This is all that remains of the 16th century butcher's church, Tour Sainte Jacques. It is 50 meters from our apartment so we pass it every morning and evening on our way to and from the metro. The church was torn down in the 1700s during The French Revolution. The people felt just as much hatred towards the church as they did the royals. The Pope put the king on the throne so he was just as guilty as the king for the injustices done to the people. Before the French Revolution, there were over twenty churches standing on the Ile de la Cite, the tiny island Notre Dame is located on. After the revolution, only three remained standing. A lot of the marble taken from this church appears elsewhere in Paris as parts of other buildings built after the revolution. 

A family picture atop a bridge over the River Seine. Kylie is home sleeping. It was a long train ride. We are trying to wear the boys out too. The building behind us is The Conciergerie, once a palace and then a prison.

Notre Dame Cathedral, over 700 years old, is dedicated to "Our Lady", Notre Dame.

This row of kings was thought to be the kings of France by the people of the revolution. After the people looted the cathedral, they ordered the decapitation of all the kings since Notre Dame represented the oppression of the Catholic hierarchy in addition to the oppression of the monarchy. "Off with their heads," was the rallying cry. Since then, the heads have been recapitated. The people, though passionate, did not know the history of  this cathedral very well. The statues were not showing the lineage of royalty in France, but that of Jesus. These are twenty-eight Kings of Judah showing Christ's lineage.

Christ in the center of the central door to the cathedral.

Rose windows adorn three of the four sides of the cathedral. On the night before the Nazi occupation during World War II, the people of this island were afraid that they might destroy Notre Dame, so they took a part the main rose window opposite this one and four times as large with their own ladders piece by piece and hid the pieces in their homes until it was safe restore Notre Dame to her rightful beauty.

In this view, you can see some of the flying buttresses against the nave of the cathedral. These were not part of the original design, but an afterthought and addition when the cathedral walls started buckling under the weight of the stone. Add reinforcements on the outside all the way around that look pretty; and viola, your cathedral is finished.

The boys are so thrilled with all this history, they can't contain their enthusiasm. This is where I found them, not looking at history but hiding in some really large rice basket on the side of the Seine.

Notre Dame as night falls.

In the 19th century, the Parisians were not that thrilled with the cathedral anymore and considered tearing it down. This horrified a man named Victor Hugo, so he wrote a story, a love story to be exact about a hunchback named Quasi Motto that became legend, some believe saving the existence of Notre Dame.

History lesson has ended for tonight.