Trip Day 54 – Notre Dame

It’s another crisp clear morning in Paris, today I am off to see dinosaurs at the National Gallery of Evolution. to do this I need to catch a couple of metro trains, unfortunately this gallery is not on the Museum Pass so I need to line up and then buy a ticket, the line is not to long and it doesn’t take long to get inside. 

The exhibition is quite good but I was hoping for more dinosaurs, from here I go in to take a look at the evolution part of the gallery, they have animals from all parts of the world, many of which are now extinct. One of these is the Dodo, they have 2 which are interesting to look at. A nice surprise is one of Pompon’s polar bears, I first saw this sculpture in the Museum de Orsay but could not take a photo of it.

After the museum I figure I will check out the Notre Dame Cathedral. So it is a nice walk along the Seine to the church. I take my place in line and it turns out to be a 1 1/2 hour wait, but it turns out to be worth it. There are 2 stages to the tower climb, the first is to the entrance to the bell tower, the next is up onto the roof of the tower, if you fancy climbing to the roof then 384 steps are ahead of you, and yes I counted them on the way down. The view from either level is very spectacular and getting up close to the gargoyles is a nice bonus. 

After returning to ground level I line up to enter the Cathedral, the Stain glass windows are very pretty, coloured light dances on the plain walls of the cathedral, surprisingly the roof is not painted. After sitting for a while listening to the cathedral it is time to catch a train back to my hotel.