The cathedral of Notre-Dame de Chartres, in central France, is the textbook
of classic Gothic: it went back up in only 26 years after a fire, so nearly
all of it is the same date and the same style. Two mismatched towers (one
twelfth-century Romanesque, the other sixteenth-century Flamboyant Gothic),
three sculpted doorways, the labyrinth in the floor of the nave and, above
all, 176 original thirteenth-century windows, the famous Chartres blue among
them. It is one of the best preserved cathedrals in Europe. UNESCO World
Heritage.
