Testing stamina at Nôtre Dame de Paris

Ever since seeing the hunchback of Nôtre Dame, visiting this famous church became something I wanted to do. I didn’t expect to see the hunchback, but I was curious to see what he must have seen, like in the movie.

The first sight of it convinced me even more. I had to explore this gem. Unfortunately I wasn’t the only one in search for the hunchback. Luckily the humongous line moved rather quickly.

Inside, the challenge started. The church was big and impressive with pretty, colorful windows, but I wanted to reach the top. This being an old building, the only way you can reach it, is to climb the stairs. Unfortunately there was a whole other line to get to them.

I had entertainment while waiting by a man wearing a mask of an old man. He kept scaring people by touching their hands and walking along with them. I must admit he was good at it and mostly got laughs from the people he was bugging. Some of them were looking around like they expected a hidden camera to appear.

Because the modern caretakers of the church know that we modern people are in a horrible shape and in no condition to climb all of the steps at once, they made a rest area for us; a souvenir shop with strange CDs and French books. After that there were plenty of steps left to find out how horrible your health was.

But it was worth all the misery. Proudly I stood at the top of Nôtre Dame, where a friendly German offered to take my picture, even caring about how it was lit. Dark clouds were gathering and the situation was very tricky. Suddenly I noticed many of the people had disappeared. There turned out to be another staircase. We could go higher!

There was a small room, with a small door, and inside hung one of the big bells. You could even go as far as the tower. The round staircase made me dizzy, but I wasn’t about to give up now. Euphoria overcame me at the top. Today, I was the hunchback of Nôtre Dame; me and all those other tourists. High on the experience, the walk down was a lot more comfortable.