Though this was my second trip to Paris, it was my first time up the bell tower of Notre Dame. It was a bit of a hike but we went slow and it was so, so worth it. The view has it all; the Seine, the beautiful style of buildings that make Paris Paris, the Sacre Coeur, the Eiffel Tower, and the adorable gargoyles to look out at everything with you.

I could have spent hours studying all of them. Unfortunately, your time up there is limited and there is a fence between the walkway and the ledge with the gargoyles (you can see this in one of the photos below). I did a quick search on Amazon for a book about them and came up short but I still plan to do a bit of snooping online in the hopes of finding a history or any more information on these specifically. In the mean time, I like to imagine them keeping an eye out on the city.

I’m ending this post with a shot of the back of Notre Dame at sunset. It’s from the along-the-Siene portion of our bike tour of Paris, which is something I HIGHLY recommend doing. I plan to do one as many times as I go back!