Postcard from France

The Royal Doorway, illuminated for Chartres en Lumieres

I'm just about back from a few days in France with Naomi, where we visited 15 gardens in 5 days - 18 if you include those at our accommodation and a restaurant.

The gardens of Normandy and the Loire are so varied it's proved too difficult to select one scene for my customary postcard, so I've chosen a photograph of Notre Dame cathedral at Chartres instead, where we visited the astonishing Chartres en Lumières half way through our stay.

This festival of light has 24 walkable sites in the city, with three of them at the cathedral. This one tells the story of the cathedral builders and was an animation which lasted about 10 minutes. I'll reveal more from this amazing light show once I've edited the video I took. Now in its 14th year, Chartres en Lumières takes place nightly until 8th October 2017, with free entry.

Chartres is a beautiful city, with lots to see and do. You can see the towers of the cathedral from many miles away, and this plus our approach to the city through an avenue of trees at the side of the road reminded me of travelling down to Salisbury.

I'll tell you all about the gardens we visited over the weeks to come :)


Disclosure

I was the guest of Normandy and Loire Valley tourism, who put together a fantastic programme of varied gardens, accommodation and food for our visit, as well as enabling our visit to Chartres en Lumières.

As usual, the words and opinions are my own and there are no affiliate links or cookies associated with this post.

Comments

  1. Unknown8 May 2017 at 12:55

    Hi Michelle, Looking forward to hearing all about the gardens. N x

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. VP8 May 2017 at 13:48

      Hi Naomi - thanks for your help with our itinerary via your blog! We loved Jardin Agapanthe, Abbaye St Georges de Boscherville and Angelique, but ran out of time to include Jardin Plume. We have a few others to add to the mix - there are so many gardens in Normandy left to discover!

      Delete
  2. Mark and Gaz9 May 2017 at 12:49

    Following your posts on FB too, looks fab!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. VP9 May 2017 at 14:31

      Brilliant! Thanks guys, it was amazing :)

      Delete
  3. Anna10 May 2017 at 21:17

    Oh the cathedral looks so beautiful illuminated. One of my best fiction reads so far this year VP has been 'The Cleaner of Chartres' by Sally Vickers - a most delightful book. I think that you would enjoy it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. VP18 May 2017 at 09:21

      Thanks for the recommendation Anna, I've enjoyed her books previously so I'll look out for this one :)

      Delete

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