Notre Dame 

  I'm fairly sure that I entered Notre Dame no less than four times on our trip.  It's strange, but while I'm not very religious, churches, chapels, basillica's and cathedrals fascinate me.  Go figure.  Among other things, they're very photogenic.

  We made two major "tourist" visits.  One, with Kathy, was to tour the inside of the cathedral, and the second time Melissa and I went back to climb the tower.  While getting inside was relatively easy - there was a long line, but it moved quickly, the wait for the tower was the most boring time of the whole trip.  Not only do you get to wait on the street for what seems like forever, but once you get inside, they deposit you partway up the north tower in a gift shop!  The practical reason is that only the stairwell of one of the towers is used for groups going both up and down so sometimes you have to wait.  However, once you reach some of the outdoor areas above, it's all worth it.  The metal netting around those areas spoils it a bit (you have to wonder which morons were the cause of that being added), but at least for photography, they made the spaces in the netting large enough to get a lens through!  The pinnacle of the climb (pun intended) is the bell Quasimodo rings in The Hunchback of Notre Dame.  Frankly, it wasn't that impressive.

  Inside the cathedral is a large amount of impressive stained glass, including the famous rose window which, by the way, is VERY difficult to get a good picture of.  Also inside is a side area where some holy relics are kept.  There is nothing of major interest (to someone not religious, anyway) although a remnant of the Crown of Thorns is kept there, and brought out on the first Friday of each month.

  Believe it or not, the cathedral was started around 1200 (amazing enough in itself), took over 100 years to complete and is still intact!

Click here for pictures of Notre Dame