Views from Notre Dame-top 3

It's impossible to answer with just one thing when people ask what was my favorite part of our Paris vacation. And so, like any list maker, i have settled on a top 3. My previous post on the Eiffel Tower and its gorgeous night views from a small park below is definitely number 1. Number 2 of my favorite things and something not to be missed was climbing the 400 spiral stairs to the top of Notre Dame on a clear day. The views were amazing, the gargoyles were a real treat to see up close, and you came away with the feeling of how accessible Paris is. It's a big city that felt small-to be able to point out Sacre Couer in Montmartre, and see the relation to where the Eiffel Tower was-I can see how this is a walkable city. Also, you didn't really think there'd only be one post about France, did you?  No no no, my friends. No no no.

So going into the church itself is free (get there early, there will be a line), but to climb the towers there is a fee and also a line. Because there isn't a lot of room at the lookout areas, and you're going up small winding steps, they limit the amount of people going in at one time which creates the line.  First you climb to the level with the gargoyles, which is underneath the very tall arched windows at the top.  Then you climb to the towers at the very very top, that you can barely make out from this angle and didn't know were up there until we came out of them.

At an art show, i bought a photo taken at this exact spot, with that exact gargoyle looking out onto the Eiffel tower.  You have no idea how badly i have wanted to recreate that shot myself and this is why one schlepps a DSLR around, even a basic one.

 On the bottom right, at the tip, is the Deportation Memorial honoring and remembering the 200,000 French citizens who were sent to concentration camps during WWII.  As a Jewish person, i seek out my culture in our travels, so in addition to the Deportation Memorial we also went to the Jewish Quarter and the Holocaust Museum in Paris, where they have files of all the Jews who were living in France during that time. This is huge, because for many years the French refuted that those files even existed.

The Sacre Couer basilica, in Montmartre (which was such an adorable place, it rounds out the top 3).

Paris rooftops and the Eiffel Tower. 

Once we were back at street level, we walked around behind it to see the spires and the flying buttresses, those pieces that fan out.  To me those were more impressive than the front and even more impressive from above.


And at sunset.

And the blue hour.


I know many of you shared with me that you went to the top of the Arc de Triomphe or the Eiffel Tower, but has anyone gone to the top of Notre Dame? It is definitely a do not miss.

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