Day Four--Notre Dame-Louvre Part One

Wednesday was a big day for sightseeing, so I've split it into two parts. The weather forecast called for scattered showers, so we decided to head out early to Notre Dame before the rain. Plus, in the summer, you need to get to these "must see" sites as early as possible to help avoid huge crowds. We knew that we wanted to climb the tower of the Notre Dame, so when we arrived, we did a quick walk through the inside of the cathedral and then got in a short line waiting to climb the steps(400 total) of the towers. Pictures can only show so much, needless to say in person, Notre Dame is amazing.

You have to back up quite a bit on the front plaza to even get the whole front of the cathedral in a lens frame. When we passed NDame on Saturday, this square in front was bumper to bumper people---glad we went during the week and EARLY!To ascend the stairs, you begin on the left(using the pic below as reference). You walk up and come to the first level which is the connecting walkway you see for the left and right towers. Then after you take photos, etc. you continue right to the right tower which is the one you actually go to the top. For obvious reasons, all open areas in these places are enclosed with metal "fencing", but large enough space for you to stick a camera through to get a nice shot.Click on the pic:

For a cathedral this size and this old,(at least 200 years to complete) maintenance is ongoing. I captured workers refinishing one of the 3 huge wooden front doors.Notice the huge carved statues on the right in the second pic.
Click-click on thumbnails:








The Chimera Gallery walkway(I was fascinated by the carved "beasts" in this area that were intended to guard the cathedral from evil spirits.
I believe this is the most famous, known as the "stryga".Looks a little bored with Paris-lol.Click on the pic to enlarge:

I did get carried away with the beasts/gargoyles--just found them fascinating.
Click-click




This shot gives you an idea of the "fencing" around the open parts as you walk, looking towards the tower we were going to climb:




View of a spire on ND with statues of the apostles descending from it--these are almost impossible to see from ground level, but were great from the Chimera walkway.










We began climbing the right tower, and took a little detour to see this bell.This is the cathedral's largest bell known as "Emmanuel". Weighs in at 13 tons. It's now only rung on major Catholic feast days. Other bells in the tower ring every hour and include a brief bit of a religious song. While we were there, they played "Ave Maria".






FInally, we reached the top of the right tower to enjoy the views. While wandering around the stairs and the area of the tower, I couldn't help but think of Victor Hugo's Hunchback of Notre Dame.
Views-I used the zoom for some of these.
Pantheon area:




Towards the Montparnasse Tower(highest building in Paris and considered an eyesore by many of the French---but then again, so was the Eiffel Tower many years ago!




Monmartre-on the hill in the distance, home of the Sacre-Couer church. Sadly, we never made it out there---guess we'll need to go back!




Misc. Views from the top:








Once we were on level ground again, we went inside the church which was just starting to get crowded. Since you can't use a flash, these pics are a little dark.
View towards the main altar from the middle entrance:








I tried zooming in a little on the altar:




One of the famous rose shaped stained glass windows:




Virgin Mary altar & frescoes along the walkway:













These are various outside pics of the cathedral as I was trying to get those famous flying buttresses in that help support the weight of the church. Click on the pic to enlarge:















We took a short stroll back around to the front of NDame to reach our next stop, St. Chapelle Cathedral. It was surprising that two beautiful Gothic cathedrals were so close to each other. St. Chapelle has the most beautiful stained glass I've ever seen in a church. If the day had been sunnier, we might not have been able to take the pics we did. However, from what I've read, when the sunlight streams through these stained glass windows, it's breathtaking. I was surprised there was so much more security at this cathedral compared to Notre Dame. I found out that it's because it's right next door to the Justice Dept. and you actually exit through the JD gates. We basically had everything searched and and had to have everything X-rayed as they do in airports. The cathedral was built for Louis IX in 1248. It's split into two levels, which we didn't realize until we were in the first level. Our firs impression was---what?--we paid money for this?-----until we found the second story that was used by the royal court and wealthy.

First level pics:








Seoond level entrance:




The inside is breathtaking and it's nice there are chairs along the sides so you can just sit and take it all in. From the info. we had, we learned there are 15 separate panels of stained glass that depict 1100 different scenes mainly from the Bible.I don't know how many times we said "Wow" while wandering through these great cathedrals.













Rosette similar to NDame:





At this point, it was mid-afternoon, so we stopped into a cafe for lunch. It just started to rain a bit, so we had a leisurely lunch. We decided to head back to the hotel and rest and then visit the Louvre about 5pm. It's open until 10pm on Wednesday night, and we had heard there would be less crowds. Louvre pics will be in Part 2.