Itinerary · Centre-Val de Loire
Chartres and Bourges, Cathedrals and Stained Glass: a 3-Day Break
A break between two UNESCO-listed cathedrals, from Chartres and its legendary blue to Bourges and the Palais Jacques-Cœur — designed for three days, without leaving the two towns.
3 days · 6 stops · Quick stop
Other itineraries for Centre-Val de Loire:
Overview
Numbers follow the order of the route, day by day — the dashed line is indicative, not a precise driving route.
Day 1
Chartres, the blue and the 167 windows
Chartres Cathedral retains nearly all of its one hundred and sixty-seven 13th-century stained-glass windows, including the famous Chartres blue whose exact recipe is still debated; the Musée du Vitrail, housed in the former Grenier de Loëns, explains how medieval coloured glass was made.
167 13th-century windowsChurch · Chartres
Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Chartres
La crypte de la cathédrale Notre-Dame de Chartres est un ensemble souterrain de style roman, situé sous la cathédrale elle-même à Chartres, en Eure-et-Loir.…
The famous Chartres blueMuseum · Chartres
Musée du Vitrail
Le Musée du Vitrail, implanté à Chartres en Eure-et-Loir, est un musée d'art dédié au vitrail. Il s'inscrit dans le patrimoine culturel de la région Centre-Val…
Day 2
Chartres, the Maison Picassiette
A different kind of morning: the house of a road-sweeper, Raymond Isidore, entirely covered in mosaics of broken crockery and glass he pieced together single-handedly between 1938 and his death in 1964 — outsider art just streets from the cathedral.
Day 3
Bourges, the cathedral and the merchant's palace
The UNESCO-listed Cathédrale Saint-Étienne de Bourges is unusual for its five naves and lack of transept; a short walk away, the Palais Jacques-Cœur, built between 1443 and 1451 for Charles VII's treasurer, remains one of France's finest Gothic civil residences.
5 naves, no transept, UNESCOChurch · Bourges
Cathédrale Saint-Étienne de Bourges
Cathédrale de style gothique située à Bourges, dans le Cher, en région Centre-Val de Loire. Inscrite sur la liste du patrimoine mondial de l'UNESCO, elle…
Gothic house of the king's treasurerCastle · Bourges
Palais Jacques-Cœur
Le palais Jacques-Cœur est une demeure médiévale située à Bourges, dans le Cher. Édifié par Jacques Cœur, marchand, aventurier et argentier du roi Charles VII,…
20th-century abstract paintingMuseum · Bourges
Musée Estève
The Estève Museum, housed in the Hôtel des Échevins in Bourges, is dedicated to the work of painter Maurice Estève (1904-2001), a major figure in…
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