The first time i travelled to a foreign country on my own, without any parent or teacher to keep an eye on me, was when i was sixteen. I didn't go that far. It was just a short little trip to paris, but at that time, probably because of my age and it being the first time, it felt like a real adventure.

The eurolines busterminal was a shabby little underground garage just outside of paris at port de bagnolet, wich is in the east of the city.
To safe money, and because i wanted to see as much of the city as possible, i decided not to take the subway, but to walk instead.

My first destination was pere lachaise, but when i arrived it had just closed.
So i went walking to the centre of paris, ile de la cite, from there, through some of paris less glamorous picture postcard neighbourhoods. But i loved it. It was noisy and full of life.

Maybe after an hour of walking, i took a little detour because i didn't want to look like a tourist looking on the map all the time, so my route wasn't exactly the shortes way, i arrived at the banks of the river seine, near gare the lyon, east of ile the la cite.

I looked westward, and there it was. This was my first view of the picture postcard paris that all the tourists want to see. But it was stunning. It was beautiful, majestic....and almost a thousand years old. I walked towards it and then just sat there, for maybe half an hour, on the big square at it's facade. The sun now almost lit it vertically, wich made it radiate with light.

I was struck with a sense of awe. The history was almost tangible. Millions of people must have started their pilgrimage here. A spiritual journey. Napoleon crowned himself here. Thousands of people worked a lifetime constructed it. Many of it's builders never saw t's completion.
You cannot realy understand the impact of buildings like these, if you haven't seen them for yourself.

Many of us now, see the catholic church as a bunch of corrupt pedophiles, and for good reason. But buildings like the notre dame in paris are a spiritual beacon. They connect us with a history long forgotten. You can feel the history there. Almost smell it even.

I've been to paris many times, since then. When you travel through europe, often you'll find paris is somewhere between you and your destination. A transit hub always worth passing through.

I think because it was my first journey alone, it has a special place in my heart.

Many (if not all) of such sanctuaries are build right on the spot of previous "powerful places" of e.g. pagan origin. This way the Catholics "stole" the natural power that some places have by nature and then tell people that any kind of affection is because of their catholic church religion. Smart move, and at the same time they destroyed the former installations of previous competition-in-belief by putting their church there instead.
They hijacked as many "powerful places" as they could and put a church or cathedral or a chapel on those spots. They also knew people where coming to those places for ages, and they dragged them into their churches this way. The positioning of a church was not by random, it was strategy to actually put hem them down somewhere.

A pagan labyrinth in the centre of the cathedral of Chartres:

and it is believed this cathedral lies on the cross road of 2 ley lines.
True or not is a separate discussion, but the strategy was there.

Take into account the historic culmination of millions of intentions placed there on those spots, for what that's worth.

I'm no catholic fan but I do visit those places to taste how they feel. To my surprise I did not feel much in the labyrinth of Chartres but I also realise these things don't fixate but can feel tremendous different on another occasion on another day. It is my personal feeling that these contingent powers are fluctuating and not stationary forever. Stonehenge has felt both impressive but also fully dull on another occasion. Very subjective it is. I change too from day to day, it's hard to blame a place for that. But I do believe some places have something to offer on a good day.

I´m going to join the architectural topic as is not a common topic here on nexus...
I´d just like to say something I heard from Terence McKenna, also reinforced by Aldous Huxley:

You have to imagine what it was for an ordinary man living in middle age, to enter one of this magnificient gothic cathedrals and see sunlight coming through the colorful glasses on the windows.
There wasn´t any time, or magazines, colors and pigments were limited... so maybe a farmer would dress brown, earthy clothes his entire life... some specific color were very expensive and would only be used by rich people. Today in the other hand... we are overwhelm by colors and pigments everywhere on our screens, advertisement signs, etc.

So, when looking at that colorful light for the first time, feeling the gravity of the space, the vertical-holy stare that makes you use your neck, and the monumental scale of the stone arches and domes... people would get in trance... like phychedelic mystic trance, expanded states of conscience....
There´s a "precious stone" element into it, men have always been fascinated by diamonds and jewels, shinny stuff.
Add fasting and celibacy and you get a super combo.



As for my personal experience, I remember visiting NotreDame, one of the few places you can enter for free in Paris, also one modern monument located in the same island that nobody visits.
My biggest memory was from a different church though... la Sainte Chapelle (it appears in the movie Samsara, or Baraka, not sure which one)... a private chapel for the king located inside a goverment building, former palace or something... after going throw a narrow staicase full of tourists... that space made my lose my breath, that doesn´t happen very often.

Now the haute couture patrons, who fight to see who donates millons of euros first, will re-build an exact copy of it... maybe they´ll use 3d printing in stone... but is going to be an exact copy, brick by brick...

600 million and counting to restore a building. Imagine what you could do with that kind of cash for those less fortunate than the average joe. It is the epitome of the worship of false idols.

hehe I second hug46 on this topic. But I also remember my first alone trip on train away from my home town and although the reality of the travel pailed to the fantasy of it I get the feeling^_^

600 million isn't realy that much if you look at the annual budget for things like healthcare, of a country like france.

And not restoring it would mean that eventually tourism would die out, as it would worsen the
Completely unjust but by the media still endlessly perpetuated image of a city in decay. The costs of that would be much higher, every single following year. Tourism in paris alone generates for billions worth of tax revenues and household incomes.

There would be a lot more less well of people in france, if tourists would decide to avoid it.

I did think about the effect on tourism after i had written my rant. And you have a point but do you really think that many people will go "notre dame is closed, lets not bother with Paris".
There are plenty of other places to see in Paris. The eiffel tower, the louvre,arc de trimphe, musee d'orsay etc etc.

They say it will cost a billion euros and take up to 20 years to restore the building. Who's to say that in 20 years time there will be tourism? We will probably all be living in cardboard boxes and eating cockroaches by then. Speaking personally,i would rather see a soiled building than a restored version. It's like old vehicles that get restored to look like new.To me they look fake or naff. I prefer there to be a bit of a patina.

They should just bung a few tarpaulins over Notre Dame and spend the billion on something worthwhile. I'd invest it in a factory that turns manure into fuel.