If you go to Paris, you have to go see Notre Dame. After all, there was that movie...
The morning sunlight shows off the flying buttresses and the beautiful gothic architecture. Construction began in 1160 at the site of a previous cathedral. Notre Dame was the first cathedral to use flying buttresses to shore up the thinner internal columns so that the walls could contain larger windows. It was an engineering learning lab of sorts, since lessons learned in its construction allowed even larger cathedrals, such as the Cathedral of Reims, to be created.
Entrance to Notre Dame.
An impressive entrance, to be sure, but not as ornately carved and not as grand in scale as the Cathedral of Reims.
The baptistry.
The lovely rose window of Notre Dame.
Statue of St. Denis, archbishop of Paris in the 3rd Century and now considered the patron saint of Paris. Denis angered the Romans by converting too many Romans to Christianity in 250 AD, so they beheaded him on the site of Notre Dame. According to legend, Denis picked up his head, washed it off, and began walking 6 miles uphill to Montmarte while preaching a sermon the whole way. In Montmarte, he finally surrendered to his fate and met his maker.
Stone carvings of saints at the entrance to Notre Dame. St. Denis is second from the right--the one holding his head. Those early Christians were a tough lot!
Final score: an amazing and beautiful example of a classic gothic cathedral. Despite all its "wow" factor, Reims is more impressive, more ornate, and more grand. Wonder if it had anything to do with the fact that all the French kings were crowned in Reims, not in Paris.
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