After a short break at the hotel, we hopped on to our bus again and headed for our first destination in Paris… the Cathédrale Notre Dame de Paris.
Prior to this visit all I wanted from Paris were to ascend the Eiffel Tower, and also to have a peak at the Mona Lisa painting at the Louvre; but I changed my mind after seeing this cathedral up close… as the cathedral is one real gem.
The carvings and sculptures on the wall of the Notre Dame were simply amazing. I used to think that Notre Dame is just an old and huge cathedral; I never thought that it would be a masterpiece of art and architecture. The experience broadened my point of view, that there must be lots of places and stuff – things that I never knew before – that would enlighten me during the tour.
We were just on time to enter the cathedral as it was closing in another half an hour, and how lucky we were. My sister was charmed by the Rose Windows, while I was simply stunned by the enormous size of the interior space. And even though I am not a religious person, I felt calm and peaceful inside the Notre Dame.
A bit of history… Notre Dame means our lady in French. The construction of the cathedral begun in 1163 and fully completed in 1345. Notre Dame was almost destructed in early 19th century due to disrepair, but survived partly thanks to Victor Hugo who wrote the famous Hunchback of Notre Dame which help raised interest to restore the Gothic cathedral, which finally happened in 1845.
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