So I showed up at the Notre Dame to climb the bell tower. According to Dan, we did it the last time around, but I didn´t remember. I went later in the evening, around eight to avoid the crowds, and well...failed miserably.
Huge long line to climb the bell tower. Drats! I had just come from the Eiffel Tower, where the waiting time was guaranteed about 2+ hours (which I was actually relieved about b/c I did remember doing that before and didn´t really feel like doing it again...)So when I arrived at Notre Dame, the pressure was on to climb something high in Paris...
Well, I circled back about an hour later and got lucky because I ascended the tower just before dusk...
And can I just say that my favorite thing about climbing the bell tower of Notre Dame is not the views? It´s the Gargoyles.
If I ever have a house in the suburbs, it is going to be decorated with gargoyles (to scare away about all the bad suburbian vibes).This is me, touching the bell... because they let you do that sort of thing in Paris...
Love the one above. He´s eating one of his own!
And to make my night even more perfect and Parisian, when I descended the tower, there was a public performance in the main square. Some French gypsy pyrotechnicians were putting on the most amazing display of crazy medieval torch swirling that I had ever seen...
At one point, the main bad-ass French gypsy pyrotech threw up his flames ninja chain into the air and it soared like a comet right over the square and into the other end of the crowd--and almost landed on top of all the people! Until bad-ass ran and caught it just in time--like it was totally planned. God, I love bad-ass French gypsy pyrotechs.
