Day 3

Notre Dame

On our third day in France, Christie, Megan, Olivia, Amanda, and I visited the Notre Dame Cathedral. It is a Gothic, catholic cathedral located on the eastern half of the Ile de la Cite in the fourth arrondissement of Paris. It is the cathedral that contains the cathedra (official chair) of the Archbishop of Paris. The name Notre Dame means “Our Lady” in French. Notre Dame de Paris was among the first buildings in the world to use the flying buttress (arched exterior supports).

When we got there, we went straight to the top so I could ring the great bourdon bell (Emmanuel). The security guard threatened to kick me out if I rang that bell again, so I rang the other four smaller bells. He got really mad at me but left anyways.

Notre Dame Bell

Christie was too busy texting to admire the cathedral, and she was only amazed by the great phone service. Megan, Olivia, and Amanda were too busy studying the Gothic architecture of the building to realize that Christie banged her head on the Emmanuel and fell on the floor. I cracked up laughing when I found her on the floor moaning from her head injury. I got her some ice and told her that it is a really bad idea to text while walking in a bell tower.

Then we took the tour around the cathedral. I took lots of pictures while Megan, Olivia, and Amanda were asking the tour guide lots of questions about the architecture and design of the Gothic cathedral. Christie was still texting and she tripped over a crack in the pavement, so I had to confiscate her phone. She would get it back at the end of the tour. She got really mad at me.

Then we left the cathedral to go back to our hotel and get some dinner. While crossing the street, Megan, Olivia, Amanda, and I were talking about our day at the cathedral. Megan mentioned how she should use her engineering skills to build a huge cathedral of her own. Olivia was talking about how she could paint an accurate painting of the Notre Dame cathedral and sell it for a lot of money. I was talking about how cool those bells were. And Christie was texting again, this time while speed-walking, and she was almost hit by a really big bus. The driver cursed at her in French. That was so funny, but she still should have listened to that French guy on the street say “Dude, look out for that bus” in French instead of saying “What did he say?”


-Monica