Paris Day 3

Today our mission was to climb the towers of Notre Dame. Entrance to the church is free, but it costs 7 Euros to gain entrance to the towers. We waited in a virtually non-existant line up, paid the man our 7 euros and then climbed up a few (maybe 50?) stairs to a small gift shop and a set of stairs that led to the cell where Esmerelda was held captive. You couldn't go up there, and the bell tower was closed, and we wondered if we had just paid $10.50 each to see a gift shop. However, when we actually looked around we realized that the stairs to the top of the towers were open, so up we went. The bell tower is the smaller tower in the middle. So, up we went, and up we went. And up we went some more. You have no idea how many stairs 385 actually is. It's much more than 385, or so my poor burning leg muscles were telling me. When got to the top, the view was astounding, and to be so close to the gargoyles was even more amazing. You could almost touch them. We wandered around, amazed at the sights, and then we realized that we weren't even at the top...more stairs, even narrower and twistier than the others. This little tower took us to The Top...capitalized because it was really high! There is a guard at the bottom who only lets a certain amount of people up, as there isn't a lot of room up there, and she radios the guard at the very top to let her know how many are coming up. Once we get up there, the top guard send down the prior group. The stairs are too narrow to pass on, so you have to take turns, once up top, you stay there until she lets you go down. It was phenomenal to be able to look into the eyes of the gargoyles, and you could touch them, we were literally face-to-face with them, as they sit and gaze out over their city.