The birthplace of Paris, where everything started...

Since the devastating fire of March 2019, Notre Dame Cathedral, that Gothic masterpiece at the heart of Paris, can be visited only from a distance. The photos in the slideshow below were taken before the tragedy;

sadly, this is what we see today:

However, just because we can no longer visit the inside doesn't mean that I cannot explain to you its importance in the story of Gothic Architecture and how it has been an iconic historical landmark for the Parisians since the 12th Century. And we can still admire its flying buttresses whose boldness, elegance and dimensions were never surpassed (curiously, the major technical improvement of Gothic Art after building this Cathedral was to progressively make the buttresses stop flying and almost vanish into the walls of the apse like you can still see by yourself at the back of the Sainte Chapelle nearby).

Anyway, no matter how big a shame that fire was, the good news is that a roof can be rebuilt! And it will be!

When? How? In what form? And what do we know of the circumstances of the fire?

So many questions, so many possible answers. Do you want to know?

And, you know what, in the meantime, we can still visit the magnificent Sainte Chapelle!

Next door, we will see the outside of the Conciergerie, the first residence of the French Kings.

This walking tour can be done in one hour. Add one hour if you want to go inside Sainte-Chapelle,

and another one for the Conciergerie.

This tour is quite often linked to the tour of the Marais.