Heading Up To Notre Dame

Paris iPhone Photo Chronicles ~ Heading Up To Notre Dame ~

Heading Up To Notre Dame, a photo by Paris Set Me Free on Flickr.

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One of the advantages of having a bloody great exhibition-construction thingy taking up the majority of the square in front of Notre Dame is that you can climb it and get an unusual perspective on the front of the magnificent cathedral.

One of the disadvantages is that you've got a bloody great exhibition-construction thingy taking up the majority of the square in front of Notre Dame completely destroying the overall view of the thing.

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This is all in the name of the so-called 850th anniversary of one of the world's most famous religious edifaces, although how they calculated the date on a building which took many decades to complete I'm not sure. 850 years ago would be, hmm, let's see, 1163 or thereabouts. Oh, I see now, that's the date construction is supposed to have started, although it wasn't really completed until 1345, coming on for two centuries later.

I recently climbed to the top and what a wonderful experience it was. You see the huge bell Emmanuel as well as some of the superb chimeras at close quarters, along with a constant throng of other visitors unfortunately. And you never forget the little winding spiral staircases - you really feel you are back in the middle ages.

Anyway, back to reality and about 5 metres above the ground where I took this photo from. I was next to a tour guide telling his flock that all the statues we can see at the top of the shot were beheaded during the French revolution as they were mistaken for the French kings and therefore very definitely not flavour of the month.

Talking of losing heads, one of the statues on the left is of Saint Denis, holding his somewhat gingerly in his hands - at waist level, I hasten to add. A nice complement to all the tourists running around like headless chickens with their cameras and guidebooks and whatnot.

And why not...

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