As shrnmc knows, my main interest in visiting Chartres was to see and walk the famous labyrinth inlaid in the floor of the cathedral. It’s the oldest complete Medieval labyrinth still in existence. Most of the time there are chairs set up on top of it, but a few times during the week they clear out the chairs so people can actually walk it. My spouse & I made a day trip from Paris, toured the cathedral, walked around the town, and returned in the early evening to walk it. Even with the people leaving from mass walking through (a pair of siblings stopped to have an argument, right in front of me), it was very moving to be walking the labyrinth in a place where people have been worshipping for hundreds of years.

Related reading: “Walking a Sacred Path” by Lauren Artress; and “Crossing to Avalon” by Jean Shinoda Bolen.

I hope you get there someday, shrnmc!