Our train left Paris at 1.45, so we hit the ground running this morning and managed to fit in a tour of Notre Dame. It is Sunday today, so there was a service running. As we entered the cathedral, the organ was playing - with the story of the Hunchback running through my head, the music was wonderfully atmospheric. The organ gave way to a choir, and then a soloist. There is something about those high, vaulted stone ceilings that gives music a tone that you just can’t hear anywhere else. A lovely backdrop to our exploration of the interior. The stained glass here is beautiful, and the rose windows in particular.
We climbed to the top of the two towers - the bell tower first, where a tiny wooden door gives access to a set of ancient wooden stairs leading up to the only bell that survived the revolutionaries, who melted down the rest. I think maybe the size of this bell deterred them from trying to take it as well. A narrow stone walkway led from one tower across to the next, among the most fantastic and grotesque gargoyles. I took photos until my battery went flat, continuing a tradition of my camera battery dying within famous churches - so far it has done it at St Marks in Venice, St Peters in the Vatican, and here. In the next tower we ascended more stairs up to the very top, where they have a plaque with a quote from Victor Hugo about this spot can’t remember it all but something along the lines of “… all Paris spread out below him, with her spires, her undulating horizon, her rivers running under her bridges, her smoke rising from her thousands of chimneys.” And that is what we saw. Except for the smoke, of course.
Finished at Notre Dame later than we should have, so did a fast march/metro back to hotel, collected bags, marched to the Gare du Nord to get on the Eurostar. We got there in plenty of time, but waited in long, slow queues for so long that we very nearly missed the train, having to sprint the last bit through the station and down the platform. The doors swished shut behind us, and the train set off as we dropped into our seats. Whewsh! England next.
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| Notre Dame, Paris |
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| Rose window, Notre Dame |
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| Gargoyles looking over Paris, Notre Dame |
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| The bell at Notre Dame - the only original one left after the revolutionaries melted down the rest in the late 1700s |
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| Gargoyle |
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