You are now facing Notre Dame cathedral. Notre Dame is famous both for the extraordinary architectural quality of the Cathedral, as well as for the many adaptations of the Victor Hugo's novel, "Notre Dame de Paris".Did you know that it took two centuries to build this great work of Gothic architecture? Construction began in the 12th century. During the French Revolution, the structure was heavily damaged and in the 19th century, the famous architect Viollet le Duc undertook its restoration. For the record, the architect left a trace of himself by appearing in a sculpture at the top of the building, near the spire, under the guise of St. Thomas, patron of the architects.Throughout its history, the cathedral was the seat of great religious and political events in the middle Ages. It hosted the crown of thorns of Christ brought by Saint Louis, then came the rehabilitation trial of Joan of Arc, the marriage of Henry IV and Queen Margot, the coronation of Napoleon the 1st, and more recently, the Mass of the liberation of Paris or the funeral of General de Gaulle.Enjoy the facade for a moment, from top to bottom. You see two towers; on the right-hand one, the massive great bell weighs 13 tons. Then look at the rose: it represents the infinite circle of the divine world and forms a halo to the statue of the Virgin with her Child, flanked by two angels.Now, can you see a row of 28 statues? It is the gallery of kings; those are the rulers of Judah and Israel who reigned before Christ ... in short, his ancestors. These statues are only replicas however, because at the time of the Revolution, Parisians thought the statues depicted the Kings of France. And revolutionary thinking led them to seek destruction of all royal symbols, so they decided to behead the statues and remove them one by one. A number of the original heads were found in the basement of a bank... and they have since exhibited at the Museum of Cluny.Finally, below, look at the 3 portals. In the Middle Ages, the statues and carvings that make them up had, as their mission, to "compose a stone bible" for the people who could not read. The central portal depicts the Last Judgment; the right one is dedicated to St. Anne; and as to the left portal, it is dedicated to the Virgin Mary.Have you noticed a crowd of people on the square near the cathedral? Well, there you can see the "point zero" of the roads of France, forming a copper rose on the stone floor of the plaza: from this particular point, the distances of roads are calculated, linking Paris to other cities in France. Now let's head to the Latin Quarter. To do this, turn your back to the cathedral and go to your left towards the bridge. Enjoy again the sight of the little bridge going over a small branch of the Seine. Once you have crossed, cross the Quai Montebello and go to the little square just on the right