Big Beautiful World 24 -- Inside Notre Dame, Paris

It’s a big, beautiful world out there. Let’s stop trying to screw it up. Welp, I mentioned in a previous post that soon enough I'd discuss the interior of Notre Dame Cathedral, and I see no point in putting that off. Here we go.George and I were in Paris once before, about eight years ago. When we were there, we went to Notre Dame mid-afternoon, and the line to get in was...oh, I don't know...a hundred people deep? It was long, and we were on limited time, so we decided to just gawp at the exterior of the building--which is truly gawpworthy--and move on. But this time, in off-season-not-quite-holiday-travel December, and thanks to an alarming number of police with very large guns who had shut down some of the surrounding streets and most of the plaza in front of the Cathedral (no, I don't know why, and they left soon after we got there), the line to enter Notre Dame was practically non-existent.Which was good for me, because when I walked in I started crying like a baby, so at least an entire church full of tourists didn't have to witness my uncustomary and ecstatic sobs. The immensity. The solemnity. The vision required to execute this masterpiece. It was too much. It is SO. BEAUTIFUL. Inside that building.Now I have to go read The Pillars of the Earth.I feel like this building should require me to say something more because it is so...much. But I have a hard time getting past WILL YOU JUST LOOK AT THAT? LOOK! LOOK! So have a look. And I will find my words eventually. But most likely, that will not be today. Happy travels!