Sunday Blog 243 – 26th July 2026
I’m a couple of weeks behind in posting; this was before the Bordeaux fires. Thinking of everyone impacted by fires across Europe.
It all started with my misunderstanding about the distance between Chartres and Bordeaux. When initially planning my holiday, I mistakenly thought I could walk the Chartres labyrinth as a cheeky little day trip from my base in Bordeaux. More thorough research showed that these cities are just under five hours apart. Then accommodation booking snafus meant I had about four days to account for before I could move into my super sympa Airbnb with air-conditioning and pool in a Bordeaux satellite area, Ambares et Lagrave.
So I decided to spend those four nights in Chartres before picking up a hire car and driving to Bordeaux and back. I needed to be in Chartres on a Friday, in order to tick off my bucket list activity of walking the Chartres labyrinth. That’s the only day of the week the Cathedral removes the chairs.
My accommodation was directly opposite (and I mean, directly opposite) Chartres cathedral, and I settled in for a glorious four days. Bottom left is a snap of me sitting next to the heart of the labyrinth earlier in the week. Once, there was a plaque in the centre, showing the Minotaur and Dedalus (the maker of the labyrinth that trapped the monster) but that was ripped up during the French Revolution and used to help make a canon.
I must have looked particularly beatific as I sat there because after a few minutes a nun approached me to tell me of all the treasures in Chartres, not least of which is a morsel of Mary’s veil, (or perhaps a close approximation of same sold by a wily entrepreneur?) said to have miraculous properties.
I came back on Friday, the chairs were pulled back (middle image), but we were still forbidden to enter. A funeral service took precedence over a bunch of crazy tourists who’d travelled from afar to walk this beautiful eleventh century labyrinth. And then, by 12 o’clock rather than the advertised time of 10am, we could finally walk its winding path.
They say don’t meet your heroes, and while there were truly transcendent moments for me shuffling along the path into the labyrinth whose image is so familiar to me, it’s simply too crowded to turn around and walk back out again. But I still have had this walk in this iconic labyrinth. It’s one of the few remaining from this period as cathedrals elected to rip up the wonky floor tiles and add a smoother surface.
And then, it was time for me to leap into my hire car and make off to Bordeaux, laden with my Chartres souvenirs from this amazing building. Labyrinth fridge magnet? I don’t mind if I do. Next Sunday I will fill you in, dear reader, with the drive to Bordeaux. What indeed could possibly go wrong with that?