Notre Dame didn't just spring from the Seine fully-formed. But as a supremely-balanced icon of Gothic architectural perfection – and spiritual anchor to all of Paris' many-faced glories – it's hard to imagine something this sublime being the work of mere mortals. The blocks, buttresses, gargoyles and windows of Notre-Dame de Paris are, however, most certainly mortal handiwork. One-hundred and eighty-two years of masonry, sculpting and leading, to be precise. The result is an artistic and religious treasure that has bought visitors to this island on the Seine for seven centuries.
The Notre-Dame wears its best-known face looking out to the west, over the Parvis Notre-Dame. Its honey-coloured twin towers reach 68 metres into the sky, and hold between them one of Notre-Dame's famous rose windows. This is the first close-up view that most visitors get – and ironically was the last major part of the cathedral to be completed, in 1245. Walking down either the north or south sides will bring the elegant curves of its flying buttresses into view. Beautiful as they are, they are a design after-thought – as the cathedral's walls rose higher, cracks appeared, and the buttresses were built to prevent disaster.
The rose windows of the north and south transepts, half-way down the length of Notre-Dame, are even more spectacular. But they are best seen from within, where the daylight lights up them into an ethereal blue-mauve beauty. Entry into Notre-Dame is free, though the ascent up the west façades' towers does cost. It's a trip worth taking, however. The views over the Seine show medieval Paris off at its best. And bring you close to one of Notre-Dame's best known legends – the hunchback Quasimodo and his Esmeralda. Victor Hugo’s novel, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, brought these very rooftops to life for millions.
And if you've climbed Notre-Dame's heights, why not plumb its depths. The city of Paris is more ancient than the cathedral, and the Romans had a settlement here on the Ile de la Cité. Beneath Notre-Dame, in its crypts, workers discovered many ruins from this Romano-Gallic city of Lutèce. A ticket for the Archaeological Crypt will let you peer into this surprising history. Notre-Dame is an attraction that does more than surprise though – it inspires. The Eiffel tower may be the style, but Notre-Dame is the substance.
