paris post: notre dame cathedral - inside & out.

say & think what you want about european cathedrals, but

as for husband & i, we never, ever get tired of seeing them. 

if you've seen one you HAVEN'T seen them all, we say!

especially if they're the notre dame de paris. no other 

building is quite as associated with the history of paris 

as this one. did you know the first stone was laid in 1163? 

1163! & then  it was finished in 1330...that's roughly 170

 years of long, hard toil for this beaut. it saw its years of

being ransacked, ignored, converted into a cathedral

for "the cult of reason" & playing a main part in what

husand & i agree has GOT to be one of the saddest & most

disturbing disney movies EVER to be made (song of the 

south included) but it finally won out in the end:

notre dame is now one of the largest & most easily

recognized cathedrals in the world. not to mention  

it lived to see the day husband & i stuck our sweaty 

faces all up in its grill for some touristy pictures. 

okay. history lesson over!

 pictures really don't do this cathedral justice. it

is absolutely thrilling & gigantic up close...although

husband & i agreed the disney movie made it seem

much bigger...yet another reason why that movie

should not have been made! 

 see? see the cathedral? you totally would have missed

it if i hadn't helped you out by pointing to it!

later, as husband was off at his physics conference,

i went back to notre dame for a {free!} look around

the inside...& ended up staying about an hour. i just

can't help but marvel in the grandeur of it all. the stained

glass! the cracked ceiling! the colors! the incense! the

whole gothic-eerie-dark in a good way thing! how huge it is!

 so amazing. it feels like you're stepping back in time

hundreds & hundreds of years.

the old chandelier they once used:

notre dame: 100% recommend the place,

0% recommend the disney movie.