Our shop uses cookies to improve the user experience and we recommend that you accept their use to take full advantage of your browsing experience.
Private tour of Lady of Chartres Cathedral : book a private half day trip from Paris with hotel pick up & a private visit given by an expert tour guide
⚠ Please always contact us first before ordering online to make sure we have the availability ⚠
Enjoy a private half day trip to Chartres and book a unique visit to the Gothic cathedral of our Lady of Chartres ("Notre Dame" in French) with your English speaking expert tour guide. This wonderful private side trip from Paris can be given in another language on request. We will pick you up in the morning or in the afternoon at your convenience (from your hotel or at your apartment in Paris) except on Sundays morning or whenever there is a special religious service in the church. Our driver-guide will drive you safely in a very comfortable luxury air-conditioned van, Chartres is located about 90 km (56 miles) away southwest from Paris, so the drive takes about one hour and 15mn to get there. The cathedral of Chartres is world-known as one of the top three references in France for its architecture. It contains the world's largest surviving collection of medieval stained glass with 152 early XIIIth century windows that survived many conflicts throughout history.
Understand why Chartres used to be for centuries a very important pilgrimage destination during the Middle Ages and admire the amazing collection of statues and its outstanding stained-glass windows from the XIIIth century and find out about the story of veil of the Blessed Mary (a reliquary containing a fragment of the reputed veil of the Virgin Mary).
Designated "a masterpiece" and a reference by the UNESCO, the Cathedral of Chartres has loomed over its surroundings for almost a thousand years, with the "incomparable silhouette of a great vessel of stone and light, above an ocean of wheat", that can be seen 25km around, according to the poet Charles Peguy.
Your tour guide will show you the three portals, the statue columns, the two towers (outside view) and will explain you about the typical Gothic architecture and how to read some of the stain glass, then you will be able to tour the remarkable interior of the Chartres cathedral with its wide nave, its renovated and cleaned interior walls and the famous (and rare) labyrinth in the center.
Chartres is only located one hour away from Paris, you are going to love this special journey back to the medieval art and architecture. With this private guided visit of the Cathedral of the Lady of Chartres, you will be able to understand the key to its history, why the Chartres Cathedral has always been of high importance since ancient times: the importance of the prophetic cult by the druids ceremonies, its strong links with the cult of the Virgin Mary, its pilgrimage importance, why this was the site of King Henri IV's coronation (and not in Paris) the originality of its flying buttresses, the messages of the statues on the porches, tympana and lintels, and so much more!
When you book a tour with us, we guarantee the following:
• Pick up and drop off at your accommodation (hotel or apartment) in Paris
• Private transportation in a luxury air conditioned van
• Private guided tours with licensed experts
What is not included:
• Meal and personal expenses
• Entrance tickets
• Gratuities (discretionary)
Tour duration : 5 hours from pick up to drop off
Guided tours are not allowed during services on Sundays.
Recommended pick up time: 8:30am-9:00am
We only give private tours. We do not give shared/semi-private tours.
Please make sure to contact us before booking to check our availability.
Please sign in first.
Sign in
