The first thing that struck me as I enter Notre Dame is the press of people. 13 million people visit Notre Dame a year! On average 3200 people pass through the church in any given hour. There are people everywhere, but what is very striking is that there is also a service about to begin. And for a moment the atmosphere feels like a National Geographic special, where anthropologists visit a remote village to observe the rituals of an isolated culture. But instead of anthropologists there are tourists, and instead of half-naked painted men there are men in robes. Look, here comes a man carrying a cross, followed by three men, one of them holding a book. Quick, take a picture.
Now a man in a green robe is speaking. Looking across the transept is the north rose window from about 1250. People in seats in the nave are worshiping.
We walk to the east, behind the choir, along the ambulatory of the apse. Here there are small chapels, chevets. I light a candle and think kind thoughts of my mother.
From the ambulatory, looking west..
The space is dark. Here we are just about to enter the northern transept. There are beautiful carvings in the wooden choir. The man in green is still speaking.The people are still worshiping.
The man in the green robe, and across the transept to the south is another beautiful rose window. The southern rose window has the theme of the old testament, the northern one the new testament.
The service has ended, and we can approach the choir looking east.
As we leave I look back up the nave to the east. The ceiling ends in the heavens. Along the walls the light glimmers here and there like light falling through a thick tree canopy. The church is magnificent. Glory to the french who created her, preserved her, questioned her and rebuilt her through all her 800+ years.
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