Right where you're standing, Romans once worshipped Jupiter. Then came early Christian churches, layer upon layer, until 1163, when the first stone of Notre-Dame was laid on top of all of it. Paris has always been building over its own past.
The cathedral has survived more than most. During the Revolution, it was stripped of its faith and turned into a "Temple of Reason." Then a wine warehouse. By 1830, it was crumbling, and the city seriously considered tearing it down. What saved it? A world famous novel. Victor Hugo published Notre-Dame de Paris in 1831, and public outrage did the rest. Architect Viollet-le-Duc restored the spire, added the gargoyles, and gave the cathedral back its soul.
Before the 2019 fire, the entire roof structure was nicknamed "the forest." It was built from roughly 52 hectares of oak trees, each beam cut from a single tree felled in the 12th century. That ancient wood burned. But Notre-Dame did not fall.
And this is where our route ends. Notre-Dame reopened in December 2024, restored and standing tall. The heart of Paris, still beating.
Sources. Story: britannica.com Photos: Benh LIEU SONG, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
