Chartres Part 2: Nighttime

Since 2003 the city of Chartres has put on a light show "Chartres en Lumières" as a way to honor its status as a UNESCO World Heritage site, and also as a way to draw throngs of summer tourists to the town for a day or two.  The event is free of charge and there are 27 historical sites around the town that are lit up from nightfall until 1am, every night from May 21 to September 17.  You walk from site to site guided by a free map and these illuminated lights in the sidewalks.

The main façade of the cathedral had an animated show set to music that was captivating.

On the north portal was a static display that "painted" all the figurines.

Here is a comparison of the portal by day and at night.

The south portal was also animated, with the focus on the rose window.

Double-click this image to see the animated version.

Some of the other sites were kind of ho-hum, like this stone bridge across the Eure.

But most of them were very well done.  This is the Église Saint-Pierre, a 13th century church.  The stained glass windows were lit from within, blending the old and the new technologies to create a beautiful display of color.

The town theater had a very good animated show.

We tried to capture it on video, but we caught it mid-show and you'll hear lots of cars passing by over the music!



Here is the 16th century Chapel of St. Foy.  Its original Roman gate is in the foreground, and you can faintly see the cathedral in the background.

Unfortunately our mini-video camera was just not up to the task of capturing the animated cathedral show in low light.  So instead I will include this short video that gives a great idea of what it was like.


Chartres en lumières from spacewil on Vimeo.