Paris 2025 - The Seine and Notre-Dame
We crossed the Seine onto the Île Saint-Louis and then again onto the Île de la Cité, determined to see at least the outside of the newly restored Notre-Dame Cathedral. The broad river was familiar from the Olympics Opening Ceremony in 2024, which took place mostly along the water and its banks.
My daughter had tried to book tickets for a tour of Notre-Dame. It says that up to 15,000 tickets a day are released but when she found there were over 900 people ahead of her in the queue online, we decided not to bother! Neither were we prepared to queue outside in the square, where there were also hundreds of people! We contented ourselves with viewing the exterior and reading some of the signboards that explained all about the renovation that has taken place at speed since the devastating fire in 2019.
It was all quite interesting, though the crowds made it less than enjoyable. We all want to be tourists but wish all the other tourists were not there!
Those queues (both online and off) would have put me off, too.
ReplyDeleteI have been inside York Minster only once, many years ago. Now they charge an admission fee which I am not prepared to pay, much as I understand the constant need for a lot of money to keep the building in good condition.