Mr. Malcolm Miller Tour at Chartres Cathedral

This is on my bucket list. Were you driving through or staying in Chartres or did you come from Paris? If the latter, did you come by train?

So glad to hear that Mr. Miller is still doing these tours -- his tour was a highlight of our 2003 trip. He must be quite far along in years, more power to him!

I took the train from Paris (Montparnasse station) for a day trip to Chartres. It only took an hour or so and was very convenient. You can easily walk to the Cathedral from the little station at Chartres. Plus there are several trips available daily.

Yes, Mr. Miller looked to be in good form - and he told me that his 85th birthday was coming up! By the way if you go in the winter you will find out that they do not heat cathedrals - so wear lots of warm clothing!

By the way if you review the stories of the Bible before you go, it will help you understand the images in the windows, which are mostly about religion, as you would expect! There are of course references to other aspects of the Middle Ages as well which are very fascinating. You will want to get ahold of his beautiful book. Mr. Miller told a little story of how during a private tour with YoYo Ma, they sat, gazing up and picked out and discussed all of the ancient musical instruments in one of the windows! By the way, Mr Miller is also very knowledgeable about the spectacular statuary that decorate the exterior of the cathedral.

I can certainly understand why they wouldn't heat cathedrals-although they did do a good job of heating the areas where people sat when we went to Christmas service at Westminster Abbey in 2014.

Glad to hear Mr Miller is still doing tours, I read of him in Rick’s books and was interested in participating in a tour with him. Can you tell me if he only does pre-arranged tours or are there some scheduled ones that one can just show up for?

Also, any other sights that you recommend seeing in Chartres?

Here's the Malcolm Miller page on the cathedral website, I assume it's current. No reservations unless you want a private tour.

We had dearly hoped to catch his tour when we were in France in 2015, but misjudged how long it would take us to drive to Chartres from Paris. We pulled into town about half an hour after he would have finished for the day. Obviously my advice to others is, allow plenty of time to get to Chartres and find your way to the Cathedral!

I do not think that Mr. Miller has any regular tours that you can just show up for. I believe you would need to arrange respectfully well ahead of time with him via email. And I would definitely get there early. It is lovely to walk around the cathedral, and there is a stained glass museum nearby. The town is so charming I could just walk around it for a few hours.

Normally, you don’t need a reservation, but beware that there are days that his tour may be canceled, which isn’t surprising given his age.

IN the past there were one or two talks (they are really not tours of the Cathedral) a day and you could sign up by just showing up; but it has been a few years for us and so it probably pays to touch base with him ahead to find out when he will be speaking or to arrange privately. This is something to do sooner rather than later as it won't be available forever. It was one of the highlights of our travels in France.

Also, he will cancel a talk if not enough people show up. I believe it was 10 or 12. His voice strains a bit too and if there aren't enough people for the talk, he just won't do it. (No amount of begging will work - or offering to pay to make it the requisite number.)