An idea that started in Iceland in 2011 came to fruition in 2014, as 15 of us toured a carefully planned route in France to visit contemporary stained glass. 
In two vans and one car with Helga, Marie and Holly as guides, we set off from Charles DeGaulle for the sites of interest.
Modest hotels were our rest stops most nights. First to Reims and the cathedral with Chagall, Simon and Knoebel windows, the Simon- Marq studio, windows by Agosti in the Lycee Saint Joseph, stopping later in historic Chateau-Thierry to see Rousvoal windows in St Crepin. 
Another day, in Paris, the Duchemin Studio, the Raysse windows in Notre Dame de l’Arche d’Alliance and to meet a representative of the glass factory St. Just, later to be visited.  We next headed south-west towards Nevers stopping at gems of windows like Tremlett’s in Villenauxe-la-Grande, Zembok’s in an underground parking structure in Troyes and Wool’s doodle-like windows in La Charite-sur-Loire.  Arriving in Nevers, we spent hours at the cathedral, an eye-opener, with several artists (Honegger, Aberola, Ubac, Viallat, Rouan) represented by extremely over-the-top contemporary work which melded surprisingly well with the mediaeval windows - in this writer’s view anyway, not always to locals.
 Generally, the artists and their windows on this whole trip were unknown to the group, the French being surprisingly quiet about new work in international publications. Onward to Jean Mauret’s studio in St- Hilaire-en-Lignieres to his exhibition opening, where we would have our own 2 years hence. Then down into the south-east the next days we drove: architecture by le Corbusier, the St. Just factory, a church interior in St Prim by C. Rutault, windows by Matisse in Vence, and Sarkis in the Abbaye de Silvacane in the south, then heading west again into the Camargue, past flamingos and wild horses to Robert Morris’ slumped glass windows.  The route back north took us over the Millau bridge to Rodez and the windows of Belzere, the most breath-take inducing of all. And a Pierre Soulages Museum in Rodez which prepared us for his windows in Conques the next day. Figeac, the Abbaye of Noirlac with windows by Raynaud, the Cathedral of Evry by Mario Botta and our last night in Varennes-Jarcy next to a church with windows of giant tulips by C. Bensaken signaled the end of our journey together.  It had been a staggerly full two weeks with constant time pressures, but we weren’t quite ready to leave: lovely France, beautiful glass, food to die for and a close group of colleagues/friends – it was a wonderfully successful experience.

Back in Paris the next day, we said our good-byes after one last outing, a day visit to Giverny, to relax and enjoy this calm, other sort of feast for the eyes.

2 films were filmed and produced by ‘Bird-Jones & Heald’, Echoes, adleisiau, échos, a poetic visual response to this trip and Trywydd . Voyage, focusing on the Welsh artists taking part.

Holly Sanford