Day 7: I fell in love...

So I fell in love today...

(First spotting of him from across the street)

(Aren't we a cute couple?)

haha, just kidding. It was an empty knight in armor at a costume shop

We went to Notre Dame de Chartres today.

It was a pretty cold day and at first I was just grateful to be inside a building that blocked me from the strong wind. I walked around and took some pictures before the rest of my group got there. I was impressed by the beautiful stained glass windows and the height of the ceiling. I thought the floor was pretty cool, but nothing was really pulling me the way that Sainte-Chapelle had yesterday when my breath was taken away at first glance.

(Inside Notre Dame de Chartres)

(Inside Notre Dame de Chartres)

Our tour started at 1:45 sharp. Our tour guide was awesome! His name is Malcolm Miller and I highly recommend him to anyone that ever visits Notre Dame de Chartres; he's been there a really long time and he knows it so well! We put on our head sets (so that he wouldn't need to speak loudly and so that we wouldn't need to strain our ears) and the tour began. However, the tour began with us just sitting in chairs, looking up at the western facade. Malcolm began giving the spiritual and historical background of the cathedral--the fire that burned down the previous cathedrals on that spot, the relic that is kept there, the miracle that was said to occur, etc.

(Western Facade in Notre Dame de Chartres)

And before I knew it, I was falling in love with the cathedral. Malcolm helped us to read the windows and read the symbolism that was apparent in several of the different windows--such as the Good Samaritan/Fall of Adam & Eve window. Love love love that window! There is an article in the February 2007 Liahona called The Good Samaritan: Forgotten Symbols by John W. Welch, in which he talks about this window and the symbolism. After hearing about the symbolism and truths embodied in that window, I really wanted to be able to stay for hours and hours and days and days and read all the windows and figure out what they were all saying.

(Good Samaritan & Fall of Adam & Eve)

Also, Malcolm had us look at the South Rose window. He pointed out that the lancet windows (not the big circle window) have four windows with an Old Testament prophet holding a New Testament disciple on their backs, to show the connection and continuation of truth between the Old and New Testaments. Amazing! The windows go: Jeremiah carrying Luke, Isaiah carrying Matthew, Mary (the person whereby the Old & New Testaments meet with the birth of Christ), Ezekiel carrying John, and Daniel carrying Mark.

(South Rose window with the Old Testament prophets

holding New Testament writers on their backs)

It was such a wonderful experience and helped open up for me about different types of literacy (yes, yes, I know: teacher-talk). There is literacy with words being the abstract representations; but then there are pictures that are symbols too of an abstract idea, just as much or even more than mere words. Words can only hold so much meaning, whereas pictures/visuals can hold a lot more meaning than just one word.

Also, I had fromage blanc (white cheese; it's creamy, kind of like yogurt but not) tonight with compote de pomme (like apple sauce) and sugar. So good! I really liked it a lot.

p.s. Could someone post a comment every once and a while? It will help me to realize that people are actually looking at this...even though I do like posting on here. It'll be a great site to have after I return.