Arches Of Chartres Cathedral

The three great main doors of Chartres Cathedral are each framed in a whole series of carved gothic arches.

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Arches

Monday Window: Chartres Cathedral

Another impressive triptych of intricate stained glass in the mighty Cathedral at Chartres.

#MondayWindow 19 October 2020

Monday Window – Chartres

This week it’s the turn of stained glass for Khürt’s Monday Window challenge.

This is one of the biggest windows you’ll see anywhere: the rose window in the Cathedral of Chartres.

#MondayWindow 6 January 2020

Tuesday Photo Challenge: Stone

Frank is looking for images of stone to meet his theme for the Tuesday Photo Challenge this week. This small portion of the massive façade of Chartres Cathedral has stone aplenty and certainly would have made a powerful statement about the overwhelming power of the Church.

Tuesday Photo Challenge: Stone

Porte de l’Officialite

The little Rue Saint-Yves lies within the bounds of Chartres cathedral. The gateway dates from 1257. It is known as the Porte de l’Officialité because in medieval times it provided access to the Ecclesiastical Tribunal.

My thanks to the unknown lady who appeared from around the corner just as I was taking the shot. She made all the difference, not least in giving an idea of the scale of the Cathedral itself.

Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge: Roads

Thursday Doors: Chartres Cathedral

As promised, this week we feature some of the mightily impressive doors of the great cathedral of Chartres, often said to be the most beautiful cathedral in France and certainly a high point of French Gothic architecture dating from the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries.

As you would expect, the principal entrances seek to impress:

As I recall, my second-ever contribution to Thursday Doors was this mouse’s-eye view of one of the main entrances:

It’s worth seeing from the inside too:

This is the entrance to the crypt:

And finally, this qualifies as a door, I think, although technically speaking it’s actually a reredos – a screen that once stood behind the high altar, but is now just propped up against a wall:

Next week we’re back to the usual diet of tatty secular doors.

Thursday Doors 13 April 2017

Tuesdays of Texture: Sculpted Saints

Lots of texture in this detail of a selection of saints to be found at Chartres Cathedral:

More submissions to Narami’s weekly challenge can be found here

52 Weeks Photo Challenge: Week 29 – Beautiful Colours

The colours in this stained glass window in the cathedral at Chartres are truly stunning:

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52 Weeks Photo Challenge: Week 29 – Beautiful Colours

Monochrome: Texture & Contrast

Cee’s Compose Yourself Photo Challenge has now reached Black & White and as a first stage is focussing on texture and contrast. Here are some images that incorporate both these key elements of monochrome images.

This camellia flower was actually a gorgeous shade of purple, but the monochrome brings out the texture of the leaves very well, while the greater contrast enhances the perception of detail at the heart of the flower :

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This little imp sits on an electricity pylon, contrasting well with the texture of the concrete post, in the small hamlet of Bonnefont, quite close to here:

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Monochrome also brings out the texture in these carvings from Chartres Cathedral….

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…and the contrast in this dramatic skyscape

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Thursday Doors: Chartres (encore)

This week’s contribution was actually inspired by last week’s post from Geriatri’x’ Fotogallery, which showed a range of open doors. After all, who said the door had to be closed?

And who said you had to be looking in? This is one of the big doors  of Chartres Cathedral, looking out to some of the exterior stonework. Given the high contrast between light and dark, getting a worthwhile image certainly put Lightroom through its paces, but I think it was worth the effort.

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Thursday Doors 28 April 2016