Epigraph
‘Quae qui non vidit jam similia
non videbit, non solum ibi, sed in
totá Francia.’
‘La vile esteit mult bone, de grande antiquité,
Iglise i aveit bele, de grant anctorité;
De la sainte Virge Marie mère de Dé
I esteit la kemise tenue en grant chierté.’
Robert Wace (Roman du Rou).
‘The most wonderful thing in France.’
James Russell Lowell.
‘Notre-dame de Chartres! A world to explore, as
if one explored the entire Middle Ages.’
Walter Pater.
Note
An excellent train, leaving the Gare S. Lazare at mid-day, runs through from Paris in one hour and a half. A good déjeuner is served in the train on starting. Returning from Chartres, most of the trains run into the Montparnasse Station, south of the river and twenty minutes’ drive from the Place de l’Opéra.
The road is straight and level and a favourite one with automobilists. Chartres may also, of course, be approached from Normandy viâ Rouen, Évreux, Dreux, and, if you include Amiens to the North-west, and Caen (whence you will visit Bayeux, Lisieux, and Falaise) to the North-east, Chartres will be found to provide the perfect finish to a delightful and instructive, and also economical, tour.
An itinerary for those who have but a short time to spare at Chartres is suggested on page 352.
Hotels—Grand Monarque (Automobile Club de France); Duc de Chartres; France.