Day Trips from Paris - Paris - page 606

ings from the 16th to 19th centuries and poly-chromatic wooden sculptures from the Middle
Ages.

TOURIST TRAIN

LE PETIT CHART' TRAIN
( http://petittrain.olikeopen.com ; adult/child €6.50/3.50; 10.30am-2pm late Mar-Oct)
Departing from in front of the tourist office, Chartres' electric tourist 'train' covers the main
sights in 35 minutes.

CHARTRES EN LUMIÈRES

From mid-April to mid-October, 27 of Chartres' landmarks are spectacularly lit every
night. You can also catch them aboard Le Petit Chart' Train late circuits (adult/child
€7.50/4.50; 10.30pm daily Jul & Aug, Fri & Sat Apr-Jun & Sep-Oct) or on night walking tours
(adult/child €13/5; by reservation Jul & Aug) in English.

Old City
Chartres' beautiful medieval old city is northeast and east of the cathedral. Highlights in-
clude the 12th-century Collégiale St-André ( MAP GOOGLE MAP ; place St-André) , a
Romanesque church that's now an exhibition centre; rue de la Tannerie and its extension
rue de la Foulerie , lined with flower gardens, millraces and the restored remnants of river-
side trades: wash houses, tanneries and the like; and rue des Écuyers , with many structures
dating from around the 16th century.
Flying buttresses hold up the 12th- and 13th-century Église St-Pierre ( GOOGLE MAP ;
place St-Pierre; 10am-5pm) . Once part of a Benedictine monastery founded in the 7th cen-
tury, it was outside the city walls and thus vulnerable to attack; the fortresslike, pre-
Romanesque bell tower attached to it was used as a refuge by monks, and dates from around
1000. The fine, brightly coloured clerestory windows in Église St-Pierre's nave, choir and
apse date from the early 14th century.
Église St-Aignan ( MAP GOOGLE MAP ; place St-Aignan; 8.30am-6pm) is interesting for
its wooden barrel-vault roof (1625), arcaded nave and painted interior of faded blue and
gold floral motifs (c 1870). The stained glass and the Renaissance Chapelle de St-Michel
date from the 16th and 17th centuries.