On the eastern edge of Chartres, the Bel Air housing estate is covered in large-scale trompe-l'oeil murals painted by a team of artists starting in the 1990s. The paintings depict Chartres across the centuries — the medieval city, the cathedral under construction, street scenes from different periods — in a style that blends photorealism with comic-book detail. What was a drab concrete estate became an open-air gallery of local history.
The murals are not in the tourist centre and require a specific trip, but they are an interesting counterpoint to the cathedral and the Maison Picassiette as evidence of Chartres' ongoing relationship with the image-making arts.