PARIS - Churchs in Paris / Notre Dame Cathedral
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| Notre Dame by night |
As I mentioned before, I preferred walking around to see the outsides of buildings and lovely streets before I get where I want to. This caused me to see loads of other churchs besides the ones I put on my list. But most probably you will not have much time to explore so many churchs in your limited time, so I picked up some of the most important churchs and I will include them in my blog.
Here we start with the most famous cathedral located in Paris...
Where to go: Notre Dame - Cathédrale Notre Dame de Paris
How to get there: The cathedral is on the Île
de la Cité area of the city
(an island located on Seine, you can see on any Paris map) and the only Metro
station on that area is 'Cité', so you can easily take the purple metro line
from where you are and leave the metro when you get to the 'Cité' station. It's
all that easy. After leaving the station, you will walk for maybe 5 minutes
following the signs, and there you are!
Opening Hours: Between 8 AM-6.45 PM weekdays, 8 AM-7.15 PM on weekends. The
cathedral is open everyday of the year. Entrance is free of charge.
Website to explore: http://www.notredamedeparis.fr/-English-
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| Well-known singer Garou, roling the stooped character from the famous musical play Notre-Dame de Paris in French |
History. 850 years of magnificence... Notre Dame is known as the
oldest gothic cathedral of the times. Dedicated to Saint Stephen, the first
stone of Notre-Dame was known as laid in 1163. The fact that gothic style was a
new movement in that times, led the building to be built in a gothic style. The
building experienced only four major constructions after this date.
`Notre-Dame`, in French, means
"Our woman", which is used to describe Virgin Mary, and the cathedral
owns his own name from her. The cathedral was just an ordinary building until
author Victor Hugo wrote his epic novel "Notre Dame de Paris" and
help the cathedral be a famous symbol of the medieval era of Paris. It is
rather surprising that until that date the cathedral remained undiscovered in a
way, because its huge size and magnificence mixed with the gothic beauty is
just impossible to ignore.
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| A statue hanged up on the outside |
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| Me inside the cathedral - sorry as it's too dark |
Luckily I was visiting Notre Dame when there was a religious ceremony inside, and it touched me by heart though my religion is not Christianity. Perhaps that's why it impressed me, because it was the first time I was experiencing a ceremony in a cathedral. The music playing was literally excellent. The priests holding the ceremony were great at their roles, circling around and mumbling to the audience in French. My family and I watched all the ceremony from the start and loved being in such an atmosphere. as I know these ceremonies are held a few times in a day, but to be honest, I am not sure fifty per cent.
As I am very interested in art history, I was unbelievably fascinated by the architectural perfection of the interior design in the cathedral; all the shady lights shining around, the high ceilings, detailed marquetry, epic music and magnificence of the art produced for Christianity with intense belief were all there.
Those who watched the movie or the theatre play "Notre Dame de Paris" (or those who read the book) will surely feel the weird feeling that captures you right after entering the cathedral. It makes you whisper secretly "How can human beings create such a thing with such beauty?" to yourself... My experiences leave me wordless since with no word can I explain it properly.
Keep Notre Dame in your Must-See list and make sure you go there!
Here are some pictures from my own camera:
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| A shot from the ceremony moments |
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| The charming atmosphere I mentioned |
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