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This tour is a meditation on how we have loved, hated, and reinvented the Gothic over the centuries. We’ll start in Sainte‑Chapelle, where the 13th‑century flood of stained‑glass once shocked contemporaries with its audacious use of light—later dismissed as excessive flamboyance during the Renaissance, revived as a Romantic ideal in the 19th century, and now so familiar it borders on cliché.
From there we move to Notre‑Dame, whose soaring vaults and sculpted façades have served as a canvas for collective memory: the triumphs of saints, the scars of wars, the tragedy of the 2019 fire, and the ongoing reconstruction that reminds us the past is never truly finished. Along the route we’ll glimpse the Conciergerie and the medieval streets that grew around the Île de la Cité, tracing a line from the Celtic‑Gaulish settlement of the Parisii, through Roman re‑ordering, to the liberation of Paris in 1944.
What you’ll leave with isn’t just an inventory of arches and windows, but a sense of how the Gothic has been alternately condemned, celebrated, and commodified—how each generation reshapes the style to fit its own narrative, only to have the next generation do the same. The 2019 blaze is a stark reminder that we are still building, de‑constructing, and rebuilding the story of our heritage, piece by stone, glass by glass.
Options
Climb the towers of Notre‑Dame – Ascend the Gothic staircases (over 70 m) for arguably the best panoramic view of Paris right from the city centre. €60 plus tickets (€16 per person).
St Jacques Tower – Scale the flamboyant Gothic spire in the heart of Paris for a striking skyline perspective. €60 plus tickets (€12 per person).
Crypt of Île de la Cité – Dive into more than 2 000 years of history with a guided look at the 1960s archaeological excavations beneath the island. €100 plus tickets (€11 per person).