Notre Dame 2.0

The first thing I always want to do in Paris is go to Notre Dame Cathedral. So that's what I did! On our first morning in Paris on Saturday, February 15th, I waited till it was almost dawn (jet lag woke me up at 4:20am) and went on a sunrise run along the river Seine past Notre Dame. I love that building so much! I stayed kind of close and ran around the two little islands in the Seine (Notre Dame is on the bigger of the two islands) in hopes of hearing the bells of Notre Dame ring at 8am. For some reason, the bells did not ring that morning, so I swallowed my disappointment, admired the view one more time, and ran the one mile from Notre Dame back to our Airbnb. 

Notre Dame at sunrise during my run.

Sunrise runs fill my soul. Whether I'm out in the remote mountains or downtown in a huge city, the vibe at sunrise is the same: the muted bustling sounds of life slowly waking up to start the day. Sunrise is calmer than any other time of day, especially in the city, and I love soaking in that peaceful leashed energy. Watching the sun rise behind Notre Dame with the calm river glimmering to the side was spectacular. It felt like Paris was saying "welcome back, Shaina!" Or more likely, "content de te revoir, Shaina!" (Yes, I had to look that expression up on Google... I should probably ask my personal French trainer husband if it's correct, haha.)

Jeff needed a morning nap, so we didn't get out the door as a family until after 11am on our first day in Paris. We went to Notre Dame and my hopes of seeing the newly restored interior nearly evaporated when I saw the long line snaking around the square. Luckily, it was a quick moving line and we only had to stand in it for 20 minutes to get inside the cathedral. Jay timed our minutes spent standing in line, so I know it was only 20 minutes. It was so crowded. Standing in line ended up being the perfect wait time because the Notre Dame bells rang for ten whole minutes from 11:50am-12pm. It was beautiful and magical! Giant cathedral bells somehow sound so joyful when they ring over and over, even in a massive ancient Gothic castle-like cathedral! It was even better listening to that beautiful ten minutes of bells with my family. Paris magic at its finest!

I was so excited to go inside Notre Dame for the first time in 6 years! The last time I went inside Notre Dame was almost exactly 6 years ago in February of 2019, when Jeff and I went on a winter date trip together. Two months later, a massive fire sparked in the rafters, caving in the roof and toppling the spire. We got to see the ongoing reconstruction from the outside when we went on our first family trip to France in the summer of 2019. I followed the restoration process through various articles and online videos, and the most recent article I read a few weeks before we went to France said that visitors who have been inside Notre Dame before will be surprised at how bright and clean it is. I was ready to see this transformation! 

Notre Dame hadn't been thoroughly cleaned in 200 years before this project began. In order to clean the soot and grime that coated nearly every surface after the fire, restoration workers sprayed silicone all over the walls and then carefully peeled it off, taking the soot plus 200 years of grime off along with it. What a fascinatingly thorough cleaning process! Many view Notre Dame as the heart of Paris, since it is located on an island in the center of the river in the center of the city and has been there for over 800 years. The profound multi-layered symbolism of gently cleansing the stained weary heart and restoring it to bright clean beauty with careful, thorough work resonates deep in my soul! Add to that the stalwart 800+ year symbol of faith that this cathedral represents, and my love of this building starts to make sense. I'm not even Catholic, or Catholic-adjacent! Haha! But faith in God is beautiful in many forms, and I feel the 800 year history of that faith in my bones in Notre Dame. 

Ok, enough sonnets! On to the experience!

Walking into Notre Dame for the first time in six years was absolutely breathtaking. The entire interior has been transformed--not renovated or remodeled, but thoroughly cleaned and restored with such attention to detail. The expansive walls, vaulted ceiling, and tall pillars used to be gray with age, but now they are a bright cream color. More lighting was added to accent the light clean walls. I was in awe. Tears came to my eyes. I have always felt super reverent in cathedrals and old churches, but this was next level considering the beauty of the combined efforts and donations made by thousands and thousands of people who came together to restore a broken burned beloved building-heart. While we shuffled around the interior of the building in a press of people, the organ started playing. It filled the huge space with rich music. Bells outside and organ music inside?? This was my best Notre Dame visit of all time! A priest started singing. They were holding noon mass, and the pews were packed. I listened to the mass (in French) while we walked through, and thought it was lovely. 

The sparkly clean interior punctuated by richly colored stained glass, with rich music flooding the air all combined to keep the tears in the edges of my eyes the whole time we walked around the interior loop of the cathedral. I felt a little bad for intruding on the mass service, but I had read that the church leaders at Notre Dame made the decision to keep the cathedral open to the public at all times in order to invite as many people to church and God as wanted to come. Another touching layer to this moving experience. 

We reverently soaked in the historic faith-saturated beauty before following the shuffling crowd back outside. Happy sigh.

A few more pictures from my morning run: 

The restoration is not done! Another layer of symbolism and meaning...

Notre Dame from the back.

A quiet road on the edge of Ile Saint-Louis, the island next door to Notre Dame's Ile de la Cite.

I like doors.

A quick selfie before running home.

Pictures from our visit at noon:

The line zigzagged back and forth across the large area in front of the cathedral. I still can't get over how perfect the timing was--what better way to be trapped in a long line than to listen to ten minutes of glorious church bells ringing right in front of us?

Couldn't quite get Amber's eyes in this picture! Notre Dame is so tall!

I never post videos here, but Notre Dame bells are apparently the exception!

These next four pictures are my comparisons between old Notre Dame and restored Notre Dame, or dirty dark Notre Dame and clean light Notre Dame. I took the most pictures of the interior in 2017 on a date trip with Jeff. Then the two times I visited Paris after that, I merely walked around inside Notre Dame soaking in the vibes rather than taking pictures. That's why my comparison pictures are from 2017 instead of 2019.

Even just adding LIGHT made a huge difference, but the combination of more light plus cleaning was stunning. Taking pictures of windows from the inside is a tricky light balance for a cell phone to handle, so some of the window pictures have some odd coloring on the walls. Camera quality makes a difference with how pictures look, but my little Pixel 8 cell phone did a pretty amazing job.

Now I'll be quiet and let you admire Notre Dame:

That rose window plus the white walls plus the music filling the space: ambience.

Ok, taking a selfie inside a church while a service was going on felt SO RUDE! But I wanted to remember being there with my kids, so I grabbed the nearest kid and took a quick picture.

Do you see the stained glass colors shining on the pillar?

Exhale. Thank you, Notre Dame.