TouchScreenTravels
Our Touch, your Travels…
This is a preview of the full content of our France’s Best app.
Please consider downloading this app to support small independent publishing and because:
- All content is designed for mobile devices and works best there.
- Detailed in-app maps will help you find sites using your device’s GPS.
- The app works offline (one time upgrade required on Android versions).
- All advertising (only present on Android versions) can be removed.
The app will also allow you to:
- Add custom locations to the app map (your hotel…).
- Create your own list of favourites as you browse.
- Search the entire contents using a fast and simple text-search tool.
- Make one-click phone calls (on phones).
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.
Images by Michail Osmanda, Paul Shawcross