NOTE: This post was created before the horrible fire in 2019.
The Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris, France is a great example of French Gothic architecture. Construction began in 1160 and was completed in 1345. As I entered the amazing structure, all I could think about was Victor Hugo’s novel, The Hunchback of Notre-Dame. But that thought soon left as I was enveloped in the reverence of this historic place. The sun shining through the brightly-colored, stained-glass windows. To think that people could build structures like this so long ago is hard to imagine.
We worked our way around the Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris, France in a counter-clockwise motion. With each step, another nook revealed a treasure: a statue, a wood carving, or even a miniature replica of Notre-Dame made from wood. We stopped halfway around to sit in the seats and take in all of the details, to watch other travelers that had come from all parts of the world to visit this building.
Plan on spending at the very least a few hours here, and it helped us have one of Rick Steve’s Paris travel books, so we knew what we were looking at and it’s significance.
