Day Eleven the north tower of Notre Dame

On a gloomy Wednesday morning we stood in line to ascend the 466 steps to the top of the South Bell Tower of Notre Dame. Notre Dame is celebrating its 850 year anniversary.

Notre Dame is the heart of the city, so much so that distances from Paris to every part of metropolitan France are measured from the square in front.

The ascent is done in 2 stages. The first spiral staircase takes you to the North Tower where you are eye to eye with some of the most amazing gargoyles you'll ever see. This is about 2/3s of the way to the top. Once you walk across the to the South Tower you ascend another spiral staircase, getting smaller the higher you get, to the top of the South Tower. The view was amazing. You can see all of Paris.

They control the number of people coming up to the top because the stairs leading up to the South Tower are used for going up and down. I can tell you there is only room for one and some times even that can be a stretch. At some points Lee's head would touch the stair above his head.

Going down is an experience all on its own. You start at the top of the South Tower and go straight down to the bottom. All 466 steps in a tight spiral staircase. When you get to the bottom we were all dizzy.

On our way to the bus stop we put our lock on the Pont de l'Archevêché footbridge. This footbridge has so many lock on it it's dubbed "the love bridge". With Notre Dame in the distance it truly is an amazing spot. For the rest of the day we boarded a hop on-hop off bus tour around the Latin Quarter of Paris.

One person car tour of Paris anyone?

Through the stain glass you can see the shadows of the gargoyles outside.

Two love birds on the love footbridge.