From the Archives...
Well, today's the official anniversary of my trip to Chartres last spring, little did I know then how big a role Chartres was going to play in the next year and ten days of my life. (Side note - oh no, the date ends with a nine today - only ten days until my thesis is due!) And of course, even less did I know how much of a thorn in my side the current cathedral was going to be. You just try and find scholarship about pre-cathedral Chartres among the tens of thousands of articles on stained glass and architecture, you just go ahead and try...
But anyway, in honour of the anniversary, translated from the execrable french, my journal entry for March 19th, 2005:
I have to say right now that Chartres has just taken first place in the category "European Towns in which Regan got the most lost," and I say it with total honesty. I spent an hour - a whole hour - this morning after I arrived, most of that time completely lost, searching for the cathedral. I didn't have a map of the city, and naturally the tourism office is right in the shadow of the cathedral - which I couldn't find at all. Now, the cathedral is visible from anywhere in the city of Chatres, perched on a hill like Minas Tirith, except maybe from the bottom of the little streets of the old city. It's certainly visible from the train station where I arrived, so what was the problem? Sudden blindness? Complete disappearance of my powers of observation? Not at all. To put it succinctly, it was the fog. It must have lifted a bit from ground level, but remained thick a bit higher up - I passed within 100m of the cathedral and it should have been in plain sight. I think I have a story here.
And the execrable French version for the interested:
(I reserve the right to make corrections)
Il faut dire maintenant que Chartres vient de prendre première place dans la catégorie "les villes Européennes où Regan se trouvait la plus perdue," et je le dis absoluement honnêtement. J'ai passé une heure - une heure entière - ce matin après que j'étais arrivée, pour la plupart complètement perdue, en cherchant la cathédrale. Je n'avais pas un plan de ville, et le bureau de tourisme se trouve, naturellement, dans l'ombre de la cathédrale que je ne pouvais pas du tout trouver! Or, la cathédrale est visible partout la ville de Chartres penchée sur le colline comme Minas Tirith, sauf peut-être du fond des petites rues de la vieille ville. Certes, c'est bien visible de la gare où je suis arrivée. Quel était donc le problème? Aveuglesse soudain? Ecrasement complète des pouvoirs d'observation? Pas du tout. Tout simplement, c'était la brouillard. Je suppose qu'elle avait levé un peu de niveau du sol, mais qu'elle était encore épaisse en hait - j'ai passé la cathédrale à 100m ou peu près, où j'aurais dû l'avoir en plein vu et où plus tard je l'ai vue. Je pense que j'ai une histoire ici.
The cathedral. I couldn't see it at all from this point when I passed it in the fog that morning. I may have been able to see the tourism office, but I don't think I could see the sign, and what I mostly remember is the intersection in front of it because I went down the street beside it a ways, I think. I really, really could not see that cathedral.
The cathedral! Happily, the fog had burned off my noon or so.
The south transept entryway.
North transept entryway
Buttresses!
Stained glass...
More stained glass...
Yet more stained glass.
Oh right, and this was also the memorable day when I got back to my hostel and discovered someone sleeping in my bed. Riiiiiight. That was one of my more... interesting hostel experiences. It turned out someone else had failed to pay for an extra night or check out, although the management thought she had left.
But anyway, now I have to go accomplish things. I finished my thesis draft (such as it currently is) yesterday morning and did pretty well with the non-academic things on my to-do list, (dishes, tidying up thesis-detritus, laundry, ILL-ing things for my Medieval Italy paper) but today I've got to do all my other homework, namely, (scilicet!) Latin.
But anyway, in honour of the anniversary, translated from the execrable french, my journal entry for March 19th, 2005:
I have to say right now that Chartres has just taken first place in the category "European Towns in which Regan got the most lost," and I say it with total honesty. I spent an hour - a whole hour - this morning after I arrived, most of that time completely lost, searching for the cathedral. I didn't have a map of the city, and naturally the tourism office is right in the shadow of the cathedral - which I couldn't find at all. Now, the cathedral is visible from anywhere in the city of Chatres, perched on a hill like Minas Tirith, except maybe from the bottom of the little streets of the old city. It's certainly visible from the train station where I arrived, so what was the problem? Sudden blindness? Complete disappearance of my powers of observation? Not at all. To put it succinctly, it was the fog. It must have lifted a bit from ground level, but remained thick a bit higher up - I passed within 100m of the cathedral and it should have been in plain sight. I think I have a story here.
And the execrable French version for the interested:
(I reserve the right to make corrections)
Il faut dire maintenant que Chartres vient de prendre première place dans la catégorie "les villes Européennes où Regan se trouvait la plus perdue," et je le dis absoluement honnêtement. J'ai passé une heure - une heure entière - ce matin après que j'étais arrivée, pour la plupart complètement perdue, en cherchant la cathédrale. Je n'avais pas un plan de ville, et le bureau de tourisme se trouve, naturellement, dans l'ombre de la cathédrale que je ne pouvais pas du tout trouver! Or, la cathédrale est visible partout la ville de Chartres penchée sur le colline comme Minas Tirith, sauf peut-être du fond des petites rues de la vieille ville. Certes, c'est bien visible de la gare où je suis arrivée. Quel était donc le problème? Aveuglesse soudain? Ecrasement complète des pouvoirs d'observation? Pas du tout. Tout simplement, c'était la brouillard. Je suppose qu'elle avait levé un peu de niveau du sol, mais qu'elle était encore épaisse en hait - j'ai passé la cathédrale à 100m ou peu près, où j'aurais dû l'avoir en plein vu et où plus tard je l'ai vue. Je pense que j'ai une histoire ici.
The cathedral. I couldn't see it at all from this point when I passed it in the fog that morning. I may have been able to see the tourism office, but I don't think I could see the sign, and what I mostly remember is the intersection in front of it because I went down the street beside it a ways, I think. I really, really could not see that cathedral.
The cathedral! Happily, the fog had burned off my noon or so.
The south transept entryway.
North transept entryway
Buttresses!
Stained glass...
More stained glass...
Yet more stained glass.
Oh right, and this was also the memorable day when I got back to my hostel and discovered someone sleeping in my bed. Riiiiiight. That was one of my more... interesting hostel experiences. It turned out someone else had failed to pay for an extra night or check out, although the management thought she had left.
But anyway, now I have to go accomplish things. I finished my thesis draft (such as it currently is) yesterday morning and did pretty well with the non-academic things on my to-do list, (dishes, tidying up thesis-detritus, laundry, ILL-ing things for my Medieval Italy paper) but today I've got to do all my other homework, namely, (scilicet!) Latin.