25 March 2018 | Cultural

Notre Dame de Paris

The most famous religious building of Paris. Reflects the promising role, Notre Dame de Paris is a tourist treat that stands as the prime insignia of Paris. Admire the Gothic style and grandeur that illuminate tale and struggle during the revolution, one of the beckoning paris historical sites.

Notre Dame is clearly the third most visited place in Paris, just after the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre Museum. You don’t necessarily need locals to explain you where to find it and tips to visit it though. However, it would be a crime not to mention it and not to write an article about it.

The construction of Notre Dame started in 1163, under the influence of one of the greatest French King, Saint-Louis, who was the most righteous and pious. The construction ended in 1345, so it took basically 182 years to build it!

Nowadays, it is also famous for being the main set of the novel written by Victor Hugo, called “Notre Dame de Paris”. Hugo tried to describe in more or less 900 pages the story of characters of the 14th century, their everyday life, their religious beliefs, their hopes, their relations, etc. Hence the existence of famous characters such as Quasimodo, the hunchback or Esmeralda, the wonderful gypsy girl. This novel was then used for a Disney movie in the 1990s and several musicals, both French and from Hollywood. This proves once again that Hugo’s work is timeless.

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About useful informations: the entrance of the cathedral is free. You can visit and walk around the great nef. However, if you want to climb the 300 stairs and go up the towers to meet the gargoyles, there is another entrance of the cathedral on the left side when you are in front of it. You’ll see a smaller queue than the official one: there you go to get access to the towers. Once you’re up there, you’ll have this view :

Take a deep breath, climb the stairs and go meet the gargoyles of Notre Dame de Paris. If you are lucky enough, you may come across the Hunchback of Notre Dame, Quasimodo! But what is sure is that you will fall in love with the panoramic view you have of the City of Light! • • #paris #loves_paris #parisjetaime #parismaville #sunny #gargoyles #church #france #french #parisfrance #thingstodoinparis #instaparis #seine #river #landscape #parisiloveyou #notredame #panorama #eiffeltower #tourism #architecture #art #middleages #cathedral #cityoflight #sun #love #parisian #instagood #postbyG
A post shared by Things to do in Paris (@things_to_do_in_paris) on Nov 10, 2017 at 2:48am PST

So it’s quite worth it, isn’t it?

You can book a guided tour of the cathedral here:

Getting a guided tour is an excellent idea to learn curious things about the cathedral.

Hadrien