design is a single pathway into the center and back out again. It is a metaphor for the human journey - long, exacting, twisting and turning, leading each of us to the same place, while allowing each of us our own interpretation.


I find peace in this walking meditation. I find my own breath slowing, deepening, I am aware of the ground; the earth reaching up through the stone. Reaching up? Or I am reaching down? I feel connected, grounded. Each time I walk a labyrinth, different images, thoughts, and feelings arise. Almost always, I feel a deep sense of gratitude - simply for the gift of life. I've discovered that I have to right to follow my unique path, and this allows me to let go and let others find their own way.

It wasn't until last summer, tagging along with Carol, that I first encountered a labyrinth of any sort. There is a labyrinth in downtown Boulder in the basement of the Methodist church. It is a replica of the Chartres labyrinth.
I never anticipated the effect it would have on me. And ever since that time I've wanted to come to Chartres and experience the original.

I don't attend church. I was baptised Catholic but don't believe in papal infallibility or other rigid dogma espoused by the Catholic church. Buddhism appeals to me more than most belief systems. But I am not a practicing anything. However, labyrinths move me. They allow me to slow down, open up, and receive.


And it's not always serious! Sometimes, my thoughts have me laughing out loud. And today, while deep in my own thoughts, I saw the little boy with his plastic sword and shield on his way to slay a dragon or two, and I thought of my son Eric at that age.

Chartres cathedral

I returned to Chartres for the second time on Friday. Chartres is a town about an hour south of Paris with a famous cathedral built in the twelfth century. It is one of France's most beautiful and well known examples of Gothic architecture and stained glass windows. It's almost as famous as Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris.




But I didn't come for the architecture, I came to walk the labyrinth. The first time I came, on May 15th, I discovered that chairs obscure the labyrinth and many visitors don't even realize it is there. You can see the labyrinth in the floor in the picture below:


Since that day I've been wanting to go back on a Friday when the labyrinth is not covered by chairs or obscured by weddings.