Chartres and the Notre-Dame cathedral

Registered with the world heritage of humanity by UNESCO, the Cathédrale of Chartres is the principal tourist attraction of the department. It is about the one of the most beautiful cathedrals of France, built at the same time as that of Bourges and which was marked by technical innovations as the brackets which enabled him to reach an elegance external without precedent allied with a height of important vault.

Today the cathedral is especially remarkable by its single whole of stained glasses in the world and by its famous medieval labyrinth which is one of rare which was preserved in France. She is visited each year by more than one million visitors.

Apart from the imposing figure of its cathedral, the town of Chartres presents many other cultural places and of inheritance, often ignored. Its historical center is remarkably preserved with in particular the " low-ville" district of houses with wood sides, to the foot of the spur of the cathedral and whose lanes intertwine two arms of the river of the Eure that they cross on small medieval stone bridges.

The city is likely also to count the Maison Picassiette, example single of the popular na5ive art. It is about the dwelling of an municipal employee who patiently covered it with shards and breaking of crockery, mirrors… in a single mosaic.

Lastly, Chartres counts two interesting museums: the international Center of the Stained glass (located beside the cathedral) and the academy of agriculture, the Compa which constitutes a remarkable space dedicated to the environmental questions and of company.

The Pole

The Pole is a small province, with horse on three departments: the Flowering ash, the Eure-et-Loir and the Loir-et-Cher. Its capital, Nogent-le-Rotrou, are located in Eure-et-Loir. This area is very attaching and appraisal by the secondary owners franciliens, thanks to these green hills, its manors hidden at the bottom of small valleys and its strengthened small towns (Nogent, Mortagne…). Finally the Pole is famous thanks to its horses, the Percheron S, which are one of the last races of draft horses in France.

The Beauce

This " ocean of blé" as baptized it Charles Péguy is victim of the image that those have some which cross it at any speed by RN20, RN154 or the highways which lead towards the south of France. Beside indeed monotonous landscapes, made up almost only the openone and of culture, it would be damage not to however discover the inheritance and the beauty of Beauce. Indeed, Beauce comprises still many windmills (and today their during modern that are the wind mills), of the small villages recently restored with their typical ponds and their traditional farms. But Beauce is a ground of landscape. With a particularly dry climate (it there rains very little and much less than in many areas of the south of France), Beauce is rich as far as the eye can see of its ciels, of its sunsets. " The road of the blé" , allows to better discover this area.

Châteaudun and Dunois

The high valley of the Dormouse, as of the strengthened small town of Bonneval, starts in Beauce to open gradually on an undulating landscape, even boxed, starting from Châteaudun. Châteaudun, it is initially a medieval castle and Renaissance, heralding the Loire ch4ateau. It is also a city preserved very well, in spite of the fire which destroyed it partially during the Guerre of 1870.

Drouais, Maintenon, and the valley of the the Eure

Dreux is a city marked by its industrial tradition but which knew to preserve a historical downtown area around its belfry, of the Saint-Pierre church and on the heights of the city, of the royal vault, necropolis of kings de France of the family of Orleans. The valley of the Eure, nearer to Chartres, counts a jewel of the departmental inheritance with the castle of Maintenon, offered by Louis XIV to his favorite Francoise d' Aubigné, famous the Madam de Maintenon. Let us not forget finally Anet, close to Dreux, in the extreme north of the department and its very interesting and original castle of Diane of Poitiers.

External bond

• Site of the Departmental committee of tourism of Eure-et-Loir