August 17, 2007

Climbing Notre Dame

Thursday morning we decided to get up early and get in line to climb the towers of Notre Dame. Tiffany and I had climbed it on a previous visit to Paris with Tiffany's sister Tawni. It was a sunny day, so we figured it was a good time to do it. Whenever we had walked by the line before, it was very long, hence the plan to arrive early.

We got in line before the towers opened. It was cooler than we thought it would be since we were in the shade of the cathedral, so Scott stepped out of line to get a warm chocolate crepe from the stand across the street. He was the first customer of the day so he and Tyler got to watch the man make a few practice crepes before the griddle was ready.

From the line

There are 386 steep spiral steps to the top. The kids did surprisingly well. Another advantage of going first thing in the morning was so they would be fresh and full of energy and not yet worn out from a day of sightseeing.

Tyler on the stairs

On the way up

The view from the main platform was great. We had fun identifying major landmarks and counting how many French flags we could see.

View from the top

We had a beautiful view of Paris. We could see the Seine in front of our apartment, the Eiffel Tower and lots of Notre Dame gargoyles.

Notre Dame view (panorama)

Gargoyle

We got to see the largest bell in the tower, which is named Emmanuel. It weighs 13 tons and is only rung on special occasions.

The big bell

Next we climbed to the very top of one of the towers. Here is the view over the top of Notre Dame to the west.

Bridges over the Seine

While we were on top, we heard the bells ring. It was beautiful and very impressive.

Notre Dame bells (video)

After we descended we bought some French pastries and a baguette for lunch. The pastries were some of the best we have ever had. Then we went back to our apartment and rested so that we could all stay up late to see the Eiffel Tower at night.

Posted by sjbowden at August 17, 2007 4:41 PM