Notre Dame – A Traveling Fool

May 9, 2025

April in Paris: The Beautifully Restored Notre Dame

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 3^rd 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 3^rd century AD, the left bank was sacked by Germanic tribes and largely abandoned. Around the mid-3^rd 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 13^th 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 19^th 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

October 2, 2022

Grand France River Cruise – Notre Dame de Paris

This trip was the first that I have taken to Paris without spending any time inside of Notre Dame de Paris. It and Westminster Abbey in London are my favorite cathedrals. They are both very old, very large, and very historic.

It is believed that there have been religious structures of various sorts and sizes on the site of Notre Dame almost since the Parissii first inhabited the Île de la Cité in the 3^rd century BC. In 1710, the Pillar of the Boatman, which was part of a Gallo-Roman temple to Jupiter, was discovered beneath the cathedral. The remains of an early Christian church, the Cathedral of Saint Etienne, built in the 4^th or 5th century AD has also been discovered.

In 1160, the buildings on the site of where Notre Dame is now were all demolished so a new, much larger cathedral could be built in the Gothic style. Construction began in 1163 and lasted until 1345, though there have always been additions and adjustments made throughout its existence. Analysis of the vault stones that fell during the 2019 fire indicated that they were quarried in Vexin, which is northwest of Paris.

The choir was completed in 1177 and the high altar was consecrated in 1182 as part of Phase One. Phase Two involved the four sections of the nave behind the choir. This lasted from 1182 to 1190. Building of the west façade began in 1190.

Although the flying buttresses were replaced by larger and stronger ones in the 14^th century, they were originally created in the 13^th century and are now considered (because of scans showing that the upper part of the building hasn’t moved at all for the past 800 years) to have been part of the original design. This was a new innovation at the time to allow the buttresses themselves to carry the weight of the walls. The walls could then be taller and thinner, with more windows.

During the French Revolution, the statues along the West façade of biblical kings were mistaken for French kings and beheaded. Many of the original heads are now inside of the Musee de Cluny. After the Napoleonic Wars, the cathedral was in such bad condition that its demolition was being considered. Author Victor Hugo (who also wrote Les Miserables) wrote The Hunchback of Notre Dame in order to save it.

During the Paris Commune of 1871, the cathedral was threatened again. The Communards had the furniture piled up to set on fire when they realized that burning Notre Dame would also destroy the hospital next door. Fortunately World War II only created some minor damage from stray bullets.

On April 15, 2019, a fire broke out in the attic of the cathedral which ended up destroying the spire and the forest of oak beams supporting the roof. The stone vaulting in the ceiling ended up with several holes, but did not collapse.

The stabilization of the building was completed at the time of my visit in September of 2021. So the photos of all of the scaffolding and bracing that I took was erected to prevent any further deterioration and keep things safe for the teams that would be involved in the reconstruction.

Prior to the completion of the Eiffel Tower in 1889, the two towers of Notre Dame at the western façade were the tallest structures in Paris. They currently contain the ten (originally fourteen) bells of the cathedral. Some smaller bells in a carillon in the spire and in the roof were destroyed in the fire. Although the fire threatened the towers, the firefighters were able to protect and save them from destruction.

The copper statues surrounding the spire had been removed a few days before the fire. The weathervane at the top of the spire, which contained a tiny piece of the Crown of Thorns plus relics of Saint Denis and Saint Genevieve fell when the spire fell. It was recovered with the relics intact in the rubble shortly after the fire.

The gargoyles are the rain spouts. The other creatures that decorate the building are called “grotesques”. Several of them are chimera, a mythical creature with the head of a goat and the body of a lion. They seem to mostly be in pretty good shape.

The three rose windows sustained damage, but are essentially intact. Just one needs to be dismantled and stabilized.

The first clocks in the cathedral were clepsydras, which were used to tell the hours, marked by striking bells. In 1766, these were replaced by a mechanical clock which was located at the north portal. In roughly 1812, the clock and its bells were moved to the north tower.

A new clock made in 1867 was located in the forest underneath the central spire. It was destroyed by the fire. A nearly identical movement has been located at another church that will be used as a model for creating a new clock for Notre Dame de Paris.

The paved area in front of the western façade is called the Place du Parvis Notre Dame. Originally Notre Dame would have been somewhat hemmed in by other buildings. So the parvis was created to provide more majestic sightlines to the main entrance of the cathedral.

Over the centuries, the square has been greatly enlarged. A statue of Charlemagne was installed on the south side of the square in 1882 and the point zéro medallion was installed in 1924. This marker was used as a starting point for measuring distance on the National Route system in France.

Since the 2019 fire, the eastern half of the square has been closed off to be used as working space by the restoration team. In addition to Charlemagne, a statue of the Virgin and Child was also located near the parvis at the time of my visit. It was one of thirty seven representations of Notre Dame that were part of the cathedral. I don’t remember ever seeing it before, so it could have just been temporarily outside of the cathedral.

In 1965, excavation work began to create an underground parking facility under the parvis. This was when many ancient foundations, some going back to Roman times, were discovered. So the Archaeological Crypt was created beneath the parvis. Normally this is open to the public, but was not while I was there.

Next time – Thoughts while on trip about experiences, learning new things, family history and a general knowledge of the history of a place.

February 27, 2022

Grand France River Cruise – Traveling from Dijon to Paris

In Dijon, we were taken straight to the train station. That was a shame. Dijon had been the main home of the Dukes of Burgundy from the early 11^th to the late 15^th centuries although not much from the earlier dukes remained. The oldest parts of the ducal palace were from the 14^th & 15^th centuries and the main portions from the 17^th& 18^th centuries, but it still would have been nice to have had some of that pointed out as we zipped on by.

A lot of the non-ducal architecture in the town, from the 12^th to 15^th centuries, remained and was undamaged by wars. The crypt of Dijon Cathedral was over 1,000 years old. Its roof was decorated much as the hospital in Beaune with tiles glazed in terracotta, green, yellow and black and arranged in geometric patterns.

The original home of Dijon mustard, Dijon has several sister cities in other countries. I was especially intrigued by Dallas, Texas as that was the city in which I grew up. Prague in the Czech Republic and York in England were two others that caught my attention as they are a couple of my favorite cities.

Dijon is an important railway junction for many cities and towns in France, Switzerland, and Italy, with its high speed TGV train. From Dijon to Paris-Gare de Lyon, the journey takes just one hour and 40 minutes to cover 190 miles (300 km).

When we arrived at the train station, we needed to wait a bit for the gate to be announced for our departing train and for our intrepid cruise director, Jean Loup, to get our tickets. We all met downstairs near the gate. We weren’t allowed onto the platform without our tickets, so we just hung out leaning against the walls and waving others, who thought we were in line, past us.

Once on the platform, it wasn’t long before the train arrived. Our seats were upstairs. So we climbed up the steps, found our seats and settled in for the ride. Nobody was in the seat next to me so I was able to pop my camera bag in the window seat and get comfortable.

Everybody pulled out the food they had purchased in Beaune and had lunch about a half hour into the ride. I had a filled pastry and a small orange. Knowing that we would be having a large dinner that evening, I had gone for a light lunch.

The journey through the French country-side was a pleasant one and we soon entered the Paris city limits, heading for the Gare de Lyon. Upon arrival, the five of us going to the Tapestry II were loaded onto one coach and the other six, plus Jean Loup, onto another coach. Then our journey through central Paris began.

The amount of lanes for motorized vehicles had been reduced by the current mayor, so moving through Paris took much longer than usual. The mayor felt that it would be better to have parts of every street made into lanes for bicycling and walking. She also wanted more people to use public transportation. So motorized vehicles had half as many lanes for their use as before.

To get from the Gare de Lyon to where our ship was docked near the Eiffel Tower took over an hour. Along the way, we passed by Notre Dame. It was the first time I had seen it in person since the fire (I had seen it on previous trips and had always visited). I took some photos as we drove past the cathedral. I also managed to take some of the Louvre, the Place de la Concorde, and the Grand Palais.

When we arrived at the ship, we were met by our new cruise director, Gayle. I had something for her from Jean Loup that I passed on before heading to my cabin. Our cabin numbers were the same on the new ship as they had been on the Poetry II. That helped. The colors on the ship were different, although the layout was exactly the same.

My cases were waiting for me in my cabin. I just needed to unpack enough to dress up a little for dinner.

This time we had 37 people on the trip. Two were Canadian and the rest Americans. There were several more women traveling on their own. I spent some time with a few of them while on excursions or having lunch or breakfast.

We had escargot again at dinner. This time I managed to free all of mine from their shells (although it did mean that I had to totally crush one of the shells).

Dinner was served a little earlier than usual, so there was plenty of time for me to fully unpack and settle in after dinner.

We discovered that trials were beginning the following day in Paris at the Palais de Justice on the Ile de Cite for some of the men who were accused of involvement in the terrorist attacks all over Paris on the 13^th of November in 2015. Most of the men directly involved had been killed as they were mainly suicide bombers. The attacks took place at such venues as a concert hall and a soccer stadium, as well as at several cafes, leaving 130 people dead and 460 injured.

Once everyone was on the ship, we had turned around and headed down the Seine in the direction of the Normandy coast shortly after everyone was on board. We would spend several days in Normandy before returning to Paris at the end of the cruise.

Next time – Vernon & Bizy Castle