Paris_ City Guide (Lonely Planet, 7th Edition) - Lonely Planet [62]
Stand on the square in front of Notre Dame on big-brother Île de Cité and there is no doubt where you are: two seconds dodging snap-happy tourists, street sellers pushing €1 Eiffel Tower key rings and backpackers guarding piles of packs while their mates check out the cathedral is a taste of the best and worst of Paris. Sensibly, not very many Parisians live on this island.
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ÎLE DE LA CITÉ
The site of the first settlement in Paris (c 3rd century BC) and later the centre of the Roman town of Lutetia (in French, Lutèce), Île de la Cité remained the centre of royal and ecclesiastical power even after the city spread to both banks of the Seine during the Middle Ages. As the institutions on the island grew, so did the island. Buildings on the middle part of the island were demolished and rebuilt during Baron Haussmann’s urban renewal scheme of the late 19th century (Click here); the population – considered the poorest in the city – fell from 15,000 in 1860 to 5000 less than a decade later.
The Île de la Cité, mainly in the 4e arrondissement (its western tip is in the 1er) is home to two institutions devoted to maintaining public order: the judiciary (Palais de Justice) and the police (Préfecture de Police).
CATHÉDRALE DE NOTRE DAME DE PARIS Map
01 42 34 56 10; www.cathedraledeparis.com; place du Parvis Notre Dame, 4e; audioguide €5; 7.45am-6.45pm, information desk 9.30am-6pm Mon-Fri, 9am-6pm Sat; Cité
This is the heart of Paris – so much so that distances from Paris to every part of metropolitan France are measured from place du Parvis Notre Dame, the square in front of the Cathedral of Our Lady of Paris. A bronze star across the street from the cathedral’s main entrance marks the exact location of point zéro des routes de France. Nearby, Charlemagne (742–814), emperor of the Franks, rides his steed under the trees.
Notre Dame, the most visited site in Paris with 10 million people crossing its threshold a year, is not just a masterpiece of French Gothic architecture but has also been the focus of Catholic Paris for seven centuries.
Built on a site occupied by earlier churches – and, a millennium before that, a Gallo-Roman temple perhaps dedicated to the god Mithra (boxed text) – it was begun in 1163 according to the design of Bishop Maurice de Sully and largely completed by the early 14th century. The cathedral was badly damaged during the Revolution; architect Eugène Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc carried out extensive renovations between 1845 and 1864. The cathedral is on a very grand scale; the interior alone is 130m long, 48m wide and 35m high and can accommodate more than 6000 worshippers.
Notre Dame is known for its sublime balance, though if you look closely you’ll see all sorts of minor asymmetrical elements introduced to avoid monotony, in accordance with standard Gothic practice. These include the slightly different shapes of each of the three main portals, whose statues were once brightly coloured to make them more effective as a Biblia pauperum – a ‘Bible of the poor’ to help the illiterate understand Old Testament stories, the Passion of the Christ and the lives of the saints. One of the best views of Notre Dame is from square Jean XXIII, the little park behind the cathedral, where you can view the forest of ornate flying buttresses that encircle the chancel and support its walls and roof.
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TRANSPORT: THE ISLANDS
Bus Île de la Cité for 47 through the Marais to Gare de l’Est, 21 to Opéra & Gare St-Lazare; Île St Louis for 67 to Jardin des Plantes, Mosquée de Paris & Place d’Italie; 87 through Latin Quarter to Place St-Sulpice, Sèvres Babylone, École Militaire & Champ de Mars
Metro & RER Cité, Pont Marie, Pont