Once Notre Dame was open again to visitors, they were requesting that all visitors book a reservation on their website. The reservation could only be booked a day or two ahead of when we planned to visit. I kept my eye on the website in case they decided to expand the time in which a reservation could be booked. Then they decided to suspend all reservations for the Holy Week. Since that was the week we would be in Paris, we were left with the possibility of either having several hours to stand in line, or possibly not even getting in.
A French friend of mine had just been in Paris in December to visit his family and told me that the trick was to get there early in the day – as early as possible after they opened. On the day we planned to go, they were going to be open to tourists from 8am to 1:30pm. After that they would be closed to tourists to accommodate a special service. We decided we would get there by 8am.
The hotel breakfast began serving at 6:45am. We were at the restaurant when they opened. There were many items from which to choose, but we all went for a fairly light breakfast since we were walking from the hotel to Notre Dame.
Heading out from the hotel, we took a shortcut through the Louvre grounds and then walked along the river until we got to the Pont Neuf. We crossed that bridge onto the Ile de Cite and headed straight to Notre Dame. The walk had taken about 30 minutes.
It is said that a Gallic (Parisii) settlement, called Lutetia most likely existed on the Ile de City since at least the 3rd century BC. In 53 BC, Julius Caesar traveled to Lutetia to meet with the tribal leaders, who agreed to submit to Rome. They then rebelled and were eventually defeated in battle.
After the conquest of the Parisii, the town developed mainly on the Left Bank, where the temples and baths were located. By about the 3rd century AD, the left bank was sacked by Germanic tribes and largely abandoned. Around the mid-3rd century, the Roman Governor had his palace on the western end of the island, near the present Palais de Justice. This was the area where we entered the island.
In 486, Clovis I, the first King of the Franks, met with Saint Genevieve about the submission of Paris. In 508, Clovis made Paris his capital. It is believed that a Gallo-Roman temple dedicated to Jupiter once stood on the site of Notre Dame.
The first cathedral of Paris, Saint Etienne, was constructed in 540 – 545, close to the west front of the present Notre Dame de Paris. The bishop of Paris, Maurice de Sully, decided in 1160 to demolish Saint Etienne and build a much larger cathedral. The area of the demolished cathedral would act as the construction site for the new cathedral. This same area (called the Parvis) was also used as the construction site for the restoration after the 2019 fire. The new cathedral would be dedicated to the Virgin Mary (“Our Lady” or “Notre Dame”).
Construction began in 1163 and was mostly completed by 1260. In the 13th century the flying buttresses were added. The crown of thorns, a piece of the true cross, and a nail from the cross were housed in Notre Dame while Sainte-Chapelle was being built by King Louis IX (later Saint Louis). At some point, these items were returned to Notre Dame on a permanent basis.
During the French Revolution, the cathedral sustained major desecration. Then Napoleon’s coronation was held there.
Victor Hugo wrote The Hunchback of Notre Dame largely as an effort to create interest and lead to its restoration in the 19th century. In 2019 a large fire threatened to destroy Notre Dame, but it survived. When I was last in Paris, in 2021, the building was completely covered in scaffolding and in the process of being stabilized and restored.
Each time I have visited Paris, I have included a visit to Notre Dame. It was always so dark inside. This time, it was bright and gorgeous. The beautiful altar had survived. The statue of Our Lady, and of Joan of Arc, and of various saints in their chapels had either survived intact or had been restored. The Rose Windows were still magnificent.
I momentarily held my breath while our bags were searched before we were let into the cathedral. But once we were through the doors, I let out a sigh of relief. My friends and I looked at each other as if we couldn’t quite believe we were there. I began taking photos with both my phone and my camera – 59 of Notre Dame in all (55 that I kept as four were badly out of focus)) and 24 that I am sharing in this post.
The traffic inside of the cathedral was essentially directed to the left. At this point in the day, the crowd wasn’t overwhelming. It wasn’t a problem to go at our own pace and to just sit down whenever we needed to do so to contemplate it all. We stopped. We examined. We remarked to each other. We were in awe.
I was noticing things I had never noticed before – perhaps because I had felt rushed in the past or because it was so much easier to see everything now. For instance, I don’t remember ever seeing the details of the choir screen before or seeing the effigy of a medieval bishop behind the altar. This is the only remaining medieval funerary sculpture still in existence in Notre Dame.
Once we got around the back of the altar, we found that we could actually go into the area directly in front of the altar for prayer only (no photos or conversations). We chose to do that and so stood in line briefly as others came out so we could go in. This was when I really felt overwhelmed and the tears came. Although I had not been raised Catholic, my companions had been and were also quite moved by the experience.
By the time we left Notre Dame, it was nearly 10am. The lines were now quite long and the Parvis had considerably more people moving about on it than when we had gone in. Stadium-like seating bleachers had been built down at the western end of the Parvis to allow people to sit and watch the restoration efforts. We went and sat there for a bit and took some more photos before heading for the Archeological Crypt right behind where we were seated.
Next time – The Archeological Crypt, Two Old and Diverse Churches and the Musee Cluny
