Chartres

Chartres is a commune and capital of the Eure-et-Loir department in northern France. It is located 96 km southwest of Paris. Chartres is built on the left bank of the Eure River, on a hill crowned by the famous Cathedral of Our Lady of Chartres, the spires of which are a landmark in the surrounding country. To the south-east stretches the fruitful plain of Beauce, the "granary of France", of which the town is the commercial centre.

The town is the setting for Lowry's short story 'Hotel Room In Chartres' based on a visit made by Lowry and Jan Gabrial to the town and Rouen in 1934; "We've been to Chartres and to Rouen". Jan Gabrial Inside The Volcano Pg. 57). Lowry refers to several location in the city in the short story: Grotte Luminaire, Café Jacques Restaurant Bar du Cinéma, St Piat Chapel, La Gare Chartres and Chartres – Champhol Aerodrome.

Lowry visited the city again with Maurice Sachs and Henry Wibbels in May 1934 when they stayed in the village of St Prest walking across the fields to Chartres. A walk that Jacques Laruelle recalls in Under The Volcano, a memory evoked by his passion for Yvonne:

walking over the meadows from Saint Pres, the sleepy French village of backwaters and locks and grey disused watermills where he was lodging, he had seen, rising slowly and wonderfully and with boundless beauty above the stubble fields blowing with wildflowers, slowly rising sunlight, as centuries before the pilgrims straying over the same fields had watched them rise, the twin spires of Chartres Cathedral. His love had brought a peace, for all too short a while, there was strangely like the enchantment, the spell, of Chartres itself, long ago, whose every side-street he had come to love and cafe where he would gaze at the Cathedral eternally sailing against the clouds, the spell not even the fact he was scandalously in debt there could break.

Lowry also mentioned Chartres cathedral in his 1940 version of Under The Volcano; " his wife, his child, his fishing trip, his career, his sun and moon on the twin spires of Chartres cathedral, his immortal, posthumous work on 'Hidden Knowledge,' which would never be written. Why?" (Pg. 93)

Grotte Luminaire

One of the places mentioned by Lowry in his short story 'Hotel Room In Chartres' as being in Chartres. As yet unidentified. Possibly a name for above or perhaps a cryptic reference to the La Grottes des Druides beneath Chartres Cathedral.

Café Jacques Restaurant Bar du Cinéma

An unidentified bar mentioned in Lowry's short story 'Hotel Room In Chartres'. Possibly in Chartres where the story is set. More likely in Rouen where Lowry spent a short holiday with Jan Gabrial which inspired the story.

A contemporary guide to Rouen identifies the following cinemas Eden, Omnia (shown above), Select, Olympia, Renaisance and Beauvoisine.

St Piat Chapel, Chartres

In 1323 a substantial two story construction was added at the eastern end of the choir in Chartres Cathedral, with a chapel dedicated to Saint Piat in the upper floor accessed by a staircase opening onto the ambulatory (the chapel of St Piat is normally closed to visitors, although it occasionally houses temporary exhibitions).

Mentioned by Lowry in his short story 'Hotel Room in Chartres'; "The mornings they spent wandering in the cathedral, St Piat at the south door, that time they lit a candle to their love.." (Psalms Pg. 20).

Cathedral of Our Lady of Chartres

The medieval Cathedral of Our Lady of Chartres, a Latin Rite Catholic cathedral located in Chartres, about 80 kilometres (50 mi) southwest of Paris, is considered one of the finest examples of the French High Gothic style. The current cathedral, mostly constructed between 1193 and 1250, is one of at least five that have occupied the site since the town became a bishopric in the 4th century.


Lowry mentions the cathedral in 'Hotel Room in Chartres'; "The mornings they spent wandering in the cathedral, St Piat at the south door, that time they lit a candle to their love.." Psalms Pg. 20



While Lowry stayed in the commune of Saint-Prest, he walked the fields to Chartres. A walk that Jacques Laruelle recalls in Under The Volcano, a memory evoked by his passion for Yvonne:


walking over the meadows from Saint Pres, the sleepy French village of backwaters and locks and grey disused watermills where he was lodging, he had seen, rising slowly and wonderfully and with boundless beauty above the stubble fields blowing with wildflowers, slowly rising sunlight, as centuries before the pilgrims straying over the same fields had watched them rise, the twin spires of Chartres Cathedral. His love had brought a peace, for all too short a while, there was strangely like the enchantment, the spell, of Chartres itself, long ago, whose every side-street he had come to love and cafe where he would gaze at the Cathedral eternally sailing against the clouds, the spell not even the fact he was scandalously in debt there could break.


Lowry also mentioned the cathedral in his 1940 version of Under The Volcano; " his wife, his child, his fishing trip, his career, his sun and moon on the twin spires of Chartres cathedral, his immortal, posthumous work on 'Hidden Knowledge,' which would never be written. "Why? (Pg. 93)

La Gare Chartres

Located at 8 Place Pierre Sémard. Built in 1933. The architect was Henri Victor Pacon. On the Paris-Montparnasse - Le Mans Railroad Line.Lowry refers to station in 'Hotel Room in Chartes'; "And the strange station which was being repaired and of which a French friend had said: It might be a lunatic asylum, it might belong to a church, but a station...." Psalms Pg. 20

Chartres – Champhol Aerodrome

Chartres – Champhol Aerodrome is an airport serving Chartres and Champhol, in the Eure-et-Loir department in north-central France. The airport is located 2.5 km east-northeast of Chartres and it is southeast of Champhol. It supports general aviation with no commercial airline service scheduled. Built in 1909, Chartres was one of the first French towns to construct an aerodrome, then a flight school that would train more than 3,000 pilots during World War I. Certain pilots would eventually become famous, such as Farman, Latham and Hélène Boucher.

Lowry refers to the aerodrome in 'Hotel Room in Chartres'; "and the droning nights which by the planes from the neighbouring airport were turned into a world of moving green and golden stars." Psalms 20