Nôtre-Dame
Cathédrale Nôtre-Dame
Nôtre-Dame is one of the main icons of Paris an it makes sense for any tour of the City to begin here. Unfortunately it suffered a catastrophic fire in 2019 and restoration work is not expected to be finished till April 2024.
Due to construction work on the interior this is closed for the time being. However, you can still get quite close and enjoy the wonderful Gothic façade with its three portals and twin towers soaring to a height of 69m/226ft pierced by eight elegant 16m/52ft lancets.
You can see the rest of the building from the Seine if you take a boat trip or view it from the banks of the River nearby (see image below).
West Front of Nôtre-Dame
Most of the Cathedral was complete by 1245 although the Towers took till 1259. It was here that that the ill-fated Mary Stuart was crowned Queen in 1558. The building and its statuary were badly damaged during the Revolution and it became a Temple of Reason. The neglected structure was restored by Viollet-le-Duc between 1841 and 1865 the architect who rebuilt Carcassonne in Occitanie.
