Inside Notre Dame de Paris

Notre Dame de Paris at sunset.

A vending machine inside the
Notre Dame de Paris Cathedral..

In having visited France, you happen to mention in passing that you toured Notre Dame, you'd best be a little more specific. There are seven Notre Dame Cathedrals in France, plus an additional nine other churches having Notre Dame in their names. Last month, my wife and I toured Notre Dame de Paris. As is always the case, it's one thing to see photos and write about such a famous edifice. It's quite something else when you've "been there, done that." It's like being inside the great cathedral as opposed to merely seeing the outside, even having seen photos of the inside. Even when the cathedral is most beautiful, at sunset (above), a photo is a poor substitute for being in the church's overwhelming presence. Moreover, it's often the little things that leave the most lasting impression. Even before going inside, I was startled to see French Army troops guarding the structure. Of course, given the recent terrorist tragedy in Paris, I shouldn't have been; yet I don't recall ever visiting any other such landmark guarded by a military presence (below). Those were assault rifles they were carrying and I have no doubt they were loaded. Inside, while passing around the perimeter of the apse, somewhere behind the high altar I think it was, I was stunned to find vending machines (left). No, they weren't dispensing soft drinks, only religious medals (two euros each) but still, vending machines in a cathedral?

The French military standing guard before what would
undoubted be a prime target for a terrorist attack.

The Notre Dame de Paris Pieta,
1723, Nicolas Coustou. 

Touring a Gothic cathedral, one expects to be stunned by its beauty, regardless of how familiar you might already be with what you're seeing. In my case, it wasn't the architecture, or the stained glass windows, or even its soaring height which left me gaping. I was awed by the high altar (right) with its pieta titled Descent from the Cross, (1723) by Nicolas Coustou. I've seen Michelangelo's Vatican Pieta. This one could sit very comfortably next to it. Any sculptural work has to be rather on the awesome side to compete with it's setting, dwarfed by the ten-story height of the cathedral, backed by three major and several minor stained glass windows. Situated at the far end of the nave, Coustou's work serves as an impressive visual climax while at the same time struggling not to be overwhelmed by its surroundings.

The soaring nave of Notre Dame de Paris. Even in daylight, it relies on artificial light to attain anything approaching the luminous interior of Barcelona's Sagrada Familia.

Copyright, Jim Lane

A Gothic window (inadequately)
lighting the nave of Notre Dame de Paris.

Having just come from Barcelona and toured Antonio Gaudi's Sagrada Familia, I came to Paris somewhat jaded with regard to big churches. Notre Dame compares very well in terms of scale, but, despite the number and size of its stained glass windows, they cannot compete with the light, bright, airiness of Gaudi's creation. Of course medieval Gothic and 19th-century Art Nouveau involves an apples and oranges comparison if for no other reason than the advances in structural engineering during the intervening seven-hundred years. Yet they are both magnificent testaments to man's outward devotion to God, art, and beauty so some degree of comparison is unavoidable.

The cathedral's rose windows are masterpieces of geometry, engineering, class making (and cutting). They punctuate the north and south portals of the transept and the narthex façade over the west portal (main entrance).

Copyright, Jim Lane

Funerary Monument to the Count of
Harcourt, Notre Dame cathedral

Undoubtedly Notre Dame is best known for its enormous stained glass "rose" windows (above). I recall an art history professor I had once explaining why they call them that, but I forget what he said, and it doesn't matter much anyway. Suffice to say they are exquisitely beautiful and unbelievably large. If you can pry your eyes from the windows, closer to the ground you find a massive collection of religious sculpture. Some, such as the Funerary Monument to the Count of Harcourt (right, located in a side chapel off the nave) are striking in their audacity, a lingering souvenir from the baroque era as it toys with the macabre. (That's a robed skeleton bearing an hourglass at the head of the sarcophagus represents death.)

Copyright, Jim Lane

A large, scale model made of wood helps visitors wrap their minds
around both the enormity of the structure as well as the finer details of this
groundbreaking work of Gothic architectural engineering.

Copyright, Jim Lane

The front doors to the cathedral/

museum.

The French department of tourism and/or the Catholic Church have gone to considerable lengths to allow tourists to not just see and experience Notre Dame, but to help them understand it as well, The museum's emphasis is on both the history and the architectural engineering that have made this stone monument a national symbol. It remains a place of worship, but like Sagrada Familia, it doubles as a tourist attraction. Admission is free and the massive doors are open every day of the year from 8:00 a.m. to 6:45 p.m. (7:15 p.m. on the weekends). You may, however, unless you wish to attend Mass, want to time your visit around a daily schedule of religious services. The museum, tucked into the recesses of the immense structure, features a scale model (above) allowing visitors to visually "fly over" the cathedral, inspecting details not otherwise visible. It's unlikely you would ever be able to actually do so from a plane (below).

Notre Dame de Paris from the air.

No, these are not tourists waiting in line to get into Notre
Dame. They're apostles from the Portal of the Last Judgment.

I wonder if the French have considered letting the
fearsome Notre Dame gargoyle's guard the place.