Regards sur la culture: L’île de la Cité

The quai on which Camille and Hélène are standing is on the Left Bank and is near the site of an open-air sculpture museum, the Musée de la Sculpture en Plein Air. Not far from where they stand, at 47, quai de la Tournelle, is the Musée des Hôpitaux de Paris. A repository of medical history, the museum contains such oddities as hospital rosters, apothecary jars, and a model of a night deposit box for abandoned babies that was designed by 19^th-century nuns.

Behind them, on the île de la Cité, can be seen the Cathedral of Notre Dame. Constructed between the 12th and 14th centuries, the cathedral is one of the most inspiring views in Paris with its magnificent flying buttresses, sculptured portals, and ferocious gargoyle waterspouts. Famous as the setting for Victor Hugo’s novel The Hunchback of Notre Dame, the cathedral has been the site of many significant historical events: both Henry VI and Napoleon Bonaparte were crowned here. The school which adjoined the cathedral eventually became the Sorbonne. Upon his return to a liberated Paris in August 1944, Charles de Gaulle went immediately to Notre Dame to worship. All distances in France are measured from the 0 inscribed on the brass star set in the square in front of the cathedral.

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1			Considérez Est-ce qu’il y a un édifice réligieux dans votre pays comparable à la cathédrale Notre-Dame?

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