Must-see attractions in Chartres

One of Western civilisation’s crowning architectural achievements, the 130m-long Cathédrale Notre Dame de Chartres is renowned for its brilliant-blue…

Climbing 350 steps up to the 112m-high Tour Nord (aka Clocher Neuf; New Bell Tower) of the Cathédrale Notre Dame is well worth it. A 70m-high platform on…

The west, north and south entrances of the Cathédrale Notre Dame have superbly ornamented triple portals, but the west entrance, known as the Portail…

The 100m crypt of Cathédrale Notre Dame, a tombless Romanesque structure built in 1024 around a 9th-century predecessor, is the largest in France. Tours…

Flying buttresses hold up the 12th- and 13th-century Église St-Pierre. Once part of a Benedictine monastery founded in the 7th century, it was outside the…

Chartres’ fine-arts museum, accessed via the gate next to Cathédrale Notre Dame’s north portal, is in the former Palais Épiscopal (Bishop’s Palace), built…

Along with the the Portail Royal, the main Romanesque feature of the Cathédrale Notre Dame is the 105m-high Clocher Vieux (also called the Tour Sud or…

Église St-Aignan is interesting for its wooden barrel-vault roof (1625), arcaded nave and painted interior of faded blue and gold floral motifs (c 1870)…

After viewing the stained glass in Chartres’ cathedral, nip into the town’s International Stained-Glass Centre, in a half-timbered former granary, to see…

From rue Cardinal Pie, the stairways Tertre St-Nicolas and rue Chantault – the latter lined with medieval houses (number 29 is the oldest house in…